Early 1950s, I actually got to sit in a Gloster Meteor (probably a Mk 4), on a Dutch airbase - that was still possible in those days.
A bit later than that in 1957, I was on a CCF cadet gliding course at RAF Halton, the Apprentices Training School. On a no-flying day, two of us spent a blissful hour or so clambering into a number of Meteors that were clearly "past it", with canopies left open on the grass outside the hangars. Possibly they were surplus to apprentice instructional requirements, and were just left to rot.
That was interesting enough, but along with them in this rather sad aircraft graveyard were several Mosquito night fighters with belly hatches left open, and similarly abandoned. We were up into these like rats up a drainpipe, and sitting in the pilot's seats it was easy to imagine that these very aircraft had seen active service, since this was only 12 years after the end of WW2.