Letter: Knowing the real value of history

Letter: Is it too much to ask article writers to desist from the ridiculous practice of using the 1970s "Decimal Day" conversion factors to explain the values of bygone sums of money at today's rates?

The figure of 15 shillings originally chargeable for the Charles Darwin book (see Star, June 8) would properly convert to about £45 in present day money not 75p.

Similarly the half pound coin reported on recently in a treasure trove dispute could under no circumstances have been worth 50p - it would have been a small fortune.

The relative values of yesterday's money and today's cannot be fixed by one factor and I am sure that when I served HM the King as a conscripted soldier in 1947, my 26 shillings a week was worth more than £1.30!

Similarly my grandfather never worked for 37-and-a-half-pence per week in 1902.

To digress from this I was told by Tom Pemberton, of Much Wenlock, some time ago that the reason for there now being no nightingales in the Ironbridge Gorge is that they don't like tall vegetation so the change from scrubby trees to casual forest in that area and many others resulted in their departure.

I hope that Mr Pemberton's expert knowledge can thus clear up the recent query in the Star about this.

Mr A Minton

Bridgnorth