Get ready for the beach! It’s time to head to the seaside.
We’ve dipped into our Archive and come up with a handy list of things to pack for your holiday.
1. Bathing costume (optional)
Optional if you were a man in the 18th century, or a naturist today!
Men originally bathed in the nude, while women wore linen slips that clung to their bodies when wet. Therefore, in the 18th century men and women bathed separately, either on different sections of the beach or at different times during the morning.
2. Beach Tent
Today we have a wide choice of pop-up tents in which to store valuables, keep sand and water at bay from our phones and change our children into their swimming costumes.
By the 1930s many beaches had changing tents to rent, taking the place of bathing machines after World War I.
3. Tea bags
If you own or rent a beach hut, it’s the perfect place to make a cuppa and relax after a hectic morning on the beach.
Beach huts are the modern successor to the bathing machine and originally some may have once been these cumbersome contraptions with their wheels removed.
4. Cricket bat
After a busy morning in the sea, the beach is an ideal place for a bit of football or cricket, the quintessential summer game.
Behind the expectant batsman is the wicket-keeper with young fielders on the boundary and an adult audience.
5. Bucket and spade
No holiday would be complete without a major construction project. And the key to success is a bucket and spade and a willing workforce.
Could any parent resist the temptation to recreate the architecture of Bamburgh Castle?
6. Deckchair
Since the 1890s the deckchair has been an icon of the seaside holiday.
Where better to pose for portraits for a budding young photographer? Smile – you’re on holiday!
7. Sun hat
The well-dressed man on a post-war Blackpool’s beach might stick with his flat cap or be forced to resort to a handkerchief on a hot day.
Today, pack a baseball cap or pick up a kiss me quick hat when you arrive at the seaside.
8. Beach umbrella
Today a large brolly can offer respite from the hot sun. But a parasol was indispensable to Victorian and Edwardian ladies in an era when a suntan suggested outdoor, manual labour rather than affluence and Mediterranean holidays.
9. Model boat
A paddling pool is still the perfect antidote to a crashing sea or a crowded beach.
Pond yachts have appealed to children of all ages and some patient and skilful enthusiasts recreate old battleships and even submarines.
10. Carrots
Hard-working donkeys deserve a treat after a long day’s work.
This obedient line of animals, their jockeys, and one supportive mum have dutifully posed for the portrait without a handler in sight.
So what else do we need? Here’s a few ideas.
Towels
A picnic
A few beers
No traffic on the roads
Sunshine
Warm sea
Perfect!
What are your favourite memories of the beach? Let us know in the comments.
A super and fun list.
❤️ ‘Weston-super-Mare’: 😂😂😂
Blackpool every day each perfect part of it from glories of Winter Gardens the towering ambition of the Tower and the modernity and streamlined beauty of the Pleasure Beach – not withstanding it’s three piers
Thanks for your comment – we love Blackpool too! Here’s another blog about Blackpool that you might like: https://heritagecalling.com/2020/05/14/eight-things-to-know-about-blackpool/
The other essentials were the picnic rug & the windbreak ( which could also protect your modesty when changing g out of the knitted swimming costume) Many happy childhood days spent on the beach at Hunstanton in the ‘50s
Thank you for showing us part of our lives now gone but never forgotten. Sand – it gets everywhere and stays there forever almost. Dont know the southern places but give me the NW and its sand dunes with lots of entertainment too. I just loved my life as a child. wearing crazy hats and soggy bottom swimsuits. My brother was best cos he always dressed in half girlie suits. Kids today would have a fashion crisis if we tried to dress the kids in our clothing then.
Ein wundervoller Beitrag mit herrlichen, nostalgischen Fotos, danke dafür!!!