Dreams will come true,’ says Mrs T – Beaminster, 1975
Just 17 days after becoming leader of the oppostion, Margaret Thatcher, honouring a previous commitment, came to Beaminster for what became one of her first major speeches in the job. On 28th February 1975 she addressed 700 people at Beaminster School, and the following morning the Western Daily Press led with ‘Dreams will come true, says Mrs T’.
Agriculture featured prominently. Thatcher praised Britain’s farmers and farm workers, describing the industry’s post-war record as ‘little short of amazing’.
If British manufacturing had increased productivity at anything like the rate achieved by agriculture, she argued, Britain would be a far more prosperous country. Four years later, in May 1979 – the same year as Barry Cuff’s postcard opposite – Thatcher entered Downing Street as Britain’s first woman Prime Minister.
Beaminster itself was changing rapidly. After decades of decline, its population grew again after the Second World War, with new housing spreading east, west and north. Abbot Brown & Sons, engravers and manufacturers of printed plastic signs, became the towns largest post-war employer. They were known for employing a large number of local young people and providing accessible jobs for the community, running dedicated staff buses to transport workers from nearby areas like Bridport.
Numatic, founded in Crewkerne in 1969, moved into premises on Broadwindsor Road in 1974. The first red Henry vacuum (model HVC200), created by company founder Chris Duncan, rolled off the production line in Beaminster in 1981. Meanwhile, the North Street milk factory had been part of the town since 1904. By the 20th century it was producing dried milk for Cow & Gate, before Aplin & Barrett took over in 1976 and moved production towards food preservatives.
Locals might remember other events from the 70s – St Mary’s Primary School opened in 1973 and Holy Trinity Church was declared redundant in 1978.
Yet the medieval street pattern and old marketplace remained largely intact – which is why Barry’s 1979 view is still so instantly recognisable today.
