Life in the 1950s in Britain was a world away from the country we live in today.

In today’s gallery we take you on a trip back in time to a period that will be well-recalled by some and a relative mystery to others.

As Britain looked to emerge from the fallout from the Second World War post-1945, it was a country facing great social and cultural change.

In 1951, the Festival of Britain was held in a bid to foster a national spirit of recovery.

Of course, the country was still suffering the impacts of those years spent at war and, indeed, rationing would still go on until 1954.

Today’s pictures are from a period when the country was still feeling the effects of previous eras but was also looking to progress from the rubble of the tumultuous period that had preceded it.

Of course, in 1953 Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in Westminster Abbey, and Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing became the first people to climb Mount Everest.

To those alive at the time, it must have felt symbolically as though there had been a true break from the recent difficulties of the past and that a new era would be on the horizon.

Further afield, in America Rosa Parks would play a pivotal role in the Bus Boycott which would protest against racial segregation in the state of Alabama.

In popular culture, a brave new era was also brewing.

The famed James Dean starred in the movie East of Eden in this year with fellow icon Marylin Monroe starring in The Seven Year Itch.Likewise, in the field of popular music the likes of legendary Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry would drive forward the social phenomena that was rock and roll during this era.

In this gallery, we see real evidence of changing times in Carlisle from the first policewoman in the city, to washing machines; interspersed with signs of the more traditional sides of British life also.

If you see yourself or a relative featured in today’s gallery, do get in touch!