LEISURE

THE SEASIDE

The Victorians invented the modern holiday – in both its seaside and foreign package form.

A family day out may have included donkey rides, some entertainment provided on the beach and a splash about in the sea. The Victorians remained very prim and proper in their clothing choices when at the beach. Some of the wealthy children would have had `holiday clothes` including less formal wear with a bobble hat and usually some sailor themed clothing; the women tended to remain in their daywear- long skirts and dresses, buttoned up blouses and a formal hat.

These photographs show children and families enjoying an afternoon investigating rock pools and beaches much as we do today.

The upper classes, although participating in a bathe in the sea, would hire changing huts which could be wheeled or carried down to the water’s edge - in these they would change into their costumes - affording them privacy from the `ordinary` people on the beach.

Towns on the coast were attracting people to the spas and the beaches; hotels catering for the increased tourist trade were springing up. Blackpool was a resort which began with one ride in 1896. Large numbers of the population were learning to swim – unheard of before the mid 19th century

Ladies bathing costumes were featured in women’s magazines and the English What-Not or Ladies Handbook commented in 1861

“The chief drawback to ladies swimming is the bathing dress used in this country. The most commodious and at the same time, the most pleasant to the wearer, is a garment, consisting of a dress and drawers in one, made of grey serge and having a band to confine the waist.”