Testing the waters

• Sir Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Williams are (or were) two of Britain’s most famous beach-hut owners

• Britain’s most expensive hut, on Mudeford sandbank, Dorset, sold for £295,000 in 2018

• On beaches such as Hove, East Sussex, there are severe restrictions concerning what colour you can paint your hut

• The last portable bathing machine operated at Aldeburgh, Suffolk, in 1938

• For medical purposes, it was believed, in the 18th century, that the right dose was three total immersions in the sea