Figure 1.-- Here we see a working-class family vacationing in Skegness, a Northsea beach resort town in Lincolnshire. The snapshot was taken Seotember 14, 1948.

The 1940s was dominated by World War II. Unlike World War I, beaches were closed off during World War II as a German invasion for time was threatened after the fall of France. Barbed wire was laid down and some of the beaches were even mined. It was a time of deprivation. No one went hungary, but the War required severe rationing. The trains were largly devoted to the military and war economy. For a time it looked like Britin might not survive. Briain survived and with America won the War, but the economy was badly damaged. Unlike other countrues, war-time rationing would continue into the 1950s. There was not much vacatoning. But with the end of the War, the beaches were open and vacationers began to return to the English beach resorts. Unlike in America and the Continent, however, there was no econimic miracle in Britain after the War. The British voted in a Labour Government (1945). Labour unlike America had little interest in taking the new technologies and building prosperous new industries. Rather the new prime-minister, Clemet Atlee, set out to build a socialist wonderland. Unsurprisingly, it did not work. So while there was an effort to return to normal, the recovery and prosperous economy that began to appear on the Continent did not appear in Britain. All of this, however, of course affected spending including vacationing. Vactoning for mot Brits was still limited to Britain. Travel avroad was limyed by restricgtions on orchasing forign currency. Continental beaches were still limited for the well-to-do.

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Created: 1:17 AM 7/10/2024
Last updated: 1:17 AM 7/10/2024