Buy a house for £1,800 and petrol was 22p a gallon what life was like the last time Town beat Man Utd

might want to look away now – back in 1952, the average house cost just £1,891, an almost casual amount on a credit card these days!

And when it comes to social change, one statistic glares out from the page.

Only 4% of children were born out of wedlock. Nowadays, that term is rarely heard of. It will surprise few that around 50% of births are to unmarried parents.

But statistics, as always, are only part of the story.

In 1952 the nation was still getting back on its feet after the ravages of the Second World War.

Today, it’s hard to imagine a time where there was rationing and having to live in war-damaged slums, often back-to-backs with outside toilets. Or waking up to a freezing house with no central heating and having to shovel coal for the fire and clean out the ashes.

As for running a car, that was beyond most family’s wildest dreams.

But if you could, then a gallon of petrol would set you back around four shillings and six pence – that’s 22p in today’s money.

In 1952, meat, bacon, tea, butter, margarine and cooking fats, cheese, eggs, sweets and chocolates were still rationed, though tea stopped being rationed in October.

National Service was an every day reality, with every male citizen between the ages of 18-26 liable for 18 months’ compulsory military service.

And thanks to the Korean War, this became two years in 1952 followed by three-and-a-half years in the Reserves.

And if you fancied a pint of bitter you could have got going on for more than 14-15 pints of the stuff for £1. Heady, if not always exactly happy days! Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh attending her first Remembrance Day service at the Cenotaph, London, since her ascension to the throne in 1952