Salisbury library welcomed a dozen people who were children in the fifties last Friday (July 8) to share their memories.

The meet-up was part of Silver Salisbury's Jubilee project which encourages the elderly to talk about life in the fifties and compare their experiences.

Some of those who attended had been brought up in Salisbury, others spent their early years in London, Manchester or the Midlands and had moved to the area for work or retirement.

Important social issues of their time were discussed, such as polio, children living in an iron lung, and the threat of smallpox, measles and chickenpox.

Attendees remembered not just the start of the NHS, but the years prior when consulting a doctor was beyond their financial means.

Moving onto lighter topics, attendees recalled hosting parties to celebrate electricity coming to their village around the 1960s. Before that, they relied on only having paraffin lamps and candles as a source of light.

When asked about telephones, one person said: "Well we wrote letters didn’t we? And a local letter posted early in the morning would arrive by the afternoon."

Poverty for large families in rural locations was also discussed, alongside the kindness and generosity of local neighbours who regularly helped out.

Ruth Hill, Silver Salisbury's creative writer, will work with St Martins and Woodlands schools to transform the memories into a booklet and eventually a song.

To find out more about further sessions in the coming weeks visit the Silver Salisbury Website, email silver.salisbury@outlook.com or call 01722 323812.

Get more Salisbury news. 

You can also like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date, as well as signing up for one of our newsletters.

If you want online news with fewer ads, unlimited access and reader rewards - plus a chance to support our local journalism - find out more about registering or a digital subscription.

Email newsdesk@salisburyjournal.co.uk with your comments, pictures, letters and news stories.