.jpg)
Say what you like about there being no Butlins anywhere near Nottingham, we all know that Skegness is closer to the heart of this city than, say, West Bridgford (which technically isn't either, being under the jurisdiction of Rushcliffe rather than Nottingham, if we're going to be picky about it). So with its Nottingham bona fides established, why did Skeggy get itself a reputation as the coastal outpost of a city as far from the sea as anywhere in England?
Obviously, there’s a long and detailed social history involving Victorian railway networks and the beginnings of union-won holiday time for workers that we could go into, but won’t. Suffice to say that by the end of the Second World War, heading off to the Lincolnshire coastline for a week every summer to sit in a damp caravan or chalet was a well established local tradition.
In the mid-fifties, when this full page advert was circulated, this vision of people who spent most of their year behind machines and desks in local factories joyously making the most of that very rarest of British combinations – namely time off work and decent weather, at the same time – was being sold as an attainable goal for everyone. We’d put good money on the fact that three minutes after this picturesque moment was painted, it started barrelling down again and everyone retreated to their chalets to find towels… but it's the thought that counts.
It’s also relatively well known that conditions at Butlins holiday camps were often more akin to National Service than promises of Mediterranean Hedonism. This was, after all, the period that inspired Hi-De-Hi, the David Croft and Jimmy Perry-penned TV sitcom that made our own Su Pollard a household name when she played a chalet girl with ambitions to become a variety performer. Albeit a sixties chalet girl decked out in suspiciously eighties-looking perms and specs.
If Hi-De-Hi documented Butlins’ declining years, this advert represents the golden age of their empire, which lasted until cheap international flights made the more reliable weather of the Costa del Sol accessible to the masses. The camps fought for their future, building attractions like a mile-long monorail track, but that optimistic vision was not to last. Nowadays, of course, we simply plonk a replica Skegness outside the Council House every summer. But are we really as content with it as the people in this watercolour once were with the real thing?
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
