“Come .... where the sun shines longer” .............. down at the holiday camp

Now we never went to holiday camps which had nothing to do with my parents being sniffy.

It was just that Dad worked in the tourist trade driving people across Europe on sight seeing tours and was away from Easter till September.

And given that there were five of us I rather think mum never fancied taking us all away to a holiday camp.

That said my mate Jimmy always went every year with his mum, dad and brother Fred and always came back sun tanned with heaps of stories about the entertainments, the food and the sheer fun of the place.

They usually went to Butlins, and I think preferred Margate.

The first holiday camps had started up before the Great War but the real growth was during the 1930s and in the years after the Second World War.

The big players were Warner, Butlins and Pontins who played to their strengths offering an all in holiday which was affordable with no hidden charges.

But with the development of cheap foreign packages in the sun the traditional British holiday became less attractive and many were closed.

And last week my friend Andy showed me this brochure from Campers Ltd which family regularly visited

They had three camp sites, one in Kent a second on the Isle of Wight and a third in Norfolk.

I am hoping that this will be the first of a series and that subsequent posts will include memories and descriptions of all the camps.

Location; 1950s and 60s





Pictures pages from “Come .... where the sun shines longer,” Campers Ltd Brochure, circa 1960, from the collection of Andy Robertson