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Beer prices in 1971..


Sheffield History

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Sheffield Beer.jpg

How's this for a cheap night out?

Beer prices from 1971 show that you could pick up a pint of Guinness for 17 and half pence, a double whisky for 32p and a pint of lager for 10p!!

 

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27 minutes ago, rob123 said:

What on earth was a "nip" of bottled beer ?

I think it was the smaller size bottle that such as Barley Wine was supplied. In the above case I guess this was Magnet's strong ale as a smaller 'nip' is about the price of a small

'ordinary' beer.

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But don't forget wages were much, much lower with the average being £2805 per annum... Some things such as housing and alcohol have risen far more than inflation.

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12 hours ago, Sheffield History said:

Sheffield Beer.jpg

How's this for a cheap night out?

Beer prices from 1971 show that you could pick up a pint of Guinness for 17 and half pence, a double whisky for 32p and a pint of lager for 10p!!

 

Get pissed for over a pound unbelievable

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That was before the Government started putting tax on alcohol consumption. After every budget they would stick 5p or 10p on a pint. Less on whiskey, generally because the chancellor use to drink that. Well it was always an MP's joke about it. The less people in work and the more problems had to be met, so a tax on drink was the easy option. They can't really do it now, since all the pubs shut down. Publicans today will state that most of the price of a pint is tax. But like taxing cigarettes it does reduce the health problems down.   

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Duty and taxation on alcohol is as old as the hills. In the early18th century a tax of 2d per gallon was introduced in an attempt to reduce the consumption of gin ( Hogarth's Gin Lane)and taxation was placed on strong beer. During WW1, in an attempt to reduce alcohol consumption, ( We are fighting the Kaiser and alcohol and the most dangerous is alcohol... King George V) taxation was increased, Carlisle Brewery nationalised and licensing hours introduced... it was also made illegal to buy anyone a drink...this was abandoned when a man was hauled before the Magistrates for buying his wife a tipple.

I have just seen another comparison site which leads me to think that the average wage I quoted earlier may have been overstated. The site suggests that the average wage in 1971 was £28 per week and with Bitter @12p an hours work would pay for 5.6 pints.This compares with today's average wage of £502 per week and beer @ £3.04 per pint ...meaning I hours sweated labour only buys 3.87 pints....and some people believe the 70s were a bad time in our history...Not for me!

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I think your second annual wage is more accurate. I was on about £19 a week in 1971 in a unskilled warehouse job. Beer in my local in Manchester (not city centre) was 9p, Guinness 15p, 10 No 6 fags 12.5p.

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I was on roughly the same salary plus annual bonus with a company car in a booming steel industry and my mortgage was but a fraction of my disposable income...Which is why the 70s were good to me!

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On 19/11/2017 at 10:38, Sheffield History said:

Sheffield Beer.jpg

How's this for a cheap night out?

Beer prices from 1971 show that you could pick up a pint of Guinness for 17 and half pence, a double whisky for 32p and a pint of lager for 10p!!

 

Guinness is only 16p for draught! Remember these prices and most of the drinks 

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What surprises me is how little prices had risen since 1966.Then a pint of Whitbreads bitter cost 2/- (10p) & a pint of Tankard cost 2/9d (14p).

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I was on roughly the same salary plus annual bonus with a company car in a booming steel industry and my mortgage was but a fraction of my disposable income...Which is why the 70s were good to me!

Strange in the  70s 4 million plus out off work if you had a job you could be working 2 or 3 day week,thats what i remember.

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The three day week ,during part of 1974 ,was entirely caused as a direct result of the Miners strike and the need to conserve coal stocks. Therefore electricity ( then almost entirely generated by coal) was effectively rationed for commercial use. Interestingly, in some industries, the affect on output of the 3 day week was none existent. Production levels remaining the same...Proof of Parkinson's law maybe?

 I think you are confusing your decades regarding unemployment. The 80's were much, much worse. In 1971 unemployment stood at 1 million, rising to 1.5 million in 1978. (  a rate of 5.5%)  In 1984 it stood at over double the '78 level with 11.9 % of the working population unemployed. Locally, in 1982, some 2 years before the maximum national number of unemployed, Sheffield had lost  at least an additional 20,000 steelmaking jobs and now had 40,000 unemployed...a rate of 13.9%

Regardless, the 1970's were good years for many whilst the 80's were horrendous ones for many as well.

 

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