They were the days when to own a car made you someone rather special.
But times were changing fast and motors for the working man were at last becoming affordable.
The year was 1954. And a car for “the masses” was rolling off the Ford production line. Who remembers  the famous Popular?
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At the time it was Britain’s lowest-priced car bringing affordable motoring to the working man and combining roominess with lively top gear performance.
It had no claim to refinement and was said to offer top gear acceleration superior to that of almost any other “economy” car.”
This was the Ford Popular in 1954, which would set you back just £275 plus purchase tax of £115 14s 2d, a total of £390 14s 2d for a car said by The Motor magazine to bring new car ownership within the reach of many people who could only afford a motorcycle or the uncertainties of purchasing a send-hand vehicle.
It went on “as a knockabout vehicle to be left always out of doors and used mainly for short runs in town or as a farmer’s car with external carrying capacity and with ample weight on the driving wheels the Popular has merits quite independent of its low cost.”
The car was developed out of the earlier Ford Anglia which was converted to the Popular in 1953. The original 933cc engine was replaced with the 1.172cc size and it could hit 60mph.
The Motor Road Tests of 1954 cars said: “The Popular is very far from extravagant as is indicated by out overall consumption figure of 36.4mpg which covers a proportion of quite hard driving – even 10mpg better economy would only save 24s per 1,000 miles on petrol cost.”
The review went on enthusiastically: “The fact that this model which is being made in very large numbers, is more than able to keep up with other traffic, accelerating briskly even without skilled use of the gearbox, is important in these days of congested roads on which too-slow vehicles can be obstructions.”
The car was Spartan to say the least. The basic model had no heater, glove locker, sun visors, warning lights, ashtrays, radio or map pockets. But it did come with a starting handle and you could buy it in black Bristol fawn, Winchester blue or Dorchester grey.
The Motor said: “Orthodox simplicity characterises the interior and exterior furnishings and decoration of the Popular.
“Externally, a very few parts such as the door handles and bonnet hinge are chromium plated. Inside the body there is conventional trimming in relatively inexpensive leathercloth and fabric and conventional wind-down windoews in the front doors (it came with two doors only).
Elbow width for two people was said to be “quite adequate” and the rear seat headroom and knee room were amply even for tall men.
Basic is probably the kindest way of describing the car as indicated by this:
“Although quite comfortably, the front and rear seats do feel slightly ‘cheap’ in respect of skimpy padding over their internal springs.”
Great play was made of the car’s performance in top gear. The Motor said: “Top gear performance is what really gives this model its character and makes it unexpectedly attractive despite its rather austere specification.
“Below 15mph in top gear snatch in the tgransmission can set in and above 50mph the acceleration tails off rapidly towards rthe top speed of a mile a minute, but between these speeds there is a fine surge of power available.
“It is very rarely necessary to change out of top gear on a hill and to quote a specific example, three people and their weekend luggage were taken up the sharp hill which climbs out of the city of Winchester towards Alton in top gear despite a starting speed of little more than 20mph. When pulling at such low speeds, however, the car pinked quite considerably on the standard-grade fuels.”
There was a word of warning about driving fast with the windows closed which was said to produce a slightly oil smell inside the car. But in 800 miles only one pint of oil was used.
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The Popular came after the Anglia, which in turn came was the post-war version of the Ford 8 of the 1930s.
According to the book The British Motor Car 1950/51 by AH Lukins the Anglia was “avery robust piece of motor engineering incorporating many modern refinement.”
The Anglia cost £329 2s 9d including purchase tax.

January 7– President Harry S. Truman announced that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb.
January 19 – 68 per cent of all television sets in the United States were tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.
January 20 – Dwight D Eisenhower succeeded Harry S Truman as President of the United States.
January 28 – Derek Bentley was executed for murder in HM Prison Wandsworth.
January 31 – February 1 – The North Sea flood killed 1,835 people in the southwestern Netherlands (especially Zeeland), 307 in the United Kingdom and several hundred at sea.
February 18 – The first 3-D film, Bwana Devil, opened.
March 1 – Joseph Stalin (pictured) suffered a stroke and collapsed after an all-night dinner. The stroke paralysed the right side of his body, and he died a few days later after 31 years as Russian leader.
March 14 – Nikita Khruschev was selected First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
March 26 – Jonas Salk announced his polio vaccine.
April 13- Ian Fleming published his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale.
May 29 – Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
June 2  – Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey.
August 8 – Soviet prime minister  Georgi Malenkov announced that the Soviet Union had a hydrogen bomb.
November 25 – England lost 6-3 to Hungary at Wembley Stadium, their first ever loss to a continental team at home.
December 1 – Hugh Hefner published the first issue of Playboy Magazine; it sold  54,175 copies.

Births
January 10  -Pat Benatar, rock singer
February 26 – Michael Bolton, pop singer
March 23 – Chaka Khan, soul singer
April 19 – Ruby Wax, comedienne
May 6 – Tony Blair
May 15 – Mike Oldfield, composer
May 16 – Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor
May 19 – Victoria Wood, actress
June 22 – Cyndi Lauper, singer
August 11 – Hulk Hogan, professional wrestler
August 15 – Carol Thatcher, television personality, daughter of Margaret Thatcher. Mark Thatcher, British businessman, son of Margaret Thatcher

Deaths
January 1 – Hank Williams, musician (b. 1923)
June 1 – Alex James, Scottish football player (b. 1901)
June 19  – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, American communist spies (b. 1918 and 1915) (executed)
October 8 – Nigel Bruce, character actor (b. 1895)
October 8 – Kathleen Ferrier, contralto (b. 1912)

Top hits of 1953
Answer Me, O Lord – Frankie Laine
Bye Bye Blues – Les Paul and Mary Ford
Changing Partners – Patti Page
The Gang That Sang Heart Of My Heart – The Four Aces featuring Al Alberts
The Kid’s Last Fight – Frankie Laine
Secret Love – Doris Day (pictured)
That’s Amore – Dean Martin
Three Coins In The Fountain – Frank Sinatra

January 9: United Nations headquarters opened in New York.
January 15 – Ilse Koch, The “Witch of Buchenwald” (pictured), wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, was sentenced to life imprisonment in a court in West Germany.
March 7 –In Korea, United Nations troops led by General Matthew Ridgeway began an assault against the Chinese “volunteers.”
March 29 – Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. On April 5 they were sentenced to receive the death penalty.
March 29 – Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I opened on Broadway and ran for three years. The show made a star of Yul Brynner.
April 11- After its removal from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1950, the Stone of Scone resurfaced on the altar of Arbroath Abbey.
May 3 – King George VI opened London’s Royal Festival Hall. The Festival of Britain opened.
May 25 – The first atomic bomb “boosted” by the inclusion of thermonuclear materials, was tested on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands by the US.
July 26 – Walt Disney’s 13th animated film, Alice in Wonderland, premiered in London.
September 8 -In San Francisco 48 nations signed a peace treaty with Japan to formally end the Pacific War.
September 10 – The United Kingdom began an economic boycott of Iran.
October 15 – I Love Lucy made its television debut in America.
December 24 – Libya became independent from Italy.

Births
January 30 – Phil Collins,  rock musician and producer (Genesis)
February 14 – Kevin Keegan, footballer and football manager
February 15 – Jane Seymour, actress
February 20 – Gordon Brown, Prime Minister.
March 4 – Kenny Dalglish, footballer and football manager
April 13 – Peter Davison, actor
June 8 – Bonnie Tyler, singer
June 14 – Paul Boateng,  politician
July 8 – Anjelica Huston, actress
September 5 – Michael Keaton,  actor (Batman)
September 7 – Chrissie Hynde, rock singer (The Pretenders)
November 19 – Lord Falconer of Thoroton,  politician
December 8 – Bill Bryson, author

Deaths
March 6 – Ivor Novello, actor, musician, and composer (b. 1893)
April 14 – Ernest Bevin, politician, and statesman (b. 1881)
August 14 – William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper publisher (b. 1863)

Top hits
If – Perry Como
Be My Love – Mario Lanza
How High the Moon – Les Paul and Mary Ford
Too Young – Nat King Cole
Come On-a My House – Rosemary Clooney
Because of You -Tony Bennett
Cold, Cold Heart – Tony Bennett
(It’s No) Sin – Eddy Howard
Cry – Johnnie Ray (pictured)