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Tranquil scenes amid turbulence

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Date22 December 2020
Published date22 December 2020
It shows Barras Bridge and St Thomas' Church in Newcastle's Haymarket area in the run-up to the festive season 85 years ago.

The picture was taken on December 16, 1935.

However, away from the tranquil setting, times were difficult for many 85 years ago.

The Great Depression witnessed a major slump in the worldwide economy, decimating the North East's traditional heavy industries and bringing widespread unemployment and subsequent hardship to the region.

And storm clouds were gathering as Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany continued to strengthen itself and re-arm. In violation of the Treaty of Versailles, 1935 saw Hitler create the Luftwaffe and re-introduce conscription in Germany.

For the remainder of the decade, the leaders of Europe looked on with alarm as a confident, re-energised German began to assert itself, but nothing was done. Just 20 years after the 1919 peace treaty, World War II would erupt.

But, as ever, life went on 85 years ago.

In the UK, a compulsory driving test was introduced; the first experimental radar was developed; and you could buy a new house for around £550.

Further afield, the first technicolor Mickey Mouse film was released in the United States; Mussolini's Italy invaded Ethiopia in an attempt to expand its empire; and Richard Hauptmann was sentenced to death for the kidnap and murder of flying ace Charles Lindbergh's 20-month-old son in the United States.

Returning to our photograph, the 19th-century church of St Thomas had...

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