This film is part of Free

Happy Sea Side Holidays

An enterprising family make the most of, not one, but eight seaside beaches dotted around the north of England, all in one summer.

Home movie 1956 9 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for Yorkshire Film Archive

Overview

This is a wonderful amateur film of family days out at various seaside resorts on the east coast of Yorkshire, Blackpool, Southport and Skegness, filmed in Kodachrome in 1956. All the joys that made these resorts such great attractions in the post-war period are on display, from paddling in the sea to puppet shows on the beach; and showing that rides for children don’t have to be of the giant theme park variety to be great fun.

This film is one of over sixty films made by amateur filmmaker Fred Brackenbury between 1948 and 1966. Fred was a member of Harrogate Cine Club, and made all the films with a 16 mm cine camera, virtually all in Kodachrome. He made films for Harrogate Council, and other documentaries on Yorkshire, some with a separate soundtrack with commentaries by his wife, Nora. They also had a love of flowers, hence their visit to the Southport Flower Show, which has been running since 1924, and continues to this day.