where i lived

[jillR]

just found one of my old tramping grounds in 1957

[Brian]

Tell us more Jill, looks very interesting

[jillR]

dad was in the army and we were moved there from fayid egypt in 1956 for a year for the EOKA campaign.

we flew from egypt to limasol in an old decota and i got to sit in the co-pilots seat.

when we landed and got a taxi to the hotel, we drove through a red light and dad said to the taxi driver "dident you see the red light ?"

and he said "yes pretty". they were the only lights on the island and no one took any notice of them.

we had elsan loos at the bottom of the garden and cooking ranges with fuel tablets.

we often had to boil the water we used

from the youtube clip and my memory, its not changed much

i remember it fondly.

dad was also the scout master and i used to tag along to learn to tie knots and send mirror messages home

[C.Ricko]

Years ago we looked at the ex Pontins holiday camp in Morcambe bay, the main entertainment complex was called the 'SS Beringaria'

apparently the man who set the site up had some connection with the ship and bought all the interior and used it to set his holiday site up, there was a cinema which still had the original projectors in the booth behind and also the main stage and curtains were there, light fittings etc were still in place but all the furnature was gone...

http://www.butlinsmemories.com/pontins/ ... dleton.htm

http://www.abandoned-britain.com/PP/middleton/1.htm

sorry for the drift but it is boat related

[littlesprite]

As a lad we would go to something called the battery camp for a weeks holiday, it was an old army barracks at seasalter. also had several visits to Butlins at Clacton, another old army barracks, well it was better than letting them go to waste.

[jillR]

all drifts and reminiscences welcome clive

i love to hear other peeps tales from the past

[Boaters]

Martin,remember Butlins at Clacton well when I was. Child,they had a large water wheel in their ball room I think it was .they had the old penny ball bearing machines which we now go on in the cafe in the Model Villiage in Yarmouth with lots of machines from that era,mind you an old penny is ten new pence from the kiosk theres inflation for you.,also remember just outside the camp there was a fresh doughnut outlet which I used to enjoy each night.The family loved that area and retired to Brightlingsea a few miles round the coast.Happy days

[ranworthbreeze]

I remember Butlins at Skegness, we used to holiday in caravans at Ingoldmells, in the early to mid 50's there was still barbed wire in places on the beach where there was still a few mines and Bultlins had only just been brought back into use after the war, infact the camp still had barbed wire around all of its fences to get to the beach. At that time of course the trains were diverted into the Butlins stations, more than likely that would have happened at the camps at Clacton etc.

The arcade on the road to the front was just a 8 x 6 shed that the owner had the Alwins type ball bearing machines and some of those with the spining disk that was operated with a side handle, there were machines on the inside and during its operation in the daytime he hung machines on the outside. Within 3 years he had built a purpose built arcade, I used to love the "Wheel em In" penny roll machines.

The cafe at the beach wall used to have an outsales for chip & fish, the salt and vinegar were on short chains, so short that you had to move your chips to each pot to put the salt or vinegar on in turn.

Was it me or did we really have summers full of sunshine and not a word of drought?

Regards

Alan

[jillR]

hi alan

sunshine and not a word of drought

are you talking of the days pre M1 ? where there was countryside between the towns and citys all the way to london ?

not so many people to use the resources in those days.

i think the war thinned us out quite a bit to.

and then we had the baby boom in the 50s.

jill

[Dan]

Years ago we looked at the ex Pontins holiday camp in Morcambe bay, the main entertainment complex was called the 'SS Beringaria'

apparently the man who set the site up had some connection with the ship and bought all the interior and used it to set his holiday site up, there was a cinema which still had the original projectors in the booth behind and also the main stage and curtains were there, light fittings etc were still in place but all the furnature was gone...

http://www.butlinsmemories.com/pontins/ ... dleton.htm

http://www.abandoned-britain.com/PP/middleton/1.htm

sorry for the drift but it is boat related

I remember the place being on the news in the early 90s (I think) as there was a bit of an uproar at the suggestion it be turned into some form of prison, if I remember correctly. I guess they did not get their way as it is a retirement village, unless it has just been rebranded

I think it is quite sad that this massive site was once busy and packed with holidaymakers but I guess the way people holiday & the market, like most, has changed and to be fair it is not how I holiday (very often!)

Plemont Bay is my favourite

Dan

[Brian]

Dont worry, people are returning to stay in the UK.

Butlins have spent a fortune on upgrades to their Holiday parks.

For the first time ever we are not travelling abroad this year (normally USA) but have booked up a Butlins Holiday instead.

Will it be worth it ? Ill let you know after the holiday

[Jim]

I remember the one in Bognor very well and it looks a whole lot different today. I was taken on family holidays every year between the age of 6 to 11 and we always stayed in the same guest house. There was a big wire fence around Butlins that my mum always jokes was the keep the camper inside lol

[Julz]

I spent my honeymoon to my first husband down at the Pontins Dolphin site in Brixham, north Devon, It was the scorching hot summer of 1976, and all the points had melted on the Railway track on our journey down from Derbyshire, causing long delays

The brochure showed a terrace of fairly new chalets with all mod cons, but failed to point out that these were only available as an expensive upgrade, offered on arrival on a first come, first served basis.

What we actually got was a plasterboard lined garden shed, with a large single glazed window that only had a small opening pane at the top, to say the place became a sweat-box rivaling any type of prisoner of war torture was an undestatement, and we spent most nights sleeping outside in old fashioned Deck-chairs, sneaked from around the pool in the middle of the night, and hidden stored away from the cleaner under the metal framed army style thin foam mattress bed by day

All the facilities were in a bathroom block, no showers back then on this site, and we had to wait our turn for a bath when we wanted one, and just hope that the person before us had remembered to wash the bath down and had not left their scum tide mark around the sides!

With only six bathrooms for the 'Ladies' and six for the 'Gents', the wait could be very lengthly indeed, and it wasnt long before we cottoned onto the idea that maybe the best time for a bath, would be during the small hours of the morning when the block was often deserted, and being Honeymooners, we didnt care to read the the notices on the door before we jumped in together for a good long soak

The food was typical camp style set menu, benches for 8 people, Formica topped tables, the same people allocated to sit with for meals, if you liked them or not, and if the dish of the day was something you really could not stand, the alternative was a Cheese or Ham salad, and if you didnt like that, you went hungry

We soon found the local Cornish pasty shop and little bakery, and after taking to the owner whilst being served, he took pitty on us, as a young couple who at the time were only 19 and 23, and were short of funds, after just scraping together the money for a deposit on our first little house, and being so duped and ripped off by Pontins. He would often look out for us walking back up the hill to the camp at the end of the day, and offer to give us any left over items that had not sold in the bakery that day. In return, we bought our cold drinks and sandwiches to take to the beach as we walked down each morning to catch the bus into Paignton or Torquay.

A few years later, we borrowed my parent's touring caravan, and with two little ones by our side, we headded south to take a visit down Memory Lane, not much had changed with the Pontins camp from what we could see, and we were glad that we were not staying there, but the little old Pasty shop and bakery was still up and running, and with a bit more cash in our pockets, we once again became regular customers, and the owner after a couple of visits recognised us, and made a real welcoming fuss of us and our new offspring in tow, and we returned home from that visit with a coolbox full of Cornish pasties for our family and friends, but of course, this time we paid full price for them

Julz

[Jim]

Crikey Julz. Sounds more like Stalag 13 than a holiday park

[Dan]

I spent my honeymoon to my first husband down at the Pontins Dolphin site in Brixham, north Devon, It was the scorching hot summer of 1976, and all the points had melted on the Railway track on our journey down from Derbyshire, causing long delays

The brochure showed a terrace of fairly new chalets with all mod cons, but failed to point out that these were only available as an expensive upgrade, offered on arrival on a first come, first served basis.

What we actually got was a plasterboard lined garden shed...

You may be pleased to hear that Pontins Dolphin burnt down Julz

Some bits survived but the camp lay derelict until very recent times but is now housing.

Butlins have spent fortunes over the years and I would expect are now an OK standard, and their skyline hotels and the like look quite good, BUT, this comes at a price. They are not cheap holidays now, in the main or for the reasonable accommodation & not on a random deal anyway. Pontins seem to be sticking at doing budget holidays for very low rates but seem to be getting a lot of stick for it! Good that someone is though as going upmarket whilst perhaps successful (maybe even almost crucial) commercially & financially does not keep it within everyones price bracket and I think everyone should be able to have a holiday.

Dan

[Julz]

I have just had a look at Clives website link Jim, and managed to find a piccy taken on the Pontin's Dolphin site around 1972, You can see the start of the rows of Bed-Sheds as we knick-named them to the bottom of the tennis courts LH side

The first row were painted with whitewash outside, the following rows behind that decended down the hill towards the sea, still had their original shed-brown outer, and were rumoured to date back to the early 50s, they were just big enough to get a double bed into and a stacking type chair at the side of the bed, there was a small hanging rail in the corner at the foot of the bed, and a mirror screwed to the wall and that was about your lot!

I bet a lot of unsuspecting customers were glad that it burned down in the end Dan, it was more of an endurance test than a Holiday for us, we must have been about the youngest customers there, the rest were elderly people, whos entertainment needs and tastes came first before you could say 'Disco'!

We also witnessed the destruction of the old Butlins at Filey, when they slowly demolished it as it was taken over by Haven Holidays. By this time we had a touring caravan of our own, and used their site regularly for short breaks and hoildays. Everytime we went, another part of the village had been flattened, and some of it included the catering crockery and other logo'ed memoribilia, which was just smashed amoungst the debris from where the bulldozers had been.

Haven now have well over 1000 caravans on this site, a few of the original brick built self catering chalets remain, but are in a poor state of repair, and the entire area has become a mecca for the Chavs who are looking for a bargain break, with all inclusive entertainment for themselves and their kids. Its all far too 'Loud' for us now, especially when the drunken 'domestics' start on the way back from the clubhouse at night, often followed by the site's security staff, and the Boys in Blue, so we tend to use the Caravan Club Adult only sites instead, which usually give us a better nights sleep

Julz

[Dan]

I bet a lot of unsuspecting customers were glad that it burned down in the end Dan, it was more of an endurance test than a Holiday for us, we must have been about the youngest customers there, the rest were elderly people, whos entertainment needs and tastes came first before you could say 'Disco'!

...

I think it was one of their best booked sites Julz and also amongst the highest repeat booking ratio too.

You're right though - at this sort of time the most basic accommodation was a perhaps a previously unexperienced version or the definition of 'basic'

There was a good website on the place but I cannot find it now

Dan

[AdnamsGirl]

This thread has reminded me of a fabulous bit of cine footage I found on YouTube a couple of weeks ago which was taken at Bognor Regis Butlins in 1961 - it captures the whole Butlins experience of the time beautifully!

I went to Minehead Butlins as part of a school group, aged about 10, in 1976. They used to open up the whole camp to school groups from across the UK for one week a year. My abiding memory of the whole experience was the awful bright orange bobble hats which all our mums had to knit for us before we went so that the teachers could identify us.

Mine ended up in the boating lake when I managed to capsize the canoe I was in .... whether that was by accident or on purpose, I couldn't possibly comment!

Carol

[Julz]

That Clip is brilliant Carol, real Hi-de-Hi stuff, brought back some fond memories of when we used to take the youngsters to the Caravan Club touring park when it was at Butlins Skegness, back in the 80s, they loved the all inclusive fairground, competitions and water sports around the pool

Can Anyone remember the N.A.L.G.O Camps?

These where the ones run by a large trade union at the time, to provide the workers who were union members and their family with an affordable annual Holiday by the sea .

There was an option to have a 'stamp' stopped out of your weekly wage each week, that went towards the cost of your holiday at the camp, and an option for those who's workplaces closed down for the 'works fortnight' during the summer months, to travel by coach to the same destination Nalgo camp with the costs included in the 'Stamp'

As a teenager, in the summer I left school, and just before starting Nursing college in the September, I went to work on the one at Knipe Point, a bay near Scarborough, as a babysitter, along with a friend who was waiting to start her Police officer training. It was very much like the Butlins and Pontins sites, only on a smaller scale. eventually, due to coastal errosion, half the chalets had to be condemed as they were slipping into the sea, and the site became no longer economically viable for the Union to run, and by this time the trend for cheap package holidays abroad had seen a decline in the use of these camps. The remaining chalets were demolished and the land nearest the main Scarborough to Filey road was re-developed into two rows of smart retirement Bungalows.

Sadly, fast forward on 30years, and further coastal erosion has now seen these Bungalows tetering on the edge of the Cliff, with some about to fall down it anytime soon, even the main road has had to be diverted onto a new by-pass, and other properties in the area have been unable to get house insurance due to this risk.

Julz

[ranworthbreeze]

Hello Julz,

I once went with my cousin and his family to a Miners Holiday camp just down the road from Butlin's at Skegness it was a similar setup with regards to the accommodation and meals, it was to regimented for me and was eating on grand scale with regards to the number of people eating, even then it had to be in two seatings.

There was not that much for my cousin and I to do in the camp (unlike what was on offer up the road) I seem to think we saved up our pocket money for a day pass to get into Butlin's.

Regards

Alan

[jillR]