Looking Back: Leisure time for pleasure - on high days, holidays and weekends

By Alison Bagley
Published 19th Mar 2019, 16:32 BST
Updated 9th Apr 2019, 17:02 BST

With a increase of leisure time and disposable incomes, the baby boomer generation had a whole host of leisure opportunities that many of their parents and grandparents had been denied.

Sporting events were as popular as ever with good attendances at the County Ground shared by Northampton Town Football Club and Northamptonshire County Cricket Club. Young people involved themselves in a whole range of extra-curricular activities from Gilbert and Sullivan productions to fundraising bed pushes, recitals and dog shows. A hobby was seen as the thing to do: a way to make friends and keep out of mischief. Making music or listening to the latest record by chart-topping artists and sometimes even meeting them - things haven't really changed at all.

Trying a bubble car for size at the motorcycle and microcar show at Northampton Guildhall, March 14, 1959placeholder image
Trying a bubble car for size at the motorcycle and microcar show at Northampton Guildhall, March 14, 1959
Glamorgan County Cricket Club batsmen make way their way down the pavilion steps to face Northants at the County Ground in 1959placeholder image
Glamorgan County Cricket Club batsmen make way their way down the pavilion steps to face Northants at the County Ground in 1959
A competitor waits to register for a dog show at the Drill Hall, Clare Street, Northampton, March 14, 1970placeholder image
A competitor waits to register for a dog show at the Drill Hall, Clare Street, Northampton, March 14, 1970
Ten-pin bowling at Fair Lanes Bowl, Weedon Road, Northampton, now Beacon Bingo, in November 18, 1964placeholder image
Ten-pin bowling at Fair Lanes Bowl, Weedon Road, Northampton, now Beacon Bingo, in November 18, 1964
Related topics:County Ground
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