Writing letters in 1940s and 1950s Britain

When I grew up in 1940s and 1950s Britain, many more letters were written than today. This was because there was no email, and telephoning was very expensive indeed by the norms of the time. In fact telephoning has become progressively cheaper in real terms over the years.

Fountain pens and ink

We wrote with pen and ink. By the 1950s I, like most children, had graduated from a pen which had to be dipped into ink to a fountain pen.

Fountain pens had to be filled with ink using a rubber balloon-like arrangement inside which was squeezed to suck up the ink from an ink bottle. (Much later ink cartridges were available which dispensed with the messy business of having to fill the pen.)

Fountain pens had the advantage over the old style pens because they didn't have to be repeatedly dipped into ink. The flow of ink was smooth and continuous which made the writing appear much neater. However fountain pens did tend to leak, and one had to let the ink dry on a page before turning it over or folding it. Blotting paper was available but never seemed to be on hand when needed in ordinary homes. Better-off homes and businesses had all these things ready laid out on desks, often in matching sets.

A range of fountain pens were sold with different width nibs and with different body colour and decoration. Some were quite expensive and seemed to be a status symbol. Like many status symbols, they were often sold in plush padded boxes and with matching propelling pencils - a common fall-back birthday or Christmas present. Silver propelling pencils also seemed to be status symbols, but I never saw any that weren't tarnished and dirty-looking. They didn't appeal to me at all.

Everyone seemed to be very fussy about no-one else using their fountain pen, as the pressure of a different hand was supposed to spoil the nib for the original user. I don't know how true this was, but it seemed to maintain the status symbol image.

The following images are courtesy of Heritage Vintage Pens who sell and repair such pens.

 

Old lever-style fountain pen with its top screwed on for carrying around. Note the lever at the side.

   

Old fountain pen ready for use, with its top unscrewed and pushed onto the back of the pen. This not only held it tidily, it also lengthened the pen making its balance better for writing.

Inside the fountain pen showing the rubber ink reservoir - for illustrative purposes only as the pen could be filled with ink without opening it up.

When the pen was empty of ink, It was filled by dipping the nib into ink and repeatedly using a finger nail to pull out and let go the lever on the side. This accordingly squashed and released the reservoir drawing ink up into it. It was full when the process no longer generated bubbles in the ink.

The flow of ink from this type of pen was smooth resulting in uniform writing.

Paper for writing letters: notepaper

Everyone seemed to own writing paper, known as notepaper. It was another standard birthday or Christmas present when one didn't know what else to buy.

Notepaper could be any size but it was usually something between A4 and A5, not that these sizes had been heard of at the time. (Foolscap - which was longer than A4) was the standard size for business use.)

Probably white was the only colour available for notepaper during World War Two and the shortages afterwards but I can't be sure. I have better recollections from the 1950s and 1960s when the most popular and widely sold colour seemed to be pale blue.

Headed notepaper

Some individuals and some households had their notepaper pre-printed with their address at the top right hand side of the page. This was known as headed notepaper. It could be bought to order at any stationers and was another standard present.

Sometimes instead of being pre-printed, writing paper was embossed at the time of use with a customised embosser - yet another standard present.

Personalised notepaper started to go out of fashion in the 1960s as phone numbers began a series of changes, first from letter area codes to numerical ones, and then with added digits to accommodate new subscribers. Addresses also changed with the advent of postcodes. This meant that existing pre-printed stationery and embossers had to be repeatedly discarded and re-bought as no longer current - an expensive and annoying business.

In the 1940s and 1950s, though, the likes of our family simply wrote our addresses in handwriting at the top right-hand corner of the page every time we wrote a letter. Anything else would have seemed pretentious. In fact, for fear of seeming pretentious, my mother often preferred to use what she called a 'scrap of paper' rather than notepaper.

Envelopes

Envelopes were usually bought at the same time as writing paper to make a matching set, and were of a size to fit the notepaper when it was folded either into four or into three lengthways.

The flaps of envelopes were edged with a gum that had to be moistened to stick. Businesses that were sending out numerous letters had a sponge arrangement in a dish of water, so that staff merely had to press the edge of the flap onto the sponge to make it sticky.

Ordinary people, though, simply licked. The taste was not at all pleasant but we knew no different.

This website Join me in the 1900s is also known as Join me in the 1900's and is © Pat Cryer.

The 1940s and 1950s are also written as the 1940's and 1950's.