A holiday camp is a type of holiday accommodation that encourages holidaymakers to stay within the site boundary, and provides entertainment and facilities for them throughout the day. Since the 1970s, the term has fallen out of favour with terms such as holiday park, resort, holiday village and holiday centre replacing it.
As distinct from
camping
Camping is an outdoor activity involving overnight stays away from home, either without shelter or using basic shelter such as a tent, or a recreational vehicle. Typically, participants leave developed areas to spend time outdoors in more natu ...
, accommodation typically consisted of
chalet
A chalet (pronounced in British English; in American English usually ), also called Swiss chalet, is a type of building or house, typical of the Alpine region in Europe. It is made of wood, with a heavy, gently sloping roof and wide, well-supp ...
s, accommodation buildings arranged individually or in blocks. From the 1960s onward, many camps also added
static caravan
A mobile home (also known as a house trailer, park home, trailer, or trailer home) is a prefabricated structure, built in a factory on a permanently attached chassis before being transported to site (either by being towed or on a trailer). Us ...
accommodation, and today, many static caravans are also termed holiday camps.
History
Cunningham's Young Men's Holiday Camp at
Douglas on the
Isle of Man
)
, anthem = " O Land of Our Birth"
, image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg
, image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg
, mapsize =
, map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe
, map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green)
in Europ ...
is sometimes regarded as the first holiday camp, but it differed from the definition (above), especially as accommodation was still in
tent
A tent () is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over, attached to a frame of poles or a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using ...
s.
Cunningham's was still open by the time
Billy Butlin opened his first camp in 1936 (and still averaged 60,000 campers on a good year).
[ Ward, Hardy 1987, p. 22.]
Opened in 1906 by John Fletcher Dodd, Caister Camp in
Caister-on-Sea,
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nort ...
was one of the first permanent camps under canvas (tents), initially catering for men only, it would later open up to families and advertise itself as "The Oldest Established Camp".
[ Ward, Hardy 1987, p. 31.] By the early 1920s, Caister Camp and others around the country were beginning to include hut-based accommodation.
Inspired by visits to Caister Camp, 'Pa' Potter opened the first holiday camp with all wooden huts and permanent main buildings in 1920 at a site in
Hemsby, Norfolk called
Potters Camp. Potters Camp moved to
Hopton-on-Sea in 1924 and moved again to a seaside location within that village in 1933.
[ Ward, Hardy 1987, pp. 31–34.] Potters Resort, as it is known today, is now the last surviving of those early pioneering family sites that is still privately owned and run by fourth generation John Potter.
In the 1930s, camps took on a larger scale with the establishment of large chains. The first of these was
Warners, founded by Harry Warner who opened his first site on
Hayling Island in 1931, with another three opening before the outbreak of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.
[ Stratton, Trinder 2000, p. 193.] During the early 1930s, Warner asked funfair entrepreneur
Billy Butlin to join the board of his company and, in 1935, Butlin observed the construction of Warner's holiday camp in
Seaton, Devon. Butlin learned from the experience of Warner, and employed the workers who had constructed the Seaton camp to build his first camp under the Butlins name at
Skegness
Skegness ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey District of Lincolnshire, England. On the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, the town is east of Lincoln and north-east of Boston. With a population of 19,579 as of 201 ...
,
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershir ...
in 1936. By the outbreak of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, Butlin had two camps and a third under construction.
[ Butler, Russell 2010, p. 38] By 1939, there were around 200 holiday camps in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, at different seaside locations.
During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, the Cunningham's holiday camp was used as an
internment camp.
With the arrival of World War II, the British government realised they could save money by requisitioning the many holiday camps around the country rather than building purpose-built camps for training, stationing troops, internment, and for housing refugees and workers.
[ Barton 2005, p.185] After the war, most holiday camps in Britain had been damaged by troop occupation; the situation was so bad that questions were raised in Parliament.
The war was not bad for all camp owners. Butlin did a deal with the war minister to sell his unfinished Filey camp and to complete the work at a lower price than the army could complete it. Butlin specified a contractual term to ensure that he could buy his camps back from the war ministry as soon as the war was over.
[ Barton 2010, p. 184] Another person to do well out of the war was
Fred Pontin. During the war, Pontin was the manager of a camp housing steel and sugar beet workers. Taking over the job, Pontin found that the previous manager had been assaulted by the workers over a disagreement about food. Pontin quickly set about improving the conditions of those workers. After the war, Pontin took a loan and purchased a former military camp at
Brean
Brean is a village and civil parish between Weston-super-Mare and Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset, England. The name is derived from "Bryn" Brythonic and Modern Welsh for a hill and it has a population of 635.
Close to the village is Brean Down, a pro ...
,
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lor ...
which he opened as his first holiday-camp. His company
Pontin's was established in 1946.
From the end of the war, through the 1950s and into the mid-1960s, the holiday camp industry thrived. By 1964, Warner had 14 camps across the country,
Butlin opened his 10th camp in 1966, and Pontin had expanded into providing trips to Mediterranean locations in 1963.
[ Stratton, Trinder 2000, p. 194.] Not all ideas took off. Butlin attempted to expand into the Caribbean in the late 1940s, and hoped to expand the market for his camps in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
, but by 1950 the venture was wound up, and Butlin admitted defeat and focused his efforts back in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...
.
Through the 1970s, the market declined as people began to holiday overseas, taking advantage of the new, cheap
package holidays.
[ Ward, Hardy 1987, p. 171.] Pontins was least affected, partly as they were already providing package holidays and partly because their smaller camps meant they had fewer beds to fill.
[ Ward, Hardy 1987, p. 65.] Butlins attempted to diversify into this same market, purchasing smaller camps and caravan parks and marketing them under the Freshfields name.
[ Ward, Hardy 1987, p. 121.]
In the 1980s, many camps were shut down, as holidaymakers increasingly turned to package holidays and individually tailored breaks. The holiday camp was seen as run-of-the-mill or dated.
[ Ward, Hardy 1987, p. 152.] 1983 saw the Butlins camps closed in Filey and Clacton.
[ Ward, Hardy 1987, p. 75.]
Through the 1990s, substantial investment was made in the remaining camps as operators attempted to concentrate their resources. They also attempted to concentrate on specific market sectors.
[ Urry 2002, p. 35.] Butlins substantially rebuilt two of its main camps with a focus on caravan accommodation and branded them under sister company
Haven
Haven or The Haven may refer to:
* Harbor or haven, a sheltered body of water where ships can be docked
Arts and entertainment
Fictional characters
* Haven (Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter), from the novel series
* Haven (comics), from the ''X-Men ...
– Pwllheli becoming Hafan y Mor and Ayr becoming Craig Tara. The number of Pontins camps was reduced to 8 with several sold off or redeveloped for housing estates. Meanwhile, Warner's had experimented with "Adult Only" camps in the 1980s and gone on to develop hotels (usually in historic buildings) providing hotel-type comfort mixed with holiday-camp-style entertainment. The camps have attempted to improve their status by changing away from the holiday camp identity and identifying themselves as holiday centres, resorts, holiday villages, coastal villages, or holiday parks.
[ Holloway, Taylor 2006, p. 294.]
Facilities
Included in the price would be entertainments provided on site. These would include all or some of the following:
*
Ballroom dancing
Ballroom dance is a set of partner dances, which are enjoyed both socially and competitively around the world, mostly because of its performance and entertainment aspects. Ballroom dancing is also widely enjoyed on stage, film, and television.
...
*
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...
*
Funfair
A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks.
Types
Variations of fairs incl ...
*
Table tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...
*
Snooker
Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in Ind ...
/
eight-ball pool
Eight-ball (also spelled 8-ball or eightball, and sometimes called solids and stripes, spots and stripes or rarely highs and lows) is a discipline of pool played on a billiard table with six pockets, cue sticks, and sixteen billiard balls (a ...
*
Cinema
*
Bingo
Most camps were by the seaside but some, like "California in England" near Wokingham, Berkshire were beside a lake and catered for a modest 300 guests. "California in England" also had the only glass-floored ballroom in the country.
There were usually extensive childcare facilities such as a
crèche and various
clubs to keep young children occupied, enabling parents to follow their own pursuits.
In addition, there were usually other facilities for which a fee was charged:
bars,
restaurants
A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearance ...
,
amusement arcade
An amusement arcade (often referred to as a video arcade, amusements or simply arcade) is a venue where people play arcade games, including arcade video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers (such ...
s.
Catering
Holidaymakers would pay a fee for their accommodation and decide whether to go ''full board'' (all meals would also be included in the price), ''half board'' (only the main meal would be included) or ''self-catering'' (no meals provided). At the larger camps, it was not impossible for up to 10,000 people to need to be catered for. These camps would have two sittings for each meal, usually an hour apart. This could mean that a camp would serve over 200,000 meals per week, all cooked on site. In a typical year in the early 1960s, Butlins would cook:
* 3.5 million eggs
* 100 tons (about 100 tonnes) of sausages
* 120,000 gallons (550,000 litres) of soup
* 1,570 tons (1,600 tonnes) of potatoes
* 34 tons (about 35 tonnes) of tea (enough for over 20 million cups)
* 240 tons (244 tonnes) of pork chops (requiring over 8,000 pigs)
Frontline staff
With the growth of caravan parks in the 1970s and 1980s, the entertainment teams adopted more modern names such as the HavenMates or the Fun Stars.
Frontline staff at the competing companies adopted coloured coats to differentiate themselves. Butlins' staff were called
Redcoats, Pontins' were Bluecoats, and Warner's were Greencoats; duties ranged from adult entertainer or children's entertainer to stewarding.
Famous ex-Redcoats
*
Michael Barrymore – comedian, television presenter and entertainer
*
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...
– pop singer, musician and performer
*
Jimmy Tarbuck – comedian and host of ''
Winner Takes All
Winner(s) take(s) (it) all may refer to:
Competition, economics and politics
* Winner-takes-all voting
* Winner-take-all (computing)
* Winner-take-all market
Books Fiction
* ''Winner Takes All'' (novel), a BBC Books Doctor Who novel
* "Winner ...
''
*
Jimmy Perry – co-writer of ''
Dad's Army
''Dad's Army'' is a British television British sitcom, sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard (United Kingdom), Home Guard during the World War II, Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft (TV producer), David Crof ...
'' and ''
Hi-de-Hi!
''Hi-de-Hi!'' is
a BBC television sitcom shown on BBC1 from 1 January 1980 to 30 January 1988.
Set in 1959 and 1960 in Maplins, a fictional holiday camp, the show was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, who also wrote '' Dad's Army'' a ...
'' (a situation comedy set in a holiday camp)
*
Dave Allen – comedian and star of his own 1970s starring vehicle ''
Dave Allen at Large''
*
Ian "H" Watkins
Ian Watkins (born 8 May 1976), known by his stage name as H, is a Welsh singer and actor. He is known as a member of the British pop group Steps. In 2020, he competed in the twelfth series of ''Dancing on Ice''.
Career Steps
In May 1997, Watk ...
- member of the pop group
Steps
Step(s) or STEP may refer to:
Common meanings
* Steps, making a staircase
* Walking
* Dance move
* Military step, or march
** Marching
Arts Films and television
* ''Steps'' (TV series), Hong Kong
* ''Step'' (film), US, 2017
Literature
* ...
*
Ted Rogers – comedian, entertainer and host of ''
3-2-1''
*
Stephen Mulhern – presenter and
game show
A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, ...
host
*
Roy Hudd
Roy Hudd, OBE (16 May 1936 – 15 March 2020) was an English comedian, actor, presenter, radio host, author and authority on the history of music hall entertainment.
Early life
Hudd was born in Croydon on 16 May 1936 to Evalina "Evie" (née ...
– actor, comedian and radio host
Famous ex-Bluecoats
*
Shane Richie
Shane Patrick Paul Roche (born 11 March 1964), known as Shane Richie, is a British actor, comedian, television presenter and singer. Following initial success as a stage and screen performer, he became best known for his portrayal of the chara ...
- actor, comedian and television presenter
*
Brian Conley
Brian Paul Conley (born 7 August 1961) is an English actor, comedian, singer and television presenter. Conley has been the host of ''The Brian Conley Show'', as well as presenting the Royal Variety Performance on eight occasions. In his 40-ye ...
- actor, comedian and television presenter
*
Lee Mack – stand-up comedian, actor and creator/star of the TV sitcom ''
Not Going Out''
*
Dave Benson Phillips - entertainer and children’s TV presenter
*
Bradley Walsh - actor, comedian and television presenter
Famous ex-Greencoats
*
Roger deCoursey – British ventriloquist and stage performer
*
Joe Pasquale – comedian, actor and television presenter
Famous ex-Havenmates
*
Duncan James - Member of boy band Blue.
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Holiday Camp
Resorts by type
Camping in the United Kingdom