lindatee2002
Virginia USA
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1 of 16
Fri 14th Feb 2025 2:12pm
I saw a wonderful UK program on the tv this week call Britain By Beach. The first one was about Wales and how ordinary families, particularly from the Midlands and the Liverpool and Manchester areas started to go to Wales by train and charabanc. Rhyl was a popular destination. First they camped and then they went to camps where the tents were already set up and then came the Holiday Camps and there was an aerial view of the Coventry Co-op's Holiday Camp. Beach holidays up until then were for the rich and the upper middle class so I'm sure this was a game changer. Does anyone have any family lore or memories about this?
The second program in the series was about Kent, where my Dad was stationed in the Marines during the war. We spent several holidays there, the most memorable were a couple we spent at a holiday camp on the Isle of Sheppy. It might as well have been the Isle of Capri as far as we were concerned. Two bedrooms and a bathroom plus a swimming pool and lovely weather. It was a very long drive- a wagon train with two other carfulls of family members which had regular breakdowns and flat tyres but oh, the memories.
I also remember a week at a Butlin's camp where my Dad won a fancy dress competition when he went as Carmen Miranda!
I'm sure lots of our members remember going to these places with their families.
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Memories and Nostalgia -
Summer Holidays and Holiday Camps
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Annewiggy
Tamworth
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2 of 16
Fri 14th Feb 2025 4:44pm
Hi Lindatee. We spent many years in Rhyl at Sunnyvale Holiday Camp which was close to Rhyl centre but we had to go via the road because of the river. The first time we went we stayed in a caravan that Mum and Dads friend owned. Not a nice big static one like today but a 4 berth touring van, only there was 5 of us. My baby brother had to sleep in an upturned drawer between the two single beds. The following year they had swapped the caravan for a chalet but that was not very big either. But we had a good time we were by the sea. Mum and Dad liked Rhyl and they still went later in life but would stay in a boarding house then. We did not have to go in the Coventry holiday fortnight as dad could have later weeks off which usually meant I missed the first week of school which I hated. Not because I liked school but because I was not there when the new timetables were handed out and I did not know where to go !
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Memories and Nostalgia -
Summer Holidays and Holiday Camps
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PhiliPamInCoventry
Holbrooks
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3 of 16
Fri 14th Feb 2025 4:54pm
Hello & thank you both.
I'm loving this conversation.
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Memories and Nostalgia -
Summer Holidays and Holiday Camps
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Annewiggy
Tamworth
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4 of 16
Fri 14th Feb 2025 7:30pm
Just looked, Sunnyvale is still, looks a but more upmarket. We were not so hard to please then.
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Memories and Nostalgia -
Summer Holidays and Holiday Camps
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Mick Strong
Coventry
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5 of 16
Fri 14th Feb 2025 7:58pm
On 14th Feb 2025 2:12pm, lindatee2002 said:
I saw a wonderful UK program on the tv this week call Britain By Beach. The first one was about Wales and how ordinary families, particularly from the Midlands and the Liverpool and Manchester areas started to go to Wales by train and charabanc. Rhyl was a popular destination. First they camped and then they went to camps where the tents were already set up and then came the Holiday Camps and there was an aerial view of the Coventry Co-op's Holiday Camp. Beach holidays up until then were for the rich and the upper middle class so I'm sure this was a game changer. Does anyone have any family lore or memories about this?
The second program in the series was about Kent, where my Dad was stationed in the Marines during the war. We spent several holidays there, the most memorable were a couple we spent at a holiday camp on the Isle of Sheppy. It might as well have been the Isle of Capri as far as we were concerned. Two bedrooms and a bathroom plus a swimming pool and lovely weather. It was a very long drive- a wagon train with two other carfulls of family members which had regular breakdowns and flat tyres but oh, the memories.
I also remember a week at a Butlin's camp where my Dad won a fancy dress competition when he went as Carmen Miranda!
I'm sure lots of our members remember going to these places with their families.
As a youngster, mum and dad took us for a week's holiday to the Co-Op holiday camp in Rhyl for 5 or 6 years on the trot. Mum used to save her divi to pay towards it.
Up until I left home at 21, we never holidayed abroad. The year after I left, mum and dad went to Malta!!! |
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Memories and Nostalgia -
Summer Holidays and Holiday Camps
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JohnnieWalker
Sanctuary Point, Australia
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6 of 16
Fri 14th Feb 2025 8:08pm
I also remember a holiday at Rhyll with my parents, grandparents and my younger sister. I can date it as 1960, when I was 12, because the Everly Brothers' "Cathy's Clown" was top of the pops at the time. Our room cleaner at the guest house was a young Cornish girl called Cathy, and I rather fancied her! She always greeted us with "Maarnin arll!" On that holiday, we had driven up in grandad's Morris 8, and decided to give him a rest from driving, and we booked a mystery tour.
It actually didn't take us long to solve the mystery, as the route taken by the bus retraced our drive from Coventry - the "mystery" destination was the new Coventry Cathedral! As we had already "done" the tour of the Cathedral more than once, when the coach got there, we just walked down to Pool Meadow, got on a number 4 to Wyken, had a cuppa at home and rejoined the tour later!
True Blue Coventry Kid 
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Memories and Nostalgia -
Summer Holidays and Holiday Camps
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lindatee2002
Virginia USA
Thread starter
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7 of 16
Sat 15th Feb 2025 3:39am
I'm loving these responses. My parents took us all mostly southern England as my dad didn't want to go up north 'as it was cold up there.' I only went to Scotland for the first time about 5 years ago and I loved it. Oddly enough, my parents' first trip abroad was to Malta where my Dad had been stationed in the latter part of the war. My husband's grandma was born in Malta and met his grandad while he was stationed in Egypt towards the end of WWI so my Dad saw that as a good excuse to go back so that he could meet some of that family.
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Memories and Nostalgia -
Summer Holidays and Holiday Camps
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belushi
coventry
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8 of 16
Sat 15th Feb 2025 12:14pm
On 14th Feb 2025 8:08pm, JohnnieWalker said:
I also remember a holiday at Rhyll with my parents, grandparents and my younger sister. I can date it as 1960, when I was 12, because the Everly Brothers' "Cathy's Clown" was top of the pops at the time. Our room cleaner at the guest house was a young Cornish girl called Cathy, and I rather fancied her! She always greeted us with "Maarnin arll!" On that holiday, we had driven up in grandad's Morris 8, and decided to give him a rest from driving, and we booked a mystery tour.
It actually didn't take us long to solve the mystery, as the route taken by the bus retraced our drive from Coventry - the "mystery" destination was the new Coventry Cathedral! As we had already "done" the tour of the Cathedral more than once, when the coach got there, we just walked down to Pool Meadow, got on a number 4 to Wyken, had a cuppa at home and rejoined the tour later!
Interesting read Johnnie, but the Cathedral wasn't consecrated until May 1962 - was it open in 1960? |
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Memories and Nostalgia -
Summer Holidays and Holiday Camps
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Helen F
Warrington
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9 of 16
Sat 15th Feb 2025 1:03pm
We never went to a camp as such, since none of us was into camp entertainments but we spent a number of holidays in Barmouth in a static caravan. I can't really say that they were summer holidays though, since Dad resented the summer prices and his summers were usually tied up with power station plant overhauls. Our summer vacation was at the half term, some time in May in the chilly 60s and early 70s, with us all in duffle coats and Aran sweaters looking perished. When we weren't shivering on the beach, we'd be up in the Welsh hills in the rain, looking at chinks in the clouds, anywhere but where we'd parked. Despite all that, it was fun but too quickly we moved onto Scottish ancestor hunting trips with visits to real castles rather than sand ones. I was too young to appreciate them but I grew up to see what Mum and Dad saw in old buildings. To compensate we did regularly visit my Grandparents in Cumbria who lived in an old house in a quiet village. There was a large green and a river, so not a bad alternative to a seaside holiday. Many the holiday heard the cry 'he's fallen in the water!' as my brother always pushed his luck... and I swear he was never pushed by his little sister. Maybe just the once, but he was asking for it.
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Memories and Nostalgia -
Summer Holidays and Holiday Camps
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PhiliPamInCoventry
Holbrooks
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10 of 16
Sat 15th Feb 2025 3:16pm
Hello,
It's odd how opposites attract.
I never went to a holiday camp for a summer holiday, but the farming community that I'm related to in Cornwall, always did every year.
They liked not having to think about anything, such a break from their in effect DIY working lifestyles.
The nearest Pam & I came ever to package holidays was Shearings in our earlier retirement time.
My uncle was part of Cornwall Farmers Cooperative. They organised everything including the travelling, even collecting the cases prior to travelling, as well as farm security & anything necessary.
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Memories and Nostalgia -
Summer Holidays and Holiday Camps
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Mick Strong
Coventry
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11 of 16
Sat 15th Feb 2025 4:28pm
Thinking about it, was the Co-Op camp in Towyn not Rhyl?
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Memories and Nostalgia -
Summer Holidays and Holiday Camps
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Dreamtime
Perth Western Australia
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12 of 16
Sat 15th Feb 2025 5:29pm
Believe this or not but its absolutely true. On arriving at Prestatyn holiday camp with a work friend of mine and her parents via a special bus from Pool Meadow I desperately 'needed to go' - if you get my drift. I stepped off the bus and saw the sign Lad..... but it was partly shielded by bushes so I went straight in and to my horror it turned out to be 'Lads'. Needless to say I soon found out my mistake and ran out to the Ladies (Lassies) round the other side. I suppose it worked for some - Lads and Lassies. I didn't like having 'second sitting' for breakfast every morning. However, it was my first taste if rock melon. I was seventeen at the time and my friend never did let me forget it.
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Summer Holidays and Holiday Camps
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Mike59
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13 of 16
Sat 15th Feb 2025 5:49pm
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JohnnieWalker
Sanctuary Point, Australia
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14 of 16
Sat 15th Feb 2025 7:51pm
To be honest, Belushi, I can't remember how "complete" it was when we did the guided tours! I'm quite certain of Cathy's Clown being top of the pops - Wiki says it was released in 1960 so - unless it took 2 years to reach the top in the UK - .................?
True Blue Coventry Kid
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Memories and Nostalgia -
Summer Holidays and Holiday Camps
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lindatee2002
Virginia USA
Thread starter
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15 of 16
Sun 16th Feb 2025 3:55am
On 15th Feb 2025 4:28pm, Mick Strong said:
Thinking about it, was the Co-Op camp in Towyn not Rhyl?
I think Rhyll was painted on the roof. |
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Memories and Nostalgia -
Summer Holidays and Holiday Camps
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