The hidden world of Filey Butlins holiday camp

Loiner in Cyprus · Post by **Loiner in Cyprus** » Tue 27 Jan, 2009 10:15 am

Trojan wrote: I never went to Butlins Filey, but I went twice in 1963 & 1964 to Skegness - by train from Leeds Central. I must admit I always thought that Skegness was the biggest Butlins - but I could be wrong. For the group of five lads I was with, the weeks were an opportunity for illicit under age drinking with no questions asked and sexual experiments in various girls' chalets - we all thought we were God's gift. Ditto to that reminisce Trojan. The only difference for me was Skegness either 62 or 63 (the resident group was Rory Storm and the Hurricains with an unknown drummer called Ringo Star) and Filey the year after ie 63 or 64. But the rest is identical!

Chrism · Post by **Chrism** » Tue 27 Jan, 2009 3:41 pm

I've got some pix somewhere of when my mum and grandparents (before I was born) went to Filey for their yearly jaunt, not Butlins and their accomodation was in old railway carriages. Anyone else remember these. I'll dig 'em out and post 'em on this thread.

Lilysmum · Post by **Lilysmum** » Tue 27 Jan, 2009 4:35 pm

As a kid I always had a longing to go to Butlins for our holidays but we never did.It was too expensive, but according to my mum the place we went was just as good!I wasn't convinced. It was the South shore holiday villiage at Brid. I think it was originally an army camp judging by some of the buildings with some (and I use the term loosely) wooden "Chalets" added,which smelt of damp. The facilities were limited to say the least.I think it became a caravan site eventually. The chalets should have been condemmed!

raveydavey · Post by **raveydavey** » Thu 29 Jan, 2009 9:55 pm

Ah Butlins at Filey - another scar on my childhood memory...We went, in the late 70's, and endured a week of pure rubbish. And it rained.I can remember the toilet / shower being at the end of the block and that the chalet walls were paper thin. It was, to put it blunty, a run down dump by the time we visited and I'm surprised it last so long afterwards. All joking aside, the prison camp comaprisons are valid, such was the height of the barbed wire fences. I don't think anyone could have escaped, well not until their week was up and their wallet was empty anyway.Up to this point we'd always been a Pontins family and this proved to be our only excusion to the "red" side of Billy Butlin. My dad swore blind that he wouldn't return even if they paid him. I can understand his disappointment though. Back then he would have worked bloody hard for a full year putting a little aside each week to pay for our one week at the seaside - and then arriving at Stag Luft Filey. Hi-de-Hi! without the humour. Then we went to the Showbar on the Saturday night and he found out they had no proper beer, only Double Diamond!Mind you Pontins did have little luxuries like a bathroom and loo actually in your chalet that you didn't have to queue up to use each morning...I seem to recall that after Butlins closed the park it was taken on by the same bloke who went on to be involved in all the shenenigans at Mount St Marys (Trevor Guy?), but went bust before it opened and lots of people lost their deposits. Was it called "Ambrose Park" or something similar?Aren't there plans afoot now to turn it into a new designer retirement village?Great pics Phil - it's hard to believe nowadays that there was a direct rail service from London every Saturday throughout the season!

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Thu 29 Jan, 2009 10:38 pm

raveydavey wrote: Ah Butlins at Filey - another scar on my childhood memory...We went, in the late 70's, and endured a week of pure rubbish. And it rained.I can remember the toilet / shower being at the end of the block and that the chalet walls were paper thin. It was, to put it blunty, a run down dump by the time we visited and I'm surprised it last so long afterwards. All joking aside, the prison camp comaprisons are valid, such was the height of the barbed wire fences. I don't think anyone could have escaped, well not until their week was up and their wallet was empty anyway.Up to this point we'd always been a Pontins family and this proved to be our only excusion to the "red" side of Billy Butlin. My dad swore blind that he wouldn't return even if they paid him. I can understand his disappointment though. Back then he would have worked bloody hard for a full year putting a little aside each week to pay for our one week at the seaside - and then arriving at Stag Luft Filey. Hi-de-Hi! without the humour. Then we went to the Showbar on the Saturday night and he found out they had no proper beer, only Double Diamond!Mind you Pontins did have little luxuries like a bathroom and loo actually in your chalet that you didn't have to queue up to use each morning...I seem to recall that after Butlins closed the park it was taken on by the same bloke who went on to be involved in all the shenenigans at Mount St Marys (Trevor Guy?), but went bust before it opened and lots of people lost their deposits. Was it called "Ambrose Park" or something similar?Aren't there plans afoot now to turn it into a new designer retirement village?Great pics Phil - it's hard to believe nowadays that there was a direct rail service from London every Saturday throughout the season! We went as a family half board to Butlins Bognor in 1980 and had quite a nice time, so the following year we went to Minehead. It was as you describe it. We went self catering - we decided to have a meal in on of the restauants only to find that they were closed at meal times - they were open earlier, and later, presumably to catch the half board campers who hadn't had enought to eat in the dining room. The chip shop chip scoop was marked with a line and any chips above that mark were taken off! The toilet in our flat leaked, the chair lift wasn't working. It was a disaster. And we weren't exactly well off at the time - my wife had trailed round in the spring doing that year's census to pay for it. Money down the drain! We've never been near a Butlins since.

dogduke · Post by **dogduke** » Fri 30 Jan, 2009 12:37 am

Remember visiting all the Butlin camps except Filey and Ayr in the mid sixties with my mate and his family.Seem to have had better experiences than most or was it the booze?Trains from all over the counrty ran direct to the camp.Every year on the BR vacancy list was a 'summer only'post at the holiday camp booking office.Never plucked up the courage to apply but I suspect the same person got it every year.

simong · Post by **simong** » Fri 30 Jan, 2009 1:07 am

Trojan wrote: We went as a family half board to Butlins Bognor in 1980 and had quite a nice time, so the following year we went to Minehead. It was as you describe it. We went self catering - we decided to have a meal in on of the restauants only to find that they were closed at meal times - they were open earlier, and later, presumably to catch the half board campers who hadn't had enought to eat in the dining room. The chip shop chip scoop was marked with a line and any chips above that mark were taken off! The toilet in our flat leaked, the chair lift wasn't working. It was a disaster. And we weren't exactly well off at the time - my wife had trailed round in the spring doing that year's census to pay for it. Money down the drain! We've never been near a Butlins since. Interesting, my family and I went to Ayr, Bognor and Minehead at about the same time, although my strongest memory of the time was watching Scotland's ignominious defeat in the 1978 World Cup in the TV room at Ayr. We never went abroad when I was young but I can't remember why we ended up going to Butlins for a few years - I think they offered repeat deals every year. They were clean enough if basic and weren't that bad for a teenager.The surviving camps were revitalised and renamed in the 90s and don't do too badly. I revisited the experience at a Pontins rather than a Butlins a few years ago for a music festival, which was remarkably civilised but still much the same as the chalets of twenty years before, just a different colour.

zip55 · Post by **zip55** » Fri 30 Jan, 2009 1:25 am

I went there with my family in 1967 aged 12. I worked at Butlins Skeggy in 73 and 74. What a laugh ....

zscort · Post by **zscort** » Sat 14 Feb, 2009 7:22 pm

Chrism wrote: # Posted on: 27-Jan-2009 14:41:24. Quote]I've got some pix somewhere of when my mum and grandparents (before I was born) went to Filey for their yearly jaunt, not Butlins and their accomodation was in old railway carriages. Anyone else remember these. I'll dig 'em out and post 'em on this thread. My parents/grandparents used to go to the same place every year, it was and still is called Lowfields Farm, first turning on left before Primrose valley (heading towards Brid). I also had most of my childhood holidays in the 80's there in a static caravan (in the middle of hurricane Charlie one year!). We used to walk across the cliffs to Primrose Valley and then upto the barbed wire fence that seperated Butlins, it was very strange seeing all the chalets still up but stripped out. I think you could buy the re-claimed materials from a site out front on the main road.

ceejaylufc · Post by **ceejaylufc** » Sat 14 Feb, 2009 9:58 pm

zip55 wrote: I went there with my family in 1967 aged 12. I worked at Butlins Skeggy in 73 and 74. What a laugh .... I went to Butlins Filey with my mum, dad and brother 1965 and 1966, I also went to Butlins Skeggy in 1974 - fancied the hell off one of the fairground operators - I was only 13 mind you lol