JOHN CRAVEN

Growing up in the greyness of post-war Leeds, the highlight of the year was climbing on board a Bedford Duple bus with my family every August and heading for a week on the Yorkshire coast. Our usual destination was Bridlington and though it was only 60 miles away the journey, with a comfort stop outside York, took forever for an excited child longing to see the sea.

After we checked into a boarding house (hotels were not within the means of the Cravens) it was down to the harbour to see the boats and then on to the glorious sandy beach and the welcoming waves. If it was raining, as it often was – no big deal.

The softness of the golden sand, the noise of the seagulls, the novelty of the amusement arcades and ice-cream parlours transported my sister Jean and I to another world in the days before we discovered there was an “abroad”.

Because of Covid-19, today’s generation of once globe-trotting children are staycationing in places like Brid, and the holiday wheel has turned full circle. Best bit of the week for me was a trip out to sea, across Bridlington Bay to Flamborough Head and back, in pleasure boats like the Yorkshire Belle.

In those days, the harbour had a fleet of distinctive, red-sailed wooden fishing boats called cobles. Now it’s “the lobster capital of Europe” but only a handful of the cobles are left.

A couple of years ago,

while filming for

Countryfile, I was allowed to take the tiller of one of them out in the bay – a boyhood dream come true.

Brid was also where, as I mention in my recent memoir Headlines and

Hedgerows, in my midteens I got my first taste for journalism. The singing star David Whitfield was appearing at the Spa Theatre and I hung around the stage door with pencil and paper hoping, with the innocence of youth, to interview him for our church magazine. Luckily, he stepped outside to get some sea air before his performance. There were no fans around except for me and, being a Yorkshireman himself, he said he admired my pluck and as we sat on a bench he treated me as if I was a Fleet Street feature writer.

That was my last family holiday at Brid, and because of David Whitfield I’ll never forget it.

Countryfile: A Picture of Britain, A Stunning Collection of Viewers’ Photography by John Craven and Matt Baker is published on Sept 3 (William Collins, £12.99)