From 1950 onwards, despite alarms about the economy and at times punitive interest rates ordinary working people in Barlick saw overall progress. We had the benefit of the new NHS, a council house building programme and generally good employment and security. The backlog of maintenance of essential services was gradually made up. Possibly the biggest change that affected us was the change over from town's gas to natural gas between 1967 and 1977. We saw the change from services administered by the local council to the mammoth corporations, later privatised by the Conservative government.
I can only speak from my own experience but these changes didn't concern me over-much, I was too busy working to provide for my family and paying the debt on Hey Farm which I bought in 1959 (with seven acres of land) for £2000! That's right, £2000. A friend of mine bought a cottage on Club Row at about the same time for £500 paid for by a method long gone, rental purchase. We were always short of money, my hourly rate at the time as a wagon driver was 15p an hour and the loan repayments took half of my wages but we never went short of food, the kids were always clothed and the house was warm. In addition we had security, I can never remember being worried about losing my job. This is why I always say I am sorry for the young families today, despite being told how much everything has improved they do not have the advantages we had.
As time went on property prices started to rise and like many other people in the same position I found that even though my monthly payments on the loan never went up, the value of the house rocketed. We may have been cash poor but we knew that as long as we could keep in the collar we were gaining all the time.
The new industries on the whole did well apart from the massive shock in 1971 when the unthinkable happened and Rolls Royce went bankrupt. This was soon rectified as the firm restructured and normal service was resumed. Carlson's and Silentnight were major employers. Carr's printers expanded and as Rolls settled down under the new regime the multitude of sub-contractors in the district benefited.
The exception to all this was of course the textile industry. The decline that started as early as 1920 accelerated and after WW2 there was only a rump left and it was in trouble. A good job in the mill was no longer money in the bank and by the 1980s weaving was finished. Mills closed down, some to be used for other industries but others demolished. By the end of the century Barlick was completely changed but funnily enough, in many respects stayed the same. We managed to retain our core in the town centre, avoided major redevelopment and entered the 21st century in fairly good order.
Moss, Long Ing and Barnsey sheds in 1982.
