Britain: An official handbook > 1966

24
Clubs and Groups
Holidays
BRITAIN: AN OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
or hired premises. In addition, Scottish and English traditional dances have
their own following.
Nearly 73 million ‘singles’ and ‘extended play’ (45 revolutions per minute)
gramophone records were pressed in Britain in 1964. It is on the weekly
sales of these records (almost entirely to young people) that the ‘pop music’
popularity placings, known as the ‘Top Ten’ and ‘Top Twenty’, are calculated.
Personal appearances by leading ‘pop performers draw huge attendances
both inside and outside the theatre or studio.
A number of people from all age-groups and occupations find their main
free-time interest in some form of sustained group activity connected, for
example, with the churches, trade unions, politics, social welfare and reform,
with study or other self-improvement or with cultural pursuits.
Clubs and societies, which may be primarily social or devoted to some
particular purpose, range from small informal groups to great national and
international organisations with branches throughout the country. Organisa¬
tions of national importance in social life and in the promotion of social
gatherings include, in addition to those connected with religious denomina¬
tions, the Working Men’s Clubs and Institutes, the Townswomen’s Guilds
and the Women’s Institutes. There are some 3,600 clubs, with over 2 million
members (mainly but not entirely men), affiliated to the Working Men s
Club and Institute Union. These clubs are primarily social and recreational,
though they also arrange lectures and classes. In recent years they have given
much attention to improving their premises and to arranging events of
sufficient attraction to compete with the comforts of members homes and
the standard of entertainment obtainable on television. Over 2,400 Towns¬
women’s Guilds, with a total membership of about 200,000, are affiliated to the
National Union of Townswomen’s Guilds. The guilds are educational as
well as social in purpose and they co-operate in many public welfare activities.
The declared objective of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes is
to improve rural life and amenities; the institutes make an important con¬
tribution to rural life by providing meeting places for countrywomen and by
organising social gatherings. In villages throughout England and Wales there
are some 8,700 institutes with nearly half a million members; in Scotland
and Northern Ireland there are Women’s Rural Institutes with similar aims
and interests.
About 31 million people in Britain take an annual holiday. Although the
seaside is still by far the most popular for holidays, the trend appears to be
towards visiting several resorts for short periods rather than staying in one.
Camping and caravanning have also increased greatly. Both tendencies are
closely allied to the growth of personal transport (see below). More and more
people—the total is now 5 million—take more than one holiday during the
year. The number going abroad has also risen sharply and in 1964 totalled over
4! million—more than half as many again as a few years earlier. The popularity
of holidays abroad may be attributable to several factors besides rising
incomes; the attraction of a warmer climate, which make Spain and Italy
the most sought-after destinations for British tourists, the many charter and
other airline services available, and the readiness of the travel trade to provide
relatively inexpensive inclusive holidays. In this connection, the learning of
foreign languages is popular among adults1, aided by radio and television
1 Instruction in two languages is available to children in 15 per cent of state-maintained
grammar schools, three in 35 per cent, four in 27 per cent and five or more in 23 per cent.
The most widely taught modern languages are French, German, Russian and Spanish,
in that order.