Butlins.

Scottie_uk

Did anyone go to Bulletins in the 70s or 80s as a kid or teen. If so what was it like? I never went to such places as a kid, but have always wondered if I was missing out. I've watched a little on youtube and it looks quite naff and occasionally quite creepy, but that can only be seen though an adults eyes. I bet as a kid it was quite a mystical wonderland of room after room of exiting places to look at and play.

From what I can gather, kids must have loved it.

1024MAK

Yes, both holiday camps and hotels.

First: Minehead holiday camp.

Been twice. First time as a day trip with school. Included a trip on the West Somerset railway on a steam hauled train.

Second time, on holiday with my family.

For me:
During the day, it was great, as many goes on any of the amusement park rides as you wanted.

Or if you were into sports (which I was not) there were various sports games you could play. Even if the weather was bad, there were indoor games. Squash, table tennis, snooker, pool, 10-pin bowling. Maybe others.

There were also the amusement arcade machines, both one arm bandits and of more interest to me, the games machines. Can’t remember what ones there were though. Do remember dad eventually running out of 10p pieces that he could give to me...

There was also a pool. As well as the water fun park. Fun also for me as a spectator, as some of the opposite sex had swimming costumes that went partially see through when wet...

The evening entertainment was, well shall we say, aimed at the younger children. And at the adults. I was not particularly interested.

At night, that’s the bit I did not enjoy. Basic accommodation I could just about cope with, but something brought on an asthma attack. It’s very scary trying to breathe, thinking, is this going to be my last breath. Can’t remember the details. But do remember getting dragged into town, to a chemist (pharmacy) to get an inhaler.

Then after another bad night, mum and dad decided to cut the holiday short, so we went home.

Although a lot have closed, some of the holiday camps / resorts are still open.

Next: the hotels.
Butlins Hotels were at the time we went, a separate company or maybe a separate division. The one we went on holiday to was Saltdean, near Brighton. Along the coast a bit from Brighton. They had day trips. And entertainment in the evening. Much better accommodation than the camps, but no amusement park :(

The rival to Butlins was/is Pontins. There are two Pontins not far from me. One is “Adult Only”. But I have never been to either of them.

Mark

MatGubbins

I was 5 in 1977 and I think that was the first time that my parents took me and my brother to a Butlins. Might've been Skegness or Minehead. I do remember going to Pwllheli (in Wales) and a few times to a non-Butlins camp at Duporth, St Austell (Cornwall) - we liked it there.

This started with the long car journey in the back of the Morris 1800 from Kent to our destination Usually sleeping in the car halfway and arriving mid morning to a huge gated campsite.
The estate was huge, packed with chalets, buildings, a funfare amusments hall, swimming pool and a grocery for sweets/bucket'n'spade/inflatable rafts. The search for the booking hall, grabbing the keys and finding the chalet was a task. Dragging suitcases along dusty tracks or poor concrete pathways was normal. The chalet was usually a mixture of cyan/green/yellow, a small bathroom, a sleeping area and a kitchen sink to prepare a little food.

Each morning began by being woken up at 7am by Fleetwood Mac's Albatross via the loudspeaker/ Tannoy system. Getting washed, dressed and then walk out of the chalet to the massive food hall. Sitting at a long table with all the other guests, the table was covered with a white cloth, food being served by very busy waiters, plates upon plates with dividers inbetween. Bacon, eggs, sausages, bread rolls, little plastic tubs of jam and marmalade, a small portion of butter, metal pots of tea with a teabag inside, a metal jug of milk, weetabix in a plate. The photographer taking group photos at each meal.
After breakfast it was a run around to either the entertainments, free rides on dodgems, sliding down a huge slide upon a huge brown door mat or inside a sack. Unless your parents dragged you out of the enclosure to visit a nearby landmark.
Lunch, again in the food hall, usually beans on toast or something along those lines, then out for more rides or to the local beach to play in the sand.
Evenings were dinner, plates of beef potato and veg, followed by a pudding with custard.
Back to the chalet and get ready for the nightlife, to the bar with a bottle of cola, sitting and playing the latest tabletop Space Invader machine, joining in with dancing and cabaret acts and getting roped in to perform some singing/dancing on stage for a bag of sweets or tokens that could be exchanged for prizes at the bingo hall. Getting tucked up in bed at 9 and ready for the next day.

At the end of the week, the last meal was a huge breakfast, the photographer would give us little red cube keyring things that had our pictures in them. Back to the chalet to collect everything and then to the car.
The drive home was strange, quiet and sleepy. Our arms were sunburnt and red, our Star Wars figures had lost their guns and the box of Lego had a few bits missing.
The memories have faded, but I know we had fun.

dm_boozefreek

I never went there, almost went with a friend of the family when I was about 12, since she had 4 kids, and I was friends with the 2 younger ones, but that kind of fell through. The other time I almost went was that me and a load of friends from school decided that when we left school we'd all club together for a chalet, and go cause some mischief, but that fell through as well, as by the time the last year of school was over we pretty much weren't hanging around with each other any more.

Not sad I didn't go though, there always seemed to be an air of creepy weirdness around places like that, even thought it was a bit off when I was younger, and at an age where I shouldn't have.

mik3d3nch

I wanted to go on my own but my mum painted a lurid picture of me being surrounded by violent yobs and forced to play ball games (which I loathed at school - glasses you see) try running around almost blind its no fun. Actually she was a massive snob, dad would have gone for it, his side of the family was from the East End common as muck and proud of it but mum didn't like them and made sure we never got to get too friendly. They went to Butlins because they told me what a good time they'd had, they ended up emigrating to Canada and doing really well for themselves, I should have had the sense to do likewise but no I had to see Cape Canaveral and Disneyland1

mik3d3nch

I wanted to go on my own but my mum painted a lurid picture of me being surrounded by violent yobs and forced to play ball games (which I loathed at school - glasses you see) try running around almost blind its no fun. Actually she was a massive snob, dad would have gone for it, his side of the family was from the East End common as muck and proud of it but mum didn't like them and made sure we never got to get too friendly. They went to Butlins because they told me what a good time they'd had, they ended up emigrating to Canada and doing really well for themselves, I should have had the sense to do likewise but no I had to see Cape Canaveral and Disneyland!

Spex

Went to the one that used to be in Barry Island as a day visitor. Went swimming and went on a few rides. It was a long time ago.
Went to the one at Bognor Regis in December 2017 for an Electric Dreams weekend. It wasn't for me, the band's were fine, saw The Human League for the first time. It was most of the other visitors who drank from dawn to the small hours, were incapable of having a semi intelligent conversation about anything and the naff dressing up was something else. Maybe I'm a snob. Just thought it a bit pants really. The staff were professional, but despite being told several times to remove my details, a Butlins flyer comes through the door very frequently and goes straight into the bin.
Just not for me.

morph

My Spec-chum used to go in the eighties, and loved it. I know people report grotty accommodation etc. back then, but then most things in the 80s were crap. Remember that these were the days when you could smoke anywhere indoors, and it wasn't thought a bad thing. Theres the JG Ballard book Empire Of The Sun, about a 12 year old kid in a Japanese concentration camp. Amongst the noise and danger, hes loving the freedom and lack of school and rather enjoying himself. I think it was like that.

In the past could of years I've been to both Centerparcs and Butlins with my two year old twins. I much preferred Butlins. Centerparcs just tried to nibble you with micro-payments for each breath you took. Butlins was mostly free once you were through the gates. And the (Platinum) accommodation was lovely.

morph

Spex wrote: »

It was most of the other visitors who drank from dawn to the small hours, were incapable of having a semi intelligent conversation about anything and the naff dressing up was something else. .

Is that a problem with Butlins or just 80s synth-pop fans? I went on the toddlers-only week and had a very different atmosphere, not surprisingly.

morph

.

Vampyre

Went a couple of times. First time to Skeggy in 1977 with the family and neighbours when I was 4 that I recall almost nothing of.

Second time was Barry Island with my primary school in 1985. Had a brilliant time. Couple of things stick out for me:

Table Tennis. It was run by this old guy, must have been in his sixties, who was simply brilliant at the game. It was the first time I've ever witnessed someone who, rather than just being good at something, was approaching professional level of a sport. He played our coach (who'd won several local tournaments and was generally unbeatable) and utterly slaughtered him. The old guy lost one point and only because he hit the net trying a trick shot. It was next-level stuff watching him play.

Secondly we won the inter-school five-a-side football competition (note: our school footie team was rather good - league and cup champions without losing a match the entire season (we only drew once too)). Earlier in the week, during the general activities, we had played against another school on a full-size pitch and lost 5-4 to them. Unfortunately I was the only member of our school team playing as the others were doing other activities. I managed to bag all of our goals but this other school were terrible winners - they gloated and gloated so much so we nick-named them the Swell Heads.

Later that day guess who we faced as the first team in the five-a-side competition... Swell Heads recognised me and proceeded to give us some more big-headed banter. We destroyed them - played them completely off the pitch to the tune of about 8-0 - I'm not sure our keeper even touched the ball. By the end a couple of them were crying and their coach was asking ours for us to let up on them. Did we heck. We won that competition easily and I picked up the player of the tournament. Still have the certificates in the loft somewhere.

Brilliant times. Brilliant memories.

Vampyre

MatGubbins wrote: »

At the end of the week, the last meal was a huge breakfast, the photographer would give us little red cube keyring things that had our pictures in them.

When my grandad died in the mid-noughties we found three of these he'd kept from our time in Skeggy that I've got stored in a draw somewhere. They look like this:

MatGubbins

Vampyre wrote: »

MatGubbins wrote: »

At the end of the week, the last meal was a huge breakfast, the photographer would give us little red cube keyring things that had our pictures in them.

When my grandad died in the mid-noughties we found three of these he'd kept from our time in Skeggy that I've got stored in a draw somewhere. They look like this:

Yep, that's the little buggers, they have a small transparency photo at the white end and the viewer looks through the other end that has a magnify lens in it. Hold it up to the light and the photo is there.
I'm sure my parents have them somewhere.

joefish

Same here. The amusement parks looked fun, as would access to a swimming pool, but the big fence always seemed a little creepy to me when we went past. Stories of regimented wake-up calls, mealtimes, and rows of flimsy huts seemed like a joke lifted from Hi-De-Hi, but I guess really were still going on. I can't say I remember anyone I knew ever saying they'd stayed there.

Although we always went to similar resorts but with a caravan, with even less room for all of us. Later my Grandad bought a much bigger static caravan on the same site at Mablethorpe we used to go to (my Dad's family were from Derbyshire) and we'd stay in that, alternate weeks in the school holidays with my Uncle/cousins. That was luxury in comparison, though you still had to use the site toilet block and freezing showers. The advantage with a caravan was you could leave your holiday stuff in it; we had separate toys for holidays. My Gran did once come up and stay in a site chalet for a few days; it seemed cosy and well equipped (by which I mean it had its own toilet!), but slightly creepy that it was effectively a one-room bedsit with a huge picture window frontage.

We'd spend most days on the beach, with maybe a visit to the funfair in Mablethorpe or Skeggy at the end of a week or two. There would probably be a few more shopping runs or visits to nearby resorts in which we would try and get as much cash off Dad as we could to blow on arcade machines, while my little brothers were dumped in Panda's Palace.

moggy

Probably before most fm's time, this was the thing to join(I still have my badge!).

https://www.flickr.com/photos/23885771@N03/26458254130

I also remember the health and safety nightmare that was the chairlifts and the elevated monorail and the old pig and whistle at Skegness.

Whilst Butlins was played out by the 80's, for us boomers living in a country still suffering the privations of the last war, a weeks holiday for a weeks wage, as the slogan went, was a godsend naff chalets and all.

dm_boozefreek

Now that I think back I never really needed to go to Butlins, because I would've literally lived in the arcade for the whole week. I lived in Newcastle growing up so I had the Spanish City down on the coast at Whitley Bay, about 20 minutes to a half hour on the metro, and I had a massive selection of amusement places stuffed full of all the Double Dragon, Splatterhouse, Bubble Bobble, and Streetfighter a growing boy could ever need.

In summer you'd have the Hoppins on the town moor for a couple of weeks, my mates would go on all the sh*tty fairground rides, and there was always an arcade near to the ride they were on, which I'd prop up while I was waiting on them.

Even had a crappy fairground with a few arcades in Battle Hill in the autumn time, it's a horrible area, but one of my mates literally lived up the hill from where that fairground was, so if he went to his on the weekend we'd walk down from his house, and go there, they'd ride rides, I'd play arcades.

One of my mates girlfriends used to figure skate professionally for a bit, guess what Boozy was doing while his mates were down on the ice, yup he was upstairs in the Ice Rink café playing Ghosts n' Goblins, and Jailbreak :))

joefish

I never saw arcades anywhere other than at seaside resorts. In the sixth form in Kettering there was a fruity den that had one video game cabinet (R-Type then Rygar I think) and the ice rink in Peterborough had a TMNT, Continental Circus (with the dodgy 3D viewer) and a stand-up and overpriced Space Harrier, but as far as I knew that was it for about a 50 mile radius!

Except for the one week a year we had part of a travelling fair on the village green; one main ride like an Orbiter, one or two for kiddies, pistols and ring-toss booths, and a pop-up arcade with mostly old fruities, penny-pushers, and one or two video games. I remember one of the school thugs taking the **** and saying he'd watch me playing I,Robot to see how bad I was, so I wiped his score out with every bonus going (and there are a lot you can pick up if the machine hasn't been switched on for long), even though I only got through the first three or four levels. I think I only ever saw I,Robot, Wonderboy and Splatterhouse on that stand. Didn't ever have much cash though to play for long.

Luny

joefish wrote: »

Same here. The amusement parks looked fun, as would access to a swimming pool, but the big fence always seemed a little creepy to me when we went past. Stories of regimented wake-up calls, mealtimes, and rows of flimsy huts seemed like a joke lifted from Hi-De-Hi, but I guess really were still going on. I can't say I remember anyone I knew ever saying they'd stayed there.

Although we always went to similar resorts but with a caravan, with even less room for all of us. Later my Grandad bought a much bigger static caravan on the same site at Mablethorpe we used to go to (my Dad's family were from Derbyshire) and we'd stay in that, alternate weeks in the school holidays with my Uncle/cousins. That was luxury in comparison, though you still had to use the site toilet block and freezing showers. The advantage with a caravan was you could leave your holiday stuff in it; we had separate toys for holidays. My Gran did once come up and stay in a site chalet for a few days; it seemed cosy and well equipped (by which I mean it had its own toilet!), but slightly creepy that it was effectively a one-room bedsit with a huge picture window frontage.

We'd spend most days on the beach, with maybe a visit to the funfair in Mablethorpe or Skeggy at the end of a week or two. There would probably be a few more shopping runs or visits to nearby resorts in which we would try and get as much cash off Dad as we could to blow on arcade machines, while my little brothers were dumped in Panda's Palace.

Ooh, my Nand and Grandad lived in Maplethorpe during their twilight years. We had some fun times there, my main memory was how windy the beach was, but you could always get the (tractor) train and go for a ride.

Saboteur

Mum, Dad, Me and my little brother went to Skegness, Minehead and Pwllheli and they were some of the best holidays we had. There was always something to do both in the day at night. In fact i'm sure that's why our parents chose it, cos after breakfast, me and me brother were enrolled in everything so nether saw our parents until meal times.

Went to Minehead in the 90's for a stag weekend - a tribute weekend with a stand out performance by Sammy serono ( or some such ) who was the best oriental tom jones impersonator I've ever seen/heard :) I seem to remember watching halleys comet early in the a.m whilst eating toast and drinking the last of our beer supply.

guesser

Best thing in Mablethorpe is/was either the 7¼ inch railway in Queen's Park or the beach front crazy golf where you have to get the ball up and over the Humber Bridge :)
Getting wedged under the bridge in a rowing boat's always a laugh too.

Scottie_uk

I just found something interesting. When the Butlins in Ireland was closed in the mid 80s, it was brought back by a local businessman. He filled one of the rooms with Atari computers and had instructors on hand, how cool us that,

https://brandnewretro.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/mosneysuccess1.jpg
https://brandnewretro.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/mosneysuccess2.jpg

https://brandnewretro.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/mosney1984.jpg

joefish

We actually stayed just south of Mablethorpe, where the road bends inward around the Seacroft park.
As a proper littl'un I remember walking along the sea wall to the boat ramp at Trusthorpe (by that holiday camp of chalets with its multi-coloured fence; not a 12 foot high one like Butlins!). When the high tides came in the waves would hit the side wall of the ramp with a massive thump and go sky-high with the spray. Fantastic to watch. In our family it was known as 'Bolloper Point'! >:D<

(I remember it later bearing the council warning 'NO CYCILING'. Not sure if it helped cut down all the CILING, but I'm sure it helped).

guesser

joefish wrote: »

We actually stayed just south of Mablethorpe, where the road bends inward around the Seacroft park.

In the shadow of the Humber Radio masts? Gone now :(

joefish

I remember those masts, but yes, a little further on. With all the flat fields you could see them from a long way off! I think we'd be coming from Alford then turn right before the town itself to go round and into the far end of Trusthorpe. Wasn't there a big 'Welcome to Mablethorpe' wooden sign at the outskirts?

As you headed south out of Mablethorpe past the big chippy and the row of beach huts on the ridge, first you got to Trusthorpe and the Trusville holiday village, and its multi-coloured fence (not 12ft high like Butlins!) and the little chippy near the sluice gate, then there's another caravan site, then I seem to remember 'St. Peters Radio Holiday Bungalows' painted on the rooves of the buldings under the radio masts. I always assumed it meant you had to book your holidays by radio! What was the hotel called on the edge of that site?

The next big inland bend goes around the Seacroft site, then the higly optimistically named 'Miami Beach', and then I think you're into Sutton-on-Sea.

guesser

The Eagle? that's the only hotel I can think of along there, but that's still in Mablethorpe.

Mablethorpe was only ever a day/evening out for me as we used to stay (and still go back one weekend a year) just south of Sutton at the caravan club site in Sandilands.

Vampyre

Not Butlins, but in 2008 the missus did one of those £10 Sun Holidays to Pontins in Southport. What a shite-hole. The "chalets" were pig-sties; doors missing off cupboards, god-knows-what was growing on and in the cooker and the floor... My youngest was about 1 at the time and still had her dummy. She dropped that under her bed and it stayed there once I'd looked underneath. Stayed one night, came home and showered for an hour.

It's only redeeming feature was that the pub onsite did a decent pint of Guinness. We've done some shite Sun Holidays (Skeggy was awesome though - beautiful site we stayed at) but Southport Pontins needs a bomb dropping on it to improve it.

joefish

Guessing you fly RyanAir too! :)

Might hve been The Eagle hotel. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong. I thought there was a big one somewhere along that Trusthorpe road but having had a look on Google maps, nothing looks as tall as The Eagle.

Did you ever go in that amazing soft-toy shop along from the Co-op? I guess I had to be pretty young to appreciate it so much! A few middle-aged ladies ran it and made everything themselves. They even did custom stuff for my family overnight if you really wanted something in a particular favourite colour. Long time ago I think I had some hand puppets from there - proper hand-made quality stuff. There was also a toy shop round the corner that I suspect used to be a chemist, as it had these big curved windows either side of the door that I've only ever seen on old drug stores - almost like an aquarium - which were great for displaying toys to impressionable kids like me!

dm_boozefreek

RyanAir is terrifying, it's like a plane full of college cafeteria seats, with eastern European girls serving you tap water in equally disturbing blue uniforms that match the plastic seats :O

Still 35 quid flights what can you expect? We only flew them from Newcastle to Dublin back in 2006, but the whole time I was on the plane I was wondering if the back end was going to break off mid flight :))

grey key

Did it ?

Scottie_uk

Vampyre wrote: »

MatGubbins wrote: »

At the end of the week, the last meal was a huge breakfast, the photographer would give us little red cube keyring things that had our pictures in them.

When my grandad died in the mid-noughties we found three of these he'd kept from our time in Skeggy that I've got stored in a draw somewhere. They look like this:

Has anyone received a souvenir from anyone, or brought one for themselves and thought a few years later, I'm so glad I have that?

joefish

No, never from someone else. I had a letter opener a brother bought me from Paris that I used for a while, but it was made of some cheap moulded metal so eventually got bent out of shape. My Mum actually seemed to like accumulating pencils - whether their souvenir status mattered or not I don't know; I think it may have just been a hoarding obsession!

I do like some of the nik-naks I've bought myself over the years, to jog memories more than photographs, but of course something someone else gives you from their holiday has no such meaning. I've bought wooden letter-openers that I've actually used as bookmarks, and a few key-rings with little pictures embedded in resin or suchlike. And cuddly-toy turtles from Zakynthos, where they're protected. Although finding lifelike ones amongst all the bug-eyed psychedlic ones isn't always easy. What is it with Beanie Babies these days anyway? Going by the eyes, they must all be on massive amounts of drugs.

But I remember seeing one of those little red viewers at my Grandad's and not knowing what it was. So I don't know if it was from a Butlins or maybe it was a generic Skeggy souvenir; a picture of the clocktower or something equally dull.