In search of paradise
that first week’s holiday, 174 were found to have lost their fathers in the war.
A certain Canon Peter Green, in a letter to the Manchester Guardian, we believe in the early 1920s, regarding the Birkdale Summer Camp, wrote: “If I am mistaken about the educational value of a visit to this camp (and I don’t think I am), and if a week or a fortnight is too short to have much physical value, one thing is certain, and that is the unadulterated delight and happiness of the children there.”
The camp took both resident and non-resident children.
And its importance to the children of Manchester cannot be underestimated.
To boys who had never seen open space it was an eye-opener.
For it was the first time they had dipped their toes into the sea, played games on the wide spacious beaches and most importantly had three square meals a day.
Even as conditions in the slum areas improved, the camp still proved popular. The annual report of 1922 quotes the words of a mother whose child had been to camp: “I can never thank you sufficiently for what you have done for my boy. When he arrived home he ran into the house, threw his arms round my neck and kissed me. It is years since he kissed me.”
The Birkdale Summer Camp was open between May and September and at its peak gave about 150 children a week a holiday by the sea.
While there, they were taken out for rambles on the sand hills and shore, taken to swim in the sea and played games on the beach, including cricket and football.
During the week, however, they were at all times under strict discipline.
We are working towards publishing a booklet to provide the full facts and details about the Birkdale Summer Camp which, when pieced together, will hopefully prove to be a fascinating, informative and interesting insight into the work of the trust – old and new – and why it was so important, illustrated, of course, with some wonderful and rare photographs.
If anyone has any information or illustrations they can add, please contact us at southporthistory@ gmail.com.
Thank you.
We have received half a dozen pages from a little diary written by a 12-year-old boy who attended the Birkdale Summer Camp, possibly in the 1920s, so we will take a closer look of what life was like at the camp next week.