Notes

British Seaside Holiday
The thing that impressed us most whilst doing the research for this book was not how different holidays in the inter-war years were from today, but how similar. It came as a surprise to understand, for example, that the lender Holiday traffic jam was nothing new. Rows upon rows of vintage cars (of course these were not vintage then, but very ordinary), bumper to bumper, going nowhere were a familiar sight on major routes into almost all of the big seaside towns from the 'thirties onwards. Sunbathing were only available in the 'twenties and that a lot of important holiday fashion accessory, the pair of sunglasses, was common by the 'thirties.

There are differences of course. One man who found his Austin Seven boxed in by other parked cars along Bournemouth's Undercliff Drive, simply picked it up by the back bumper and pulled it out into the road! The main differences are in style, taste and in technology. We do not now like swimming outdoors in the cold - in the 'twenties it had been recommended, even in Winter. No gentleman would go on holiday wearing a striped blazer no lady would think beach pajamas and rubber bathing hats were the height of fashion. The aeroplane and the private car have replaced the train and the motor bus as the principal method of transport to the holiday destination. The main aim of the Summer holiday though, have not changed. Because the Official Guide to Hastings and St Leonards put it in 1925:

"It is our pleasure whenever we take a holiday to provide our moods and our tastes the rein. We feel free through our whole being once we step from the train, and from the moment we leave the station we become truly ourselves and tastes that have needed to be suppressed, and dreams which were limited to golden moments snatched from duty are released. We are resolved to do as we please, and all we ask of the city we have been visiting is that it shall have something for every inclination."

The language is actually period, and you also could read 'plane for train, however the meaning is timeless. We go on holiday to escape our day to day routine. To "give our moods and tastes the rein" to do what we please, not what we have to do.

The annual holiday by the ocean did not, of course, begin in the inter-war years. It can trace its roots dating back to 1626 when Mrs Farrow first discovered a spring at Scarborough. The popular habit of taking spa waters for medicinal purposes was then brought to the seaside. It was only a short step for the doctors of the day to recommend taking seawater and sea bathing. Drinking sea water was thought, conveniently enough for the medical profession and the first boarding house keepers, to cure gout. Bathing in the ocean was an over-all pick-me-up. more info were nude and men and women bathed together. It took nineteenth century prudity, coupled with equally nineteenth century commercialism to introduce the bathing machine.

The inter-war years were the time when an annual holiday was first enjoyed by many people. Prior to the First World War, it was little more when compared to a dream or perhaps a once in an eternity experience for many. It had been in accordance with J A R Pimlott, among the first historians of the British seaside holiday, "... overlooked as a luxury which could be enjoyed at a particular degree of income, but which there was no special hardship in not having". By the end of the 'thirties, the annual holiday was the norm for fifteen million people. The true breakthrough came in 1938 once the "Holidays with Pay Act" became law. All industrial workers were eligible for at least one week's paid holiday a year. Although this seems comprehensive, there have been still some groups excluded from the legislation - farm workers, domestic servants and shop workers, for example.

It could then seem that only right by the end the 'thirties were holidays enjoyed by people in large numbers. This was not the case. By enough time the legislation came in force many trade unions had negotiated private handles employers for annual holidays. Many more could take unpaid leave. In the Lancashire cotton towns as early as the eighteen eighties, workers received a week off unpaid whilst the mill machinery was serviced. A lot of them managed to visit the seaside for the reason that week. In 1935, the authors of "The Survey of London Life and Labour" remarked that "An annual summer holiday is today taken for granted by way of a large and increasing amount of Londoners". Unfortunately you can find few statistics to back up anecdotal evidence about numbers before 1938, but the feeling of a gradual increase in the numbers taking holidays throughout the whole of the inter-war period is given.

The inter-war period was the time in which many of the basic elements of today's lifestyle became a reality for the first time for significant numbers of people. Although the two decades are coloured by the depression and unprecedented levels of unemployment, for many individuals the 'twenties and specially the 'thirties gave them their first taste of affluence. This was a period of great contrasts. For millions of people working in what exactly are known as the old staple industries of coal mining, shipbuilding, steel, and cotton it had been a period of great misery. The other side of the 'thirties coin, however, was the booming light manufacturing sector based around London and the Midlands. For all those in secure jobs in the new industries of automobile manufacture, electricity and electrical goods and the service sector, life was becoming better. Contrary to the backdrop of the Depression were the beginnings of the prosperity which was only to come to full fruition in the post-war years. Indeed for those with the skills to work in the brand new industries, life was pretty good by pre-First World War standards. A great deal of what we now take for granted was available, for the very first time, to those not exclusively drawn from the wealthy in society.

Private car ownership increased dramatically. In 1914 there have been only 140,000 automobiles of all types on the roads. By 1930, there were 1.5 million and by 1939, 3 million, 2 million of which were private cars. This was still only a fraction of the amounts of today, but a least it had been a significant part of the right direction.

Home ownership showed a far more dramatic increase. Before the First World War even probably the most wealthy amongst the middle classes still rented homes. Property ownership was still concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority of wealthy landowners. Between 1920 and 1939, 2.5 million new homes were built for private sale and a further 1.5 million for council tenants. By the finish of the 'thirties a basic semi-detached house could be bought for 450 pounds - little more than double the cost of a fresh car. With mortgages as low as 4.5%, it isn't surprising that many folks from the professions, the low management grades and the skilled working classes took the chance to become property owners. At no other time in our history was housing so affordable as in this the initial housing boom fifty years prior to the nineteen eighties.

A lot of the new homes would have been wired for electricity, but at the beginning of the period (1920) only 1 in seventeen was. By 1930, it was one in three and by 1939 two in three. And also lighting, electricity could possibly be used to power a bunch of new consumer goods such as for example radios, gramophones, vacuum cleaners, washing machines and electric irons. Indeed by the finish of the 'thirties a lot of the electrical goods that people use today could be bought in a few form. Some such as for example television, were still only for the wealthy.

One of these new products, the radio, had far reaching effects on society itself. No more were rural communities totally separate and insular. The latest news and sports like the FA Cup final or tennis from Wimbledon could be heard in even probably the most remote village. You didn't even have to have electricity, a crystal set would do. Life in Britain had changed forever.

To learn more about Sun, Sea and Sand and the fantastic British Seaside Holiday head to http://www.seasidehistory.co.uk
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