About me

The Leisure Historian is a personal blog about the places where people went to relax, explore and have fun during the twentieth century.

I’ve always been interested in things like old holiday camps, seaside resorts, tourist attractions, amusement parks and other places of leisure. These places once attracted thousands of visitors, yet today many have closed or changed beyond recognition. And for some, their history has never been fully documented. Many have simply been forgotten about.

Some of these articles were first written twenty years ago, so I’ve revisited them and brought them up to date. Others have been revised as new information has come to light.

The site covers both closed attractions and those still welcoming visitors, focusing on places whose history and development have received little attention. If a subject has already been well covered elsewhere, in a blog, book or video, you’re unlikely to find it here. My interest lies in the more obscure places and the stories that remain largely untold.

How It Started

During the late-1990s I started looking into the history of Butlin’s holiday camps. But unlike today, there really wasn’t much out there. What books had been published were lacking in details, and the web was pretty sparse with only little snippets here and there. So I began my own research. In 2000 I started the Butlins Memories website as a way of bringing all this info together.

Former campers, employees, entertainers and enthusiasts soon began getting in touch with their own stories, photographs, documents and corrections. As the website grew, so did the enormous amount of correspondence and new material arriving.

What started as a fun little project soon grew into something much bigger, and keeping up with everything became more than I could realistically manage alongside work, kids and everyday life. I therefore passed the website on to others, and I now have no involvement with it. But many of my original articles can still be read there today.

The Leisure Historian continues that same idea, but expands across a wider range of subjects.

How the Articles Are Researched

Each article is researched from the ground up.

Sources may include old newspapers, magazines, guidebooks, brochures, postcards, maps, timetables, advertisements, official publications and other contemporary material. Wherever possible, I also draw on conversations with people who visited, worked at or were otherwise connected with the places being researched.

Much of this work began long before AI became widely available. The research and writing on this site are all my own and nothing been generated using artificial intelligence.

The aim is not to produce formal academic papers. It is to create detailed, readable and well-researched histories that answer questions, correct errors and preserve stories that might otherwise be lost.

Corrections and Contributions

Great care is taken to ensure the information published on this website is as accurate as possible. If you believe something is incorrect or incomplete, please get in touch. Constructive feedback and well-sourced corrections are always welcome and help improve the quality of the research for everyone.

If you have a photograph, brochure or any other information that could add to one of the stories featured here, you are very welcome to get in touch. Full credit will always be given.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you find the site enjoyable, and I hope it brings back a few memories along the way.