Weathering the storms
Melting ice caps and warmer oceans - how will our coastline cope with a climate of change?
Taken at the flood
Sometimes the land loses out in the battle to tame the oceans, with tragic results - like during the flood of 1953.
Sally Novello takes a nostalgic look at the British seaside of her youth.
I remember trying to make my way through the big Teddy Boys crowding round the jukebox smoking fags and wearing big rings. I was warned that after you had put your threepenny bit into the slot you had to press the buttons quickly to get your play before the Teds pressed them to select their choice.
When finances got better for Mum and Dad and the sixties had started to "swing", we were able to afford holidays in posh Hotels on the South Coast and the Isle of Wight. We were warned not to laugh as dickie-bowed waiters presented us with menus all in French. Clean tablecloths appeared on our table each day, along with carefully rolled linen serviettes held in decorated silver rings. My father told us that they had a waiter just to serve wine, but I as a kid found this hard to believe. It was a far cry from the days of chips in damp newspaper, cold caravans with gas lighting and homely seaside landladies serving breakfast in flowery aprons.
In later years I took my own little family to Weston-Super-Mare to see a faded sixties idol performing at the Winter Gardens. Once a proud and "posh" resort to which Welsh miners came to enjoy the sea air as early as the 30s, it still held a certain elegance that Skegness had never owned.
The Winter Gardens was of Cathedral proportions with flaking white plaster walls. I tried to imagine the splendor it had once possessed. My dream was shattered, however, as I spotted my 60s idol after the show. Strolling down one of the sumptuous hallways I spotted him emerging from what seemed to be a canteen, balancing a plate of curry on one hand whilst clutching a fork in the other. He slurped the food into his mouth as he tottered down the same hall way that years before ladies in ball gowns accompanied by their beau with slick Brylcreamed hair, evening suit and shiny patent shoes would have promenaded.
"The times, they are a-changing" groaned Bob Dylan. Times will always change and seaside resorts will flourish, fade and die. But Time and Tide wait for no man and one day the mighty sea will take back what is hers and the 'Jolly' will be no more.
Further reading:Robinson David N. The Book Of The Lincolnshire Seaside Baron Books of Buckingham ISBN 0 86023 668 4
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Content last updated: 08/07/2005
About our expert
Sally Novello runs a small agency for children’s entertainers and is an entertainer herself. She was born in 1947 and having failed the 11 plus, became a typist at the age of 16. She never settled into the profession though and went back into education after the birth of her daughter, Jaime. Sally studied part-time for her G.C.S.Es and completed a degree at the Open University. After her daughter had grown, she had no wish to return to working as a typist and chose to become a children’s entertainer. The agency she runs is expanding by the minute.
