HOW TO BOOK
Please complete the booking form and forward it with deposit of £6 (which includes £1 holiday cancellation and comprehensive insurance premium) to Arrowsmlth Head Office or any of their agents. A completed booking form is necessary and all questions should be fully answered.

CONFIRMATION AND BALANCE PAYMENT
You will normally receive written or photostat confirmation direct or through your travel agent (if booking through him) within three weeks of Arrowsmith receiving your formal booking. If special hotel or air arrangements are necessary this confirmation may take a little longer. An itemised account showing the balance amount remaining is sent to each client and/or agent 3 to 8 weeks before departure and should be paid 14 days prior to departure.

HOTEL ACCOMMODATION
This is based on twin bedded or double bedded rooms. Singles are very limited, and if available are charged extra at 5/- per night. Rooms with bath or shower, balcony or terrace, toilet, etc., are also charged extra, unless hotel description states otherwise. In all cases when requested, every effort will be made to provide, but no guarantee whatsoever to provide can be given, even though a supplementary charge may have been paid and accepted in good faith. When facility is not received any extra cost paid would of course be refunded on request after return from holiday.

CHOOSING YOUR HOTEL OR PENSION
In deciding the suitability of a hotel or pension for your purpose, the price quoted by us is the best guide to its standard. Thus in Spain and Italy for example the modest priced normally offer local food and dishes often rewarding to the palate when tried. The more expensive can usually offer a near international cuisine — English food prepared, cooked and served as such should not be expected — after all, you will be in a foreign country where customs and habits will be different. The fun in going abroad is in such things. The price can also reflect differences in other ways — relative positions to beach and town; more or less rooms with bath or shower, with or without lift, garage, central heating, lounges, bars, etc. In all cases they have been chosen by us in an honest attempt to offer value commensurate with the price charged.

CHILDREN
Reduced fares are available for children 2 to 10 years of age Inclusive. The reduction is 15% for first child and 10% for second child. Reductions can be offered for only two children on any one booking. Children must be accompanied by two adults to qualify, and occupy same room as parents. We regret no reduction possible at all on departures between 4th July and 23rd August inclusive.

MEALS
These consist of table d’hote Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner each day. (Continental Breakfast on Continental Tours.) This applies unless otherwise stated on each itinerary page. We do not provide an a la carte service at all on these package tours. The commencing meal varies according to day or night flights and arrival times, but is usually an evening meal the first day of arrival on the Continent. The terminating meal is breakfast on the last day of departure from the Continent. For meals on Air-Coach Tours see the special paragraph on COACH TOURS this page, or on the tour page itself.

HOTEL, STATE AND TOWN TAXES
Most of these items are fully covered in your inclusive cost, the exception is the 2% Tourist Tax in Spain (approx. 2/- to 9 – depending on grade of hotel). This will be added to your final account.

EXCLUDED ITEMS
Terms quoted do not include rooms with private bath, shower, toilet, .balcony, terrace (unless otherwise stated in hotel description). Also excluded are beers, wines, spirits, tea or coffee (except breakfast), laundry or any other item not specifically mentioned. Cost of Baggage, Insurance, Passports, Visas, Registration fees, Airport Taxes at home and abroad are not included. Passengers should note when asking for use of public bathroom, the hotel will charge extra for this service — this is common continental practice. A percentage is added to all accounts when presented by hotels, etc., abroad.

GOVERNMENT AIRPORT TAXES
These items both at home and abroad are payable by all air travellers. The amounts are small, and at the time of going to press are approx, as follows: Spain 9/10, Switzerland 5/-, Italy 6/-, France 10/6, U.K. and Ireland 7/6. These items may be collected from you by our representatives for group payment by them at point of arrival or departure; if not, payment is individual. This applies unless circumstances change before departure.

STERLING
Passengers leaving the U.K. either by boat or air are now only allowed to take out of the country, £15 in notes, or silver, in English money. Under no circumstances will the Authorities permit any excess of this amount. The above is at the time of going to press.

PASSPORTS OR TRAVEL IDENTITY CARDS
These are necessary, endorsed for the countries to be visited. Passengers should make certain that their passports are in order for the tour booked. This should be attended to in good time. If you are unable to travel due to passport difficulties, substantial cancellation fees may be involved.

TRAVEL FROM HOME TOWN to U.K. DEPARTURE POINTS
This is not included in the tour cost. Air passengers have coach transport provided from terminals to Airport and return, but the small cost is additional and should be paid during the journey or on request. Clients should note that Arrowsmith staff are not on duty at U.K. departure or arrival points. All clients are, however, met on arrival in Eire or on the Continent.

SEA OR AIR TRAVEL TO IRELAND
By Boat, terms include 2nd class ticket. By Air, travel is by our Charter Service 1st class boat travel is possible, extra cost is £2 13 0 Liverpool-Dublin and £2 3 0 Holyhead-Dunlaoghaire. Air passengers can fly regular scheduled services B.E.A. or Aer Lingus as an alternative, or when charter planes are full. Extra charges to be added to the appropriate air rate quoted on tour pages. All rates are based on current prices at time of going to press.

BAGGAGE ALLOWANCES AND RESPONSIBILITY
One bag, approximately 30 ins. x 16 ins. x 9 ins. and weighing no more than 30 lbs. (which cannot be exceeded) is carried free of charge when travelling by AIR-CHARTER. We wish to emphasise and make it clear that baggage and personal effects are carried entirely at owners’ risk. We do not accept any responsibility whatsoever for any loss or damage to passengers’ personal luggage or effects even though handled by Arrowsmith servants or agents. This applies equally to delay In clients’ receipt of luggage, before, during or after holiday. It is strongly recommended that clients insure their luggage for the duration of the holiday. The cost is small and can be arranged through Arrowsmith, their agents, or clients own channels as desired.

HOLIDAY ARRANGEMENT AMENDMENTS
Changes in holiday arrangements by clients involve considerable clerical work. A fee of 20/- is, therefore, charged if an amendment is possible. This is, however, without prejudice to any financial debit client may have on the tour originally booked. Transfers to alternative holidays, within 12 weeks of departure, are treated as cancellations and new bookings with new deposits are payable.

TRAVEL INSTRUCTIONS, VOUCHERS and TICKETS
These will be forwarded to client’s or agent’s address after payment of balance and usually to arrive one week before departure. Special luggage labels are provided and it is important that passengers use these for easy identification by our staff.

MEALS ON FLIGHTS
These are provided free but as meal packs or tray meals, as is the case with most Air Charter Companies. They are modest in their content of necessity in relation to both price and physical limitations of the aircraft. In any case they are only provided when the flying time approximately coincides with a normal meal time. Thus meals are not usually provided on the outward and inward leg of a night flight. On the shorter routes the flight time is a limiting factor and meals are not served. Coffee and biscuits are, however, usually available. Such routes are to Ostend, Dinard, Bordeaux, Basle, Biarritz and Munich.

FLIGHT OPERATIONS
The operation of the holiday flights in this brochure are, as always, governed by and subject to A.T.L.B. licence or M.O.A. permit.

SEASONAL RATES AND THE COLOURED CALENDAR
This calendar is an easy coloured reference to variations in seasonal charges. With it you quickly find the lower prices, check your dates, reduce your holiday budget, and go away with money to spare.

EASTER SATURDAY March 25th, WHIT MONDAY May 15th, BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY August 28th
A good holiday is made better by reduced costs. The further from peak you travel, the better for your pocket—not only this, but crowds are fewer, hotels can give better service, roads and airports are less busy and holidays can be more pleasant. To go before or after the crowds is by far the best — best price advantage and greater hotel availability. Top value, nevertheless, whenever you decide to go.

PASSENGERS UNDER 21
A passenger under 21 is required to produce a note of consent to travel signed by parent or guardian if that parent or guardian is not accompanying the minor.

HOLIDAY DEFINITION AND PERIOD
The Holidays in this brochure commence on take-off in the aircraft from the U.K. (and not before) and terminate on touch-down on return to the U.K. The inclusive costs stated are limited to the holiday period in between. To clarify before booking, we emphasise that an air holiday described as 8 days (one week), 11 days, 12 days, or 15 days (two weeks) for purposes of tour titling and definition in this brochure, is offered and sold by us to indicate the 1st day as being the day or night of departure from the U.K. Conversely, the 8th, 11th, 12th, or 15th day is intended to be, and sold as, the day or night of return into the U.K.

COACH SEATS ON COACH TOURS
Specific seats are not reservable, instead passengers optionally move round in strict rotation so offering maximum advantage to all.

COURIERS AND REPRESENTATIVES
Your Courier or Representative may not necessarily be staying at your hotel. He or she will, however, visit your hotel approx. once each week. You will be advised where contact can be made in the interim — this is usually at the headquarters hotel in any centre.

CORRESPONDENCE
If you should need to write to us, please do so through your travel agent if booked by him originally. If a direct booking with Arrowsmith, please do not address your letter to any specific officer or official of the Company. He or she may be absent on duty or on visits abroad and your letter could remain unopened awaiting return; delay could thus be caused in a reply. Our mail is daily a heavy one, some delay in a reply could occur naturally; we do our best to deal with all letters, replying as received in date of receipt order.

What is the £50 allowance?
The recorded amount the Government permits you to spend abroad in 1967.

What is the V Form?
Merely the name given to the form which the banks and travel industry use to control and execute the Government regulations.

Where do I get it?
From Arrowsmith, or from any bank, or from any travel agent. It is quite free of charge.

What do I do with it ?
It has merely to be stamped and authorised by a bank, then surrendered to Arrowsmith. There is no charge for this service.

Is £50 the Maximum?
No. You can also take abroad with you £15 in sterling notes additional to your foreign currency or Travellers’ Cheques. This £15 can be spent abroad if desired.

What then is the V Form amount ?
The amount Arrowsmith will send abroad to pay for certain costs including accommodation, food, salaries, services, etc., which we will incur in arranging your holiday. Appropriate V Form amounts are clearly indicated on pages 74 to 77.

EXAMPLE…
Mr. Smith chooses his holiday. Let us say the one he chooses costs £30… this is all he will pay to Arrowsmith. His only other payment will be to a bank purchasing Travellers Cheques or foreign currency to use as spending money abroad.

On pages 74 to 77 is a table of V Form amounts — Mr. Smith looks at his holiday and hotel and notes the V Form figure. Let us say this is £20 for the holiday he has chosen. He then gets a V Form from Arrowsmith, detailing the V Form amount, takes it to the bank, they stamp and authorise it. They also enter the figure on his passport. Mr. Smith pays nothing for this — no money exchanges hands for this process. After this, the V Form is surrendered to Arrowsmith direct or through his travel agent.

When the time for balance payment comes, Mr. Smith pays the balance amount due as usual, and if he wishes to take spending money abroad, goes to the bank of his choice, taking his passport on which was entered the V Form figure. This figure deducted from the figure of £50 leaves the maximum amount of Travellers Cheques or foreign currency he can finally purchase, which, in this example would have been £30 for spending money.

In addition to the above he can of course take £15 in sterling.

GO WELL… GO SECURE…
GO WITH MONEY TO SPEND…
GO ARROWSMITH

The post Your Arrowsmith Holidays questions answered appeared first on THIS IS MY 1960s from Transdiffusion.

In our modern, foodie world where there are several television networks devoted to cooking and the most watched non-soap on regular television is a baking competition, it’s easy to laugh at Dream Topping.

But in the 1960s, many of us didn’t have a fridge, so keeping cream cold – and therefore not allowing it to go off – was difficult. Fresh cream was expensive – most dairy products, other than heavily subsidised milk, were expensive before we joined the EEC – and even middle class families couldn’t justify the spend on something so ephemeral. And whipping cream, although it existed, was a nightmare to use as mother had to either spend ages beating it to get it to rise or put it in the Kenwood Chef, where a moment’s inattention meant you suddenly had expensive sweet butter.

Bird’s Dream Topping took all these problems away. Being shelf-stable, it could sit in the larder or pantry effectively for ever, pulled out to add a bit of excitement to tinned peaches or a fruit salad. It was cheap, compared to fresh cream, so middle class households could have it always available and poorer households had it within reach for birthdays and special occasions. And it didn’t take all that much whisking – still a chore, but much less than with whipping cream and much easier to shove in the Kenwood and get on with opening the tinned fruit.

So don’t laugh at Dream Topping: it served an important purpose!

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In the 1960s, we all went out and got colour television sets.

Except, of course, we didn’t. Colour sets were expensive, and until midway through November 1969, the only colour programmes were on BBC-2 and they were mostly very dull, if you could get BBC-2 where you were – something by no means guaranteed.

Even BBC-2 had only slowly been introducing colour, with a full-colour service not appearing until December 1967, well over a year since the first programmes began to be marked “COLOUR” in the Radio Times.

In November 1969, colour came to Thames/LWT, ATV, Granada and Yorkshire, plus BBC-1 in those regions. It would slowly spread across the country, with the Channel Islands being the last to get colour in 1976 and the old VHF 405-line black and white service not being switched off until 1983.

Sales of colour licences – double the cost of a black and white licence at first – didn’t overtake black and white licences nationally until 1977.

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The big hit present for boys in the 1960s was a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Your first one was usually a little battery-powered unit. If you made good use of it throughout the year, and had parents with enough money, a larger, more reliable, mains-powered recorder would arrive the following Christmas.

The “good use” of the tape recorder was hard to define. The first thing to do was to record your friends chatting and telling off-colour (for the times) jokes, then play it back to general hilarity. Once that phase was over, you either mostly abandoned the device, its use spent, or combined it with another hobby.

Trainspotting has always been a big hobby, and the 1960s saw the notebooks supplemented by cameras and tape recorders. Tapes full of the sounds of steam engines, local shunting and new electric trains sparking are now added to back to contemporary photographs and cinefilm to recreate those times.

For pop music fans, the Top 40 on the off-shore stations or Radio Luxembourg could be caught, the DJ edited out and the records preserved for listening to later without the expense of buying singles. The money saved could be put towards buying the reel-to-reel tapes your were recording the records on.

For school drama and music clubs, owning a reel-to-reel made you important and gained you promotion: now somebody could record the concert or provide amazing sound effects for the play, things guaranteed to create popularity.

Or you could do what I did: obsessively record theme tunes, jingles, television continuity, DJ chatter, idents and interlude music, put the tapes on a shelf and rediscover the gems within some 50 years later.

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1960s parents had lived through World War II, rationing and austerity. They didn’t like waste, they didn’t like things to be disposable rather than reusable, and they knew the difference between “empty calories” and “growth foods” – as shown in the heavy, stodgy meals they served and ate.

Convenience foods started to arrive in the 1960s and, as housewives got busier they started to become more attractive. But the rationing mentality still held. The food might be convenient, but if it doesn’t help you grow, if it doesn’t leave you feeling full, then it’s a waste of money.

The advertising agencies pushing convenience foods like packet soups, Vesta curries and frozen burgers decided to stress in their advertising just how nourishing the food was. How full of goodness. How filling or warming or cooling or good for you. No food advert for anything we would now think of as fatty or junk food was complete without at least one keyword making sure that the housewife felt less guilty for just adding hot water.

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Barbara Castle was Harold Wilson’s Minister of Transport and was one of the most effective people to ever hold that position. She wrote off British Rail’s huge debt, sent Dr Beeching packing back to ICI, introduced procedures to make another Beeching Report almost impossible, and established the first Passenger Transport Executives, lowering the cost of travel for millions of working people in the main cities.

She also introduced the Road Traffic Act 1967 that made being drunk in charge of a vehicle not only a crime but also, as time passed, a social issue, where offenders found themselves ostracised by friends and fired by their bosses for such disgusting behaviour.

But at the time the breathalyser was introduced, Castle became a hate figure. She didn’t drive, not unusual for women at the time, but that was seen as a reason she should keep her nose out of the affairs of drivers. Her response was quick and obvious: she was a pedestrian and thus far more likely to be killed by a drunk driver than the driver himself was. Hit by a car, she would die. He would most likely walk away with a ‘slap on the wrist’ conviction for dangerous driving – a small fine, a few penalty points, the trouble of having to buy a new car.

Behind this anti-Castle attitude from drivers was another thing: she was a woman. How dare a woman tell men what to do? How dare she have an opinion on a mostly-male pursuit? Had she even asked her husband for his opinion? Shouldn’t he tell her not to be so stupid, to sit down and shut up?

Barbara Castle was many things, and “unintimidatable” is probably at the top of the list. Because of her work here, over 35,000 have not died in car accidents since 1967. Because of her work, perhaps over a million people have avoided life-changing injuries at the hands – wheels – of a drunk driver. Today you’re more likely than ever to arrive alive, and it’s thanks to Barbara Castle.

Archive source: http://ads.retropia.co.uk/

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First of all, there was no Sunday shopping. None. Zero. Shops simply did not open on Sundays, even in London. If you ran out of something, you waited until Monday. There was no “popping out” to top-up the store cupboard, let alone a full weekly shop.

Second, you needed to know which day was early closing day. All town and even most cities closed one afternoon a week to make up for being open on Saturday mornings. And just like Sunday, by closed I mean closed: everything shut up shop and everyone went home.

Third, there were no supermarkets until later into the decade, so a trip to the shops involved walking between multiple shops – the grocer, the greengrocer, the fishmonger, the butcher, the baker, the ironmonger – for each of the items you wanted. To a bored child being dragged from dull store to dull store, this was hell. If you were really unlucky, the shopping would take place on Market Day and you’d also be dragged from boring stall to boring stall, sometimes almost crying out in boredom.

Fourth, there were no cash machines. To get money, you went into a bank – your own bank, the high street banks didn’t co-operate – and made a cheque out to “cash” or to “self”. In bigger stores, you paid by cheque. If you were a regular and were trusted, some local stores might run you a monthly tab, which you paid by cash or cheque – there were no direct debits and no credit cards either.

From a 1960s point of view, it’s hard to imagine how shopping could become the national pastime it now is; likewise, from a modern perspective, the laborious nature of shopping can’t be imagined either.

Archive source: http://retropia.co.uk/

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The first packages were coach tours, pioneered by Arrowsmith Holidays of Liverpool in the late 1940s. You would make your own way to a central point in a city, board a coach and be driven to a ferry, cross to Ireland or to Ostend, stay for the weekend in a modest hotel, get picked up by the coach, driven back to the ferry, cross the sea and find yourself back at the central point, ready to make your own way home.

For thousands of people, this was the first taste of travel abroad. What Harry Bowden-Smith of Arrowsmith (the name is a pun) thought was that he could replace the coach and ferry part with an aeroplane trip of about the same length – and for about the same price. That way he could take people further, to Spain and Portugal, for instance, where even then there was a surfeit of cheap hotels.

He aimed this squarely at northerners, whose only experience of going abroad had been on his coaches to Ireland and Belgium or, more likely, fighting in North Africa and across France and Germany in the 1940s. He advertised to families who usually went to Blackpool or Morecambe for a week in August with an offer of a trip that took about the same time as the coach or the train and cost about the same price as a refined guesthouse in Cleveleys.

Crucially, he made the decision easier for these new international travellers by importing food vans to the Costas his clients were staying in, ensuring that the British terror of “foreign food” like rice and spices was placated by a ready and permanent supply of egg, chips and ice cream.

Thus the standard British holiday was changed forever, mostly by staying the same.

Archive source: http://fly.retropia.co.uk/

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At the start of the 1960s, the majority of travel was still done by train. This was about to change: an increase in disposable income combined with a decrease in the cost of cars; the car building industry employed more people than the railways and had more businesses depending on them; cars could be readily exported, trains only rarely. After 100 years of focussing on the railways, the government turned to cars as a driver, as it were, of the economy and as a measure of popular prosperity.

The railways suffered under this change of direction, not helped by Dr Beeching closing a third of the network. At the same time, British Railways fought back with electrification schemes, a whole new brand called “British Rail” marked with the definitive UK logo of the 20th century and an array of special offers and cheap travel options.

Here’s an offer for a day return to London from Liverpool in 1966/7 for just £3 – that’s £52 in modern money. The same journey with Virgin Trains now costs £156 (£9 in 1966 money).

Image source: http://ageofthetrain.retropia.co.uk/

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Probably the most popular hobby of the 1950s, stamp collecting was still a huge pastime for children and young adults of the 1960s, helped by the wave of former colonies gaining independence and starting to issue new ranges of stamps in new currencies under new names.

A popular sub-hobby was collecting First Day Covers, envelopes with brand new stamps that had been postmarked on the day of issue – so popular in fact that the market to this day remains flooded with them: people rediscover a 1960s First Day Cover the collected 50 years ago and assume it is valuable. It almost never is.

Source: http://stamps.retropia.co.uk/

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The most useful coin for a child in the 1960s. Sure, half a crown – 2s 6d – was what everyone hoped for and often got from uncles and friends of parents for Christmas or birthdays. But that was special money for special use.

A sixpence was daily currency, handed out by middle-class parents as a method of getting their child to go out, used as an incentive or reward by working-class parents to their offspring. Sixpence was twelve ha’penny chews. Sixpence was both the Beano and the Dandy together. Sixpence was six goes on the pinball machine at the back of the local cafe that thought of itself as a “milkbar”. Sixpence was a medium Cadbury’s Dairy Milk or a large Fry’s Turkish Delight. Sixpence was a half return to somewhere nearby – often just the next station or so – on the train. Sixpence was a child’s seat in the stalls for a matinee at the local ABC.

To live a full life as a kid in the 1960s, all it took was 6d.

Image source: http://numismia.retropia.co.uk/

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For the department of “forgotten products”: Rowntree’s Tokens. They were launched amidst a big fanfare in 1963 and disappeared off shelves in 1964 – a lifetime of under a year. Clearly the idea of a wealth of centres – 14! – but advertising them as all being just chocolatey with little differentiation wasn’t enough to drag people away from Cadbury’s Roses or Rowntree’s own Dairy Box.

Clip source: http://ads.retropia.co.uk/

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People’s memories of what we wore in the 1960s are almost invariably wrong.

Television and the last days of the newsreels show the Young Things shopping at Biba and other boutiques on Carnaby Street, or towards the end of the decade in dirty and shapeless paisley in the middle of a field. This was what made the news, but it wasn’t what the rest of us were wearing.

For the most part, even the middle classes couldn’t afford to shop on Carnaby Street. These type of boutiques, now found in Notting Hill, were expensive then and are expensive now. Most of us were wearing clothes that were handed down from older siblings or bought from Woolworths. For very important occasions, a trip to Dorothy Perkins for a party dress or John Collier for a 50/- suit was in order – but they were for best. For the rest of the time, we stayed in our school uniforms and used them for any ‘formal’ occasion with a parent: going shopping, going to a cafe, going for a day out. Even on weekends!

But the clothes we got for special occasions got more colourful and more plastic as the decade wore on. Nylon and polyester had the benefit of not needing ironing and you could wash them in the sink with warm water from the tap – no more boiling, spinning and mangling. The downside: boy did we sweat… and we were still waiting for antiperspirant to be invented (or at least taken up by boys, who didn’t want to smell “queer”).

Still, at home we defaulted to clothes that looked like they were – and often actually were – made in the 1950s. Newsreels and collective memory don’t record this.

Image source: http://ads.retropia.co.uk/

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