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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2018 11:22:52 GMT
Does anyone have fond memories of going to Butlins as a kid in the 60s/70s??
I spent a few weeks at Butlins in the 70s when I was kid! Which as inspired me to take mine over the years. The history of Butlins and Sir Billy Butlin and famous stars of today who started out at Butlins, is interesting and I love watching the old cinema films on YouTube. Once over they were 9 camps but now for many years that is down to 3, Butlins is still a fun place for families but of course I don’t think it’s as good as it was back in the 70s, when nearly all the things and activities were literally free! Unlike today and also you had the chance of going and staying for two weeks at a time! Each of the camps had a monorail which went all around the camp, the last came to have one was minehead I think, it closed to it crashing into another stationary cartridge, and of course due to insurance etc and political correctness that was the end of that! Each camp unlike today would have a Old Time Ballroom, in the days when that was so popular, and the camps would each have a cheesy quirky Hawaiian themed Bar with plastic pineapples and everything you could think of lol! I can still remember as a kid being in the club at night and seeing chalet room numbers flashing up on a board to alert that a baby is crying in a particular apartment, also the Butlins radio good morning campers and music being played every morning out of these big silly speakers waking everybody up!
For those interested in the history and nostalgia of Butlins like myself, there’s two great sites you might like. One is called Butlins memories’ and the other one is Bygone Butlins’s! They’re both as equally as good and addictive, especially the latter as it as a ‘Then & Now’ section on it!
👍🏻
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Metcalf
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Post by Metcalf on Sept 14, 2018 12:08:57 GMT
Didn't Status Quo cut their teeth at Butlins.
There was quite a ferocious roller coster in the sixties at Bognor Regis,or so it seemed to a six year old at the time.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2018 17:39:41 GMT
Yeah think ya right! About Quo if I remember the fair was always better then, not saying that kids wouldn’t like it today! I just think they were a lot better rides and more of.. think Bourne leisure just hire the fair ground now off another company, tipical in this era we live in, must be about money..
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Post by John Steed on Sept 14, 2018 20:07:30 GMT
I have stayed at the Butlins in Skegness a couple of times. I had a week there in 1991 and another week there in 1995. They still had the monorail there and we did have a go on it. The accommodation was very tired by then but it was only a bed for the night as we were out mostly from when we got up until we went to bed. I seem to remember it being quite cheap to book and the drinks prices weren't that bad either. We had a great time there. We saw Jim Bowen live on stage there too …. Come and have a look at what you could have won! It was down to earth and unpretentious!
Steed
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Sept 15, 2018 22:01:14 GMT
I don't remember too much about it but apparently the family visited Butlins in Pwllheli for the day when on holiday in North Wales, it was 1977 & about the time Elvis died as my dad recalls seeing at least one person with an 'RIP Elvis' t shirt on. All I remember about that holiday is falling in a bramble bush, getting grazes on my legs & having them bandaged up. I have visited a couple of bog standard holiday camps, not Butlins or Pontins & found them to be quite intimidating places. There is a Haven holiday camp in Fleetwood called Cala Gran, I used to go ten pin bowling there for PE at school, the place was rough as toast. Stayed at another grim place in Heysham, one of the residents threw a stone or similar at the car I was in so we ended up being scared of leaving the caravan & the camp overlooked the frightening looking Heysham nuclear power station Stayed at another campsite in Canet Plage in the South Of France, sounds nice but again it was a rough place with dodgy food & a Black Lace type singing duo as the entertainment. I remember they sang this song that went 'I'm not dancing with you, you've got dogshit on your shoe'. We travelled there by coach, it seemed to take forever & they only had one videotape of 'Private Benjamin' as entertainment, I also remember stopping at a service station at night where the outside eating area was teeming with mice looking for scraps of food Not had much luck with holidays, though I do remember staying at a nice caravan site in the Lake District, plenty of room, quiet & no riff raff.
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Post by Sam Tyler on Sept 15, 2018 22:34:36 GMT
Do us all a favour Tiger and alert us to where and when you've got your next holiday booked so that we know what to avoid.
Sam.
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Post by Steve Austin on Sept 16, 2018 8:10:02 GMT
I don't remember too much about it but apparently the family visited Butlins in Pwllheli for the day when on holiday in North Wales, it was 1977 & about the time Elvis died as my dad recalls seeing at least one person with an 'RIP Elvis' t shirt on. All I remember about that holiday is falling in a bramble bush, getting grazes on my legs & having them bandaged up. I have visited a couple of bog standard holiday camps, not Butlins or Pontins & found them to be quite intimidating places. There is a Haven holiday camp in Fleetwood called Cala Gran, I used to go ten pin bowling there for PE at school, the place was rough as toast. Stayed at another grim place in Heysham, one of the residents threw a stone or similar at the car I was in so we ended up being scared of leaving the caravan & the camp overlooked the frightening looking Heysham nuclear power station Stayed at another campsite in Canet Plage in the South Of France, sounds nice but again it was a rough place with dodgy food & a Black Lace type singing duo as the entertainment. I remember they sang this song that went 'I'm not dancing with you, you've got dogshit on your shoe'. We travelled there by coach, it seemed to take forever & they only had one videotape of 'Private Benjamin' as entertainment, I also remember stopping at a service station at night where the outside eating area was teeming with mice looking for scraps of food Not had much luck with holidays, though I do remember staying at a nice caravan site in the Lake District, plenty of room, quiet & no riff raff. I'm pretty sure I stayed at Canet Plage in the 80's with my family in the Toyota Hi Ace Motorhome we had at the time. Don't remember the entertainment but I do remember I'd been drilling holes in the beach all day looking at your pick of euro crumpet and was very sunburnt on my back and had to sleep on my front for at least a week, kind of a bittersweet memory. Never been camping since.
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Sept 16, 2018 18:02:19 GMT
It was a site called Mar Estang we stayed at. Yes, I remember it was uncomfortably hot & back then in 1981 people weren't as diligent about applying sun lotion, my skin was peeling like Barry after many sunlamp sessions, there were lines of ants carrying pieces of dry skin that had flaked off us all
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Post by D.C. Burtonshaw on Sept 16, 2018 20:35:24 GMT
Blimey that didn't sound too good Arthur!! I think I only vaguely remember a couple of Butlins holidays when I was really young, one in about 1973 with my parents and mums parents at Clacton, can't remember much else.
Then in 1974 at Minehead. All I can remember was a pretty grotty chalet which my mums remembers being pretty smelly and my dad spraying an air freshener round the lounge. Dad didn't have a car at the time but he hired a new electric blue MK1 Ford Escort 2 door. And he too me on the huge steam engine that was on display there, into the drivers cabin of the engine showing me the controls. I remember mentioning this on the "old forum" and the train experts explained that Billy Butlin bought it when it was sold out of service by BR and put it on display for a number of years. But it was later bought back by a steam preservation group, after being saved from scrap and since restored to lovely working order again and survives which I was pleased to hear.
I remember that year, he took me on electric replicas of veteran cars which you drove round a track, while he drove. Although one day, I wanted to go on the swings, but the playground was locked.....
Don't think we did Butlins again, but did stop at Pontins camps at Camber Sands 1979, Prestatyn in 1981, Camber Sands again 1987 (the place we got that year was quite new and clean), and finally I went in 1995 back to Camber but the place had got a bit run down by then.
My parents went to watch the entertainment in the evening while me and my brother slept at the chalets if it was going to be a late night but we were a bit older than tots by then. But in later years I remember going with them to watch the talent shows, amateur singers (some weren't bad, and included the camp staff/bluecoats). Although one evening, there was constant talking by some of the campers at the tables, my mates mum complained she couldn't hear the singer woman well enough!
Used to go for rides on the Noddy train round the camp at the '79 visit and as GC says, I remember the Baby Crying signs but they were boards with the chalet number written in chalk. There was also the kids pedallo boats I went on with a mate. There was also specially arranged things for the kids to do although they were so so......... although trampolining was great!
We actually made friends with other families with children the same age at the campsites and stayed in touch with them and even arranged to meet up at other holidays resorts in later years. I'm even still Facebook friends and keep in touch with one lad, same age as me who was one of the sons from a family we became friends with from Camber from 1979. My dad and his dad were similar age and got on well as they were both British Telecom men! The family were/are from Essex.
I remember 1987 at Camber as the pedal cars you could hire were Sinclair C5's with the electric motors removed!! You could of course hire pedal cars and pushbikes at the other resorts.
Another thing about '79 at Camber I'll never forget was a very strange single late middle aged/elderly gent who had 70's style long hair(a bit like a certain TV presenter of the era we WON'T mention!) and would talk to anyone randomly (including kids worryingly) and was always watching the entertainment. But one day, he had his radio with him in his hand and his umbrella one morning and was having a OTT dance along the roadway past the car park, like a right exhibitionist!! I think it was something like "The sun has got his hat one" playing, much to the amusement of the other campers!! I think he was a bit er............. well he could have been harmless!!
Memories!!
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The Saint
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Post by The Saint on Sept 16, 2018 20:44:58 GMT
....I'll never forget was a very strange single late middle aged/elderly gent who had 70's style long hair(a bit like a certain TV presenter of the era we WON'T mention!) and would talk to anyone randomly (including kids worryingly)... Agreed, let's not mention Jimmy Savile!
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