A postcard from Filey’s happy campers
OUR striking collection of picture postcard images will spark memories for anyone who stayed at a Butlin’s holiday camp.
They were captured at Filey on the North Yorkshire coast between 1965 and 1970 by the noted photographer John Hinde and form part of an archive - the John Hinde Collection - showcasing his extensive body of work.
The camp was a favourite for North East families and countless thousands made the short trip south by coach, train or (if you were lucky) car.
The 10,000-capacity camp at Filey - a former wartime military training base called RAF Hunmanby Moor - opened in 1945.
It had its own dedicated railway station and by the mid-1970s was pulling in up to 175,00 guests every summer.
Butlin’s typified the post-war holiday camp experience, with its fairground rides, amusement arcades, dancing, swimming, cabaret entertainment, knobbly knees competitions, talent contests, beauty pageants and Redcoats (who included future stars such as Benny Hill, Des O’Connor and Sir Cliff Richard).
The Butlin’s brand was launched at Skegness in Lincolnshire in 1936 and by the mid-1960s there were camps - essentially self-contained holiday villages - dotted around the seaside resorts of Britain.
After Skegness came Clacton, Filey, Pwllheli, Ayr, Bognor, Minehead and Barry, as well as Mosney in Ireland.
Children could run wild for a week, enjoying the beach (via an exciting trip on the cable cars at Filey), the arcades, the funfair rides and indoor and outdoor swimming pools - while adults could get dressed up for an evening in the bar or a late-night show.
Full-board catering was provided in en-masse sittings and families would pack into huge, noisy dining rooms to eat.
Fifty years ago, the brand was still doing a roaring trade - but a profound change was coming.
The growing popularity of cheap foreign package breaks and changing tastes and fashions away from the regimented holiday-camp experience would bring about a rapid decline.
Brian Groom, author of the bestselling Northerners: A History, wrote recently: “Travel writer Paul Theroux
visited Minehead in 1982 and saw the deadened unhappiness of a ‘sleazy paradise in which people were treated more or less like animals in a zoo.’
“A redcoat told him half the male guests were unemployed: ‘That is the beauty of Butlin’s — you can pay for it with your dole money.’ Butlin’s fortunes had a habit of reflecting the ups and downs of working-class life.”
Butlin’s at Filey closed its doors in September 1983. There were attempts to resurrect it under a different name and ownership but it shut down for good in 1988, after which the camp stood deserted for many years before it was demolished.
Today the site of the former Butlin’s camp is occupied by two separate organisations - Bay Holiday Village and Primrose Valley Holiday Park.
In 2022 Butlin’s is a re-born holiday brand - with state-of-the-art centres at Bognor Regis, Minehead and Skegness - and much-changed since the old days of knobbly knees and gurning contests.
Thanks to the ‘John Hinde Collection/ John Hinde Archive’ for the use of Butlin’s Filey images.
Check out the the website www. johnhindecollection.com.