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The film I have chosen is ‘Caravan and Boating Holiday, Devon’ from 1957. The film is a really entertaining clip and shows a rather large family partaking in a number of holiday pastimes. We see a number of activities being undertaken, each in different locations. Whilst at the beach, the children are seen playing in the sea learning how to swim and jumping over waves. Whilst the children are playing, we see the adults lounging on the pebbly beach doing a variety of different activities. Some of the women can be seen knitting and preparing food whilst the men read, entertain the children and smoke cigarettes. Occasionally, we see some adults in the sea too, with one woman throwing sand towards the camera and another adult male helping a child onto an inflatable. We also see the family partake in a boat ride with the children taking it in turns to steer the boat. Whilst in the boat, we see children peering over the side, a young man fishing, and an elderly gentleman sat towards the front of the boat watching the children steer. We also see a number of shots of caravans, seeing the view from the outside and also women preparing food inside. We really do get a sense of the whole family being there when we see that there are two dogs on the holiday too. These dogs can be seen both laying on the beach and jumping in the shallow water. We also see picturesque landscapes of both the coastline and of a local farm. We also see the playful side to a number of people in the film with one man having his hair put into bobbles and another male with something up his top which simulates him having breasts. Throughout the film, we really do get the sense that they are enjoying themselves. The duration of the film is filled with smiling faces and people clearly having a great holiday. The entire film is shot by a family member on a hand-held camera, this allows the person filming to take the camera everywhere the family goes. The main reason this footage has been filmed is to allow the family to relive their holiday in the future. Because there is such a wide variety of footage, the family through watching this footage can reminisce about their time on holiday and remember all of the enjoyable things they got up to.
The film I have chosen is significant due to the fact it shows a typical British 1950s holiday. It is important to remember that people in Britain during the 1950s very rarely holiday abroad and instead stayed in the United Kingdom, usually visiting one of her many coastal towns. In the twentieth century, Britain and England in particular had a system of coastal resorts that was unmatched anywhere else in the world, this is due to the vast amount of coastline the United Kingdom has.[1] The increase in disposable income for the middle class and upper working class meant that more and more people were able to enjoy Britain’s coasts. This was made even easier by the strong network of railways across Britain.[2] Commuting holidaymakers helped resorts such as Brighton, Southend, Blackpool and Bournemouth become enjoyable and easily accessible places to holiday.[3] The fact that the family in the film visit Devon is evidence of the fact the caravan holiday was becoming increasingly popular. In 1949, there were only 1037 caravans in Devon, this number however was to multiply tenfold over the next nine years and the county was to experience a great camping and caravan boom.[4] Caravanning holidays were so popular due to the freedom they offered, holidaymakers could choose from a variety of sites and could determine where they would stay depending on what activities they wanted to. The family in the film can be seen at the beach, this was the most popular thing to do whilst on holiday in Britain. The beach was so popular due to the variety of activities that could be undertaken, time could be spent actively walking, digging or playing games or spent reading and chatting.[5] There are so many things engrained in British culture that we associate with the beach: donkeys and deckchairs, rock pools and sand castles, Punch and Judy as well as buckets and spades.[6] Holidaying in Britain also stimulated the economy, it created a great amount of jobs in seaside towns and generated revenue through people paying for accommodation, food, drink and gifts.[7] A study into nostalgia about British holidays by David Jarratt and Sean Gammon found that people were nostalgic about the simplicity of their holidays as children; holidays were much more simple and modest yet were still very happy.[8]
The two other primary sources I have chosen are both clips that show coach trips to the seaside from the North of England.
These clips show what holidaying in Britain was like for those who were not able to afford overnight stays in a resort. Both videos show working and middle-class people boarding buses in an urban setting smiling in anticipation of the day ahead. What is interesting about these two clips is they don’t include many young children, instead the clip shows couples and groups of friends ranging from teenagers to the elderly. A coach trip to the seaside takes a lot less preparation which means the younger generation can enjoy a day at the seaside at a relatively low cost and without their parents. The coach was at the core of the imagery of the seaside day-trip and was associated with freedom, camaraderie and endless amounts of brown ale.[9] What is so appealing about coach trips is the fact the holiday begins once you set foot on the bus, the journey full of pub stops was sure to be fun and enjoyable and added to the excitement.
[1] John Walton, The British Seaside (Manchester, 2000), 27.
[2] Walton, Seaside, 27.
[3] John Walton, ‘The seaside resorts of England and Wales, 1900-1950’, in Gareth Shaw and Allan Williams (eds.), The Rise and Fall of British Coastal Resorts (London, 1997), 21-48 (39-40).
[4] Walton, ‘Seaside’, 35.
[5] Kathryn Ferry, The British Seaside Holiday (Oxford, 2009), 77.
[6] Ferry, Seaside Holiday, 77.
[7] Jeffrey Hill, Leisure and Culture in Twentieth Century Britain (Basingstoke, 2002), 77.
[8] David Jarratt and Sean Gammon, ‘Seaside Nostalgia at British Resorts’, Tourism Recreation Research 41:2 (2016), 123-133 (129).
[9] Walton, Seaside, 78.
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