It's 1950 and our city begins to recover from war as the wheels of industry spin

We step back to Newcastle in 1950, recalling the city as it was in our archive photographs. Five years after the victorious but costly conclusion to World War II, exhausted and bombed-out Britain was striving to get back on its feet.

- By DAVID MORTON

Unemployment was at an all-time low and in our region there was work for anyone who wanted it as the wheels of industry - shipyards, coal mines and factories - spun hard in aid of economic recovery. Shelves in local stores once more began to fill up, but this was an era characterised by queues and scarcities, and post-war rationing in the UK would only be totally removed four years into the decade.

Folk nevertheless were determined to enjoy themselves as best they could after the sacrifices and hardship of the war years. At a time when the majority of family homes were yet to have a television set, most towns had at least one cinema (often more) and audiences on a daily basis were huge.