Seaside holidays

I loved the winter gardens in Great Yarmouth when I was a kid Mick my dad would let me have a lemon and lime and I felt so sophisticated.

Only trouble was I was always terribly travel sick. My parents didn't drive and the coach from Tyneside took for ever.

We didn’t have many seaside holidays as a child but I can’t remember liking the seaside very much when we did go. In large northern towns, holidays were taken in “works weeks” and everyone converged en masse on places like Bridlington, Cleethorpes, Scarborough, Blackpool and Morecambe. And then much later, I discovered the West Country and West Wales and fell in love with the seaside all over again. I think the problem was I read too many Famous Five books as a child! These days we love the smaller east coast resorts like Filey, Robin Hood’s Bay and Whitby, but they didn’t figure on the agenda during my childhood!

We didn't have many seaside holidays but I remember a week at Sheringham in 1957 when I was seven. It was the first week of September and autumn had started early; every day but one was overcast and often rainy and there seemed to be a perpetual NE wind blowing.

Every day, my sister and I would be taken to the beach where we'd huddle miserably, making sand castles and wearing woolly cardigans over our swimming costumes. (Remember those odd cozzies made of a sort of ruched material which filled with water when you got them wet?). Our parents would watch us from deck chairs while wearing their coats and, for lunch, our hotel supplied a daily picnic of scrawny white bread sandwiches and an apple. Try as we might, we always seemed to end up with sand in the sandwiches.

We had no money and no car so we were trapped in Sheringham, whose delights we exhausted fairly quickly. I couldn't wait to go home and back to school! After that great success, I don't recall that there ever was another family seaside holiday, only days out by the sea from time to time.

I remember those swimsuits. Goodness knows why they were made of that odd fabric!

Every day was/is a seaside holiday for me. I still live in the coastal town where I grew up.
As a child my best friend and neighbour and I would spend most of our summer days on the pebble beach, taking a packed lunch and swimming in the sea.
We never went away on holiday until I was 11. The family would have days out by train to Margate and Ramsgate where my brother would dig huge holes in the sand and mum would sit all day in the deck chair whilst dad and I swam. We'd have 99 cornets and bring home rock.
Aaahhh happy days.

I remember them too Jane10, I think every little girl had one!

Better than my brothers strange knitted one though! Very saggy when wet. ?

I literally live 30 seconds from the sea and I love it I often go to watch the sun rise I rarely feel right when I m not by the beautiful beach and sea we really do have miles of silver sands

I have very few child hood photos of me but there is one of me aged about 7 wearing such a cossie.

You lucky people. I never had a holiday as a child. Didn't see the sea until I was 15 and a friend's family took me. Been to lots of lovely places as an adult though.

Every year we went to visit our GPS on the SW coast of Scotland, for the whole of the summer. The beaches were all natural and wild with no commercialism. Often we were the only people there.
I think it’s where I got my love of wild flowers, insects, birds and shore walking from.
It was six weeks of delight after spending the rest of the year at school in Inner London.

We still have an old fashioned uk beach holiday!!

We’ve just come back from one Riggie, it was lovely

For days out from London we went to Walton on the Naze, I remember running round the beach huts and going to the fair. In the holidays we went to Pendine, Tenby and Aberaeron and enjoyed soft ice creams and boat trips.

Would that these places never changed. Sara65 Exmouth seafront has undergone lots of regeneration recently and has smartened itself up. Sadly, however, the swans have gone, so has Jungle Fun and the model railway. Now there's a glassy Premier Inn, bowling, indoor soft play and lots of eating places.

Visitors to seaside resorts these days must spend s fortune on activities and food, whereas we always took picnics, and a bucket and spade provided us with hours of fun.

Oh yes, the ruched swimsuits. Mine was blue, though presumably I had others. Ot maybe the ruching meant it fitted me from the age of two to the age of twelve! I recall taking it off at home and small pebbles & gravel falling out of the little pouchy bits of the fabric.

Ellis next

Oh no! Can’t believe the swans have gone!
Just shows, it must be longer than I thought

I know what you mean about expense, we were recently in Swanage with our grandchildren , and they spotted a fair, twenty pounds was gone in ten minutes.

I used to like Exmouth because everything seemed a bit faded and dated, but I guess they have to move with the times

Ellianne, sorry

We used to go to Mablethorpe or Sutton on Sea along with most of Derby. I loved fish and chips from newspaper but mum thought that was really common so we had to have them back at the holiday bungalow on proper plates.

When the children were little we went to Woolacombe every year and then touring Europe on routes devised by dh but with hotels and campsites booked through Canvas holidays. One memorable time we had booked a cot for DD2 but, when we got there, they didnt have one so she slept in the bath with all the pillows and blankets we could muster. She cant remember it as she was only 1 but still complains about her miserable childhood - having to sleep in a bath!

Luckygirl we live just along the coast from Southend and go to Rossi's nearly every Sunday for breakfast. Love their ice cream.
We look out across the sea from our second floor flat, very tranquil most of the time. My husband wouldn't live anywhere other than by the sea.

I lived by the sea for many years of my life and really miss it now. Love it in the autumn and winter when there are no visitors and its blowing a hooley.
Sadly now a lot of seaside resorts have become run down and shabby.

I was brought up by the seaside and often went swimming with friends after school. I love going back there for a visit but I now prefer the countryside and its wildlife and there's plenty of that where we live now so I don't miss the sea as I once did.

I am struggling with all these wonderful posts - it is completely impossible for me to explain how very much I miss the sea.

Ellianne - I know what you mean about Exmouth - it has changed so much. It had a innocence and charm that is now gone. I had my wedding reception in one of the terraced hotels at the top of the bay. When we went there a few years ago we went out on a boat trip and saw the esplanade from the sea - that Premier Inn and bowling etc is a complete eyesore - I could have wept.

Sar53 - give my love to Southend! We lived near Leigh-on-Sea and used to bike to the cockle sheds.

It's so lovely to read all of your memories. I forgot fish and chips in newspaper! That was a highlight!! I wish I lived by the sea, but I suppose it makes it extra special to visit on holiday.

I had a marvellous childhood and adolescence. We lived only a few hundred yards from a beautiful beach, hardly ever cluttered up with holiday-makers. I'd walk the dog after school and, in summer, go swimming with my friends. The next town had a large tidal swimming pool where we sometimes went after school to swim and sunbathe. It was always sunny on the Firth of Clyde, wasn't it?
When the holidays came, we stayed with Granny in Fife, about 12 miles from St Andrews which has lovely beaches with sand dunes where we could shelter from the North Sea breezes. Most afternoons, when Granny had her afternoon nap, we went to the West Sands and swam, dodging the breakers. No visit to St A was complete without a cornet from Janettas - still a famous ice cream parlour to this day.
When we moved to central Scotland, we were far from the sea which was hard on my mother who had lived all of her life bin the town were I grew up. It wasn't a problem for me - I went to St Andrews Uni.

Polzeath North Cornwall. Wooden seated bus from Delabole. Take pasties my aunt had cooked. Hired wooden surfboards and built big sandcastles that we would stand on as the tide came in.

Beach always reasonably empty and always able to sit in our spot. Tin tray of tea from the beach cafe. Ice cream from the van on the beach Kelly’s of course and back then we had a dollop of clotted cream on top. Glorious days.