Figure 1.--Here were are at the Weston-Super-Mare in 1967 making at attempt to build a sand castle. I am wearing a sweater and long pants as I had been sick and was allowed to get in the water.

As I write I remember other things and the holiday idea came into my head as we always had holidays at "Holliday Camps" - or caravans when we had them at all the English seaside resorts. My brothers and I really enjoyed the seaside holidays and playing on the beach. When I saw the HBC http://histclo.com/act/out/sea/seacoeng.html English seaside pages, I remembered how we had long shovels and short trowel-like ones as the pictures of me and my brothers show. The photograph here is at Weston-Super-Mare in the West Country (Somerset). I'd been ill and we weren't going to go away but the doctor said it would be o.k. for me. It wasn't a hot Summer – you can see there was no-one in the sea but it wasn't that cold either but my mum insisted on me “wrapping up” whenever we went out which drove me mad. We did sometimes go on day trips to Scarborough on the Yorkshire coast when we stayed in Leeds and then I could get swimming with my cousin, who was also a good swimmer. my Grandfather always told my mum that swimming would be good for me. The water up there was always colder (it's on the North Sea), but I never noticed once in the water and it was never as cold as that Alpine lake I swum across in Germany – when we did that we had to insulate ourselves with grease. I think this was the last time we went on a seaside holiday as a family as we went on seperate holidays after that – like I went to Germany or my older brother on a school trip while only the younger one went with my mum.

Beach Holiday Camps

As I write I remember other things and the holiday idea came into my head as we always had holidays at "Holliday Camps" - or caravans when we had them at all the English seaside resorts. My brothers and I really enjoyed the seaside holidays and playing on the beach. When I saw the HBC English seaside pages, I remembered how we had long shovels and short trowel-like ones as the pictures of me and my brothers show. Also a typical English seaside activity was donkey rides on the beach. People did dress differently when they were on holiday away from their local areas. It was only when I went to my secondary school that I realised that even then (the 1970's) some families were holidaying abroad and I am wondering how that might have started to effect fashions back here and the other way round. It would be interesting to put out a call to people to see if they used to have special holiday clothes or brought any back with them.

Weston-Super-Mare

The photograph here is at Weston-Super-Mare in the West Country (Somerset). I'd been ill and we weren't going to go away but the doctor said it would be o.k. for me. It wasn't a hot Summer – you can see there was no-one in the sea but it wasn't that cold either but my mum insisted on me “wrapping up” whenever we went out which drove me mad. This picture was taken by someone who my mum got talking to on the promenade – who persauded my mum to let me join my brothers on the beach – I've nicked a spade off one brother and a bucket off the other and am showing them how it's done! The clothes my brothers are wearing are typical of what my mum would buy us to wear on holiday but I knew something was wrong when I didn't get any that year. She made up for it the next year by buying me new clothes to go to Germany, although I hardly wore them as I've told you. Normally this sandcastle business wouldn't have bothered me – I would have been quite happy to go into the sea despite the cold or be off exploring rockpools but here I was just glad to be able to get my coat off and do something other than sit on the top with my mum.

Scarborough

We did sometimes go on day trips to Scarborough on the Yorkshire coast when we stayed in Leeds and then I could get swimming with my cousin, who was also a good swimmer. my Grandfather always told my mum that swimming would be good for me. The water up there was always colder (it's on the North Sea), but I never noticed once in the water and it was never as cold as that Alpine lake I swum across in Germany – when we did that we had to insulate ourselves with grease. We often played on the beach but were not allowed in the sea due to it being too cold (even though the weather seemed warm the North Sea itself could be freezing as I said). That annoyed me once I became an avid swimmer - but I could usually wander off from making sandcastles and burying my brother up to his neck in sand and find some rockpools which were another great thing about the Yorkshire coast and different from those on the channel down South. I could tell you more. The clothing aspect was that my pockets would be full of shells and even little crabs when I returned so I needed to wear shorts with pockets and Mum had to empty them out as usual before we got back into my Grandfather's car. For a real shellfinding expedition or if Mum had made us take off our shorts to keep them reasonable while playing on the beach (we never took our oldest playclothes up to Yorkshire because Gran would not approve of them even for a trip to the seaside). I would steal my litttle brothers bucket and come back with it full of all sorts. Other boys had little fishing nets on canes and you could "fish" in the rockpools. I still have a fossil found at Scarborough way back in the 1960s!"

Separate Holidays

I think this was the last time we went on a seaside holiday as a family as we went on seperate holidays after that – like I went to Germany or my older brother on a school trip while only the younger one went with my mum.

Bill