Great Yarmouth the Beginnings of a Famous Holiday Resort
"What the east Coast resorts may lack in romantic scenery they make amends for in the tonic they afford to jaded town-dwellers – an air without a rival for its invigorating qualities"

- The above extract from a 1919 travel guide also goes on to say:

"But it must not be supposed that Yarmouth (the Great was added some years later) has no attractions other than this health giving, bracing air.
For the angler and the lover of the picturesque there are, within easy reach, the reed-fringed Broads. with their wealth of colour-effects, and that quiet and peculiar charm that can be experienced nowhere else in England.
For the children there are limitless sands, dry and firm – an attraction not without interest to children of a larger growth!

For the student of history Yarmouth is crowded with interesting memorials of ancient days.

While to the not inconsiderable number who choose their holiday resort, not because of it’s literary, historical or archaeological associations, but for something more human in the shape of honest fun, a whirl of excitement and amusement lasting the livelong day, and for jovial companionship as free and open and healthy as the breezes of the North Sea, there can be few places to equal – good old Yarmouth!"

Although the style of language has changed nowadays, the sentiments and actualities expressed by this author still describe the vibrant yet tranquil assets that Great Yarmouth offers to all of our visitors

Holidays, Health and Fitness!
The origins of seaside resorts lies not within the amusements and fun we associate with them today – but from the alleged health giving properties of “taking the waters” either externally by bathing in the sea or internally by drinking them – yuk!

This notion has some merit in fact as at the time the coastal air was relatively cleaner and less polluted than the great towns and cities, with their unsanitary streets and foul smoke laden air. (Some things still do not change!)

As with all most fashions and fads this practice was first popularised by Royalty and the gentry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and over the passing years the fashion of “promenading by the seaside” at these fashionable watering holes gradually percolated down to the middle and working classes.

Great Yarmouth began to cater for these health-seekers as early as the 1750’s and in 1760 a fully equipped bathhouse was built on the promenade, and fresh seawater was poured into baths to save the “patients” having to brave the sea and the gaze of amused onlookers.

What the local fishermen must have thought (and said) of these folk paying to be immersed in sea-water can only be imagined!

Great Yarmouth Is So Healthy!
It has also been said that the famous Victorian author and social commentator Charles Dickens also popularised Yarmouth as a seaside health resort;

In 1849 he wrote a letter to his biographer John Forster in which he states;
“If you bear a grudge against any particular insurance office, purchase from it a heavy life annuity, go and live at Great Yarmouth, and draw your dividends till they ask in despair whether your name is Old Parr or Methuselah”

And a holiday guide of the 1920's enthuses about Great Yarmouth as a winter resort too!

"The air is never so fresh and exhilarating, nor the sea decked with more glorious hues, than along the shores of the North Sea on a winter morning”

We modern-day folks may laugh at such hyperbole, but we too are enticed by today’s holiday brochures extolling the virtues of overseas destinations – usually based on how much sunshine you will get!

We must also remember that our grandparents and great-grandparents lived in simpler times and had hardly any leisure diversions – no telly, no radio, - plus they lived and worked in conditions that would emotionally and physically exhaust us in weeks! (As the television series the Victorian House proved)

The Coming of the Railways
Although the numbers of visitors to Great Yarmouth and other resorts increased year by year, in the early nineteenth century there was a massive increase the numbers of holidaymakers from a few hundred a year to tens and hundreds of thousands per summer season!

The cause of this huge influx was the extension of the railway network as new main lines led from the heavily populated cities in the north and the capital city of London.

The Great Eastern Railway serviced the North of England with trains coming from York and Doncaster, and in the summer trains came from Liverpool, Manchester etc. Other railway companies that ran trains to the town were the Midland railway, the Great Eastern, the Great Northern and the London and North-Western. The Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway also provided direct services. (Names that evoke a wistful sigh - long gone but not forgotten!)

(A sidebar - for those interested in the age of steam trains, a visit to Sheringham is worth a visit. From the middle of the town a full-sized steam train still runs thousands of visitors every year along the original railway line up to Weybourne and Holt and back! Telephone number for details 01263 820800)

Also another very popular form of transport were the steamers that brought holidaymakers all the way from London. In the 1900’s these used to leave Fresh Wharf near London Bridge every week day during the season and return-tickets cost the sum of seven shillings and sixpence and ten shillings and sixpence – around about 37p and 52p in our money!

The Birth of the Amusements
As the numbers of people visiting Great Yarmouth grew, so did the notion of entertaining and catering for them.

Entrepreneurs soon began to add more attractions along the Marine Parade for holidaymakers to visit during their new-found leisure time.

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