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There was a great variation in terms of the quality of life in 1930s Britain, with historian Bryn O’Callaghan stating, there were really two Britains in the 1930s.

Areas which had needed the old or traditional industries certainly suffered:

• coal mining, eg Rhondda Valleys
• cotton, eg Lancashire
• steel and shipbuilding, eg Merseyside and Jarrow

Notably, Ellen Wilkinson, the Jarrow MP, referred to Jarrow as the town that was murdered.

However, the impact of the 1930s Depression was significantly different, and less traumatic, in areas that benefitted from employment in the new emerging light industries, eg motor vehicles, electrical goods.

These areas were mostly concentrated in the Midlands and the south-east of England, and they saw the benefits in terms of improved housing and transport links, in addition to the rising employment and consumerism.

This contrast supports the argument that there is a clear division between the experiences of south-east Wales and north England, and those people living in the more affluent areas of south-east England and the Midlands.