Society

Britain officially ‘went decimal’ on 14 February 1971 when pounds, shillings and pence disappeared overnight, but the public was prepared gradually for the changeover. At an auction shortly before D Day there are those who can think in the new currency and those who simply can’t – including, at times, the auctioneer.

The Duke of Edinburgh looks on as his eldest son, Prince Charles, receives his wings at the RAF College at Cranwell in Lincolnshire, alongside the first women to pass out from Cranwell.

On 6 August 1972 President Idi Amin announced that Uganda’s 55,000-strong Asian community must leave within three months or risk imprisonment in military camps. The first of the refugees fleeing the country’s military dictatorship flew into Stansted airport on 18 September 1972 from where most were taken to a temporary reception camp at RAF Stradishall in Suffolk.

The first Anglia News report shows the arrival of the first families.

Eldon Griffiths, MP for Bury St Edmunds, visits the camp as it is about to close in March 1973 and talks to one of the many families who has lived there.

One of the most controversial horror films of all time, The Exorcist generated a wave of audience hysteria on its release in 1973. Press reports worldwide blamed the film for cases of criminal and suicidal behaviour, and in Britain some local councils banned it from cinemas.

The Reverend Mark Simons is interviewed about the film outside the ABC Cinema in Hull.

The right to be able to walk through the streets safely at any time of day or night was an early principle of the women’s movement, and self-defence classes for women were ubiquitous in the 1970s. In Norwich, Judy Finnigan learns some judo-based techniques.

Despite a 1970 law compelling local authorities to provide residential pitches for travellers, Peterborough Council has adopted a policy of systematic ‘moving on’, leading to hostility and tension.

Marcus’s vocabulary is rather small: he only knows about 65 words. This isn’t bad for a Border collie, says canine psychiatrist and trainer Dr Hyme.

Northampton in the 1970s became home to one of the country’s first Black self-help centres when the Matta Fancata (‘come guide yourself’) Youth Movement occupied a former Salvation Army citadel after being unable to find anywhere they could legally rent.