During the 1930s, a number of small holiday camps and camping sites sprang up around the Brixham area – much to the dismay of local residents, who feared they would lower the tone of the district and reduce property values. St Mary’s Bay and Homelea both opened in 1936, the latter founded by Wilfred Sutton.
The Dolphin Holiday Camp followed in 1938 under the direction of Frederick Merritt, proudly billing itself as “the best camp in Devon.” Although larger than most of the other camps in the area, it was still modest in scale compared to some of the sprawling holiday camps emerging elsewhere in the country. Guests were welcomed with “verandah chalets, first-class food, and a cosy oak-paneled lounge complete with open fire.” Entertainment was at the heart of the experience, with a games hall and ballroom, a resident orchestra, and an active programme that included bathing, tennis, table tennis, putting, billiards, and regular concerts – “a personal touch that will make your holiday perfect whether you come alone, with a friend, or with family.”
Like so many coastal camps, Dolphin was requisitioned during the Second World War, serving as accommodation for Canadian servicemen. It reopened in June 1946.
In 1948, the Dolphin company acquired the nearby St Mary’s Bay holiday camp. To raise funds for the purchase, the company went public, reporting a pre-tax profit of £26,000 that year and paying a dividend of 6%.
The 1950s brought major development. A large new entertainment block was built at Dolphin, housing a ballroom, dining hall, kitchens, snack bar, and offices. A large outdoor swimming pool was built. The company also acquired the neighbouring Homelea camp, a small three-acre site situated between their two existing properties. In 1953, a “large screen television” was installed so guests could watch the Coronation.
Fred Pontin takes over
By the early 1960s Britain’s holiday camp industry was booming, and few were expanding faster than Fred Pontin. In June 1961 he arrived in Brixham with a surprise takeover bid for the three camps owned by the Dolphin company. His opening offer – one Pontins share for every Dolphin share – was turned down, but a revised proposal later that year of four Pontins shares for every three Dolphin shares was accepted. The deal, worth around £600,000 (equivalent to roughly £17 million today), added Dolphin, Homelea, and St Mary’s Bay to his growing Pontins empire. Not content to stop there, the following year Pontin also acquired two more Brixham camps, Wall Park and Bay View, cementing his presence on the South Devon coast.
Pontin wasted no time in unveiling ambitious plans to merge the Dolphin and Homelea sites into a vast “mega-camp” with 700 chalets. The idea was quickly blocked by the local authorities. At the time, the two camps already catered for around 10% of Brixham’s visitors, and Devon County Council ruled that “doubling of the accommodation would not be consistent with policy, as Brixham is already approaching capacity.”
Undeterred, Pontin submitted a fresh application to build two-storey chalets at Homelea, but this too was rejected. Instead, Homelea was developed an independent self-catering camp with single-storey chalets, each with their own kitchens and bathrooms. Facilities at Homelea were sparse – little more than a clubhouse and kids playground – so guests were free to use the amenities at St Mary’s Bay next door.
In September 1964 Pontins began work on 88 new chalets at Dolphin, using outline permission previously granted to the camp’s former owners. The project quickly ran into trouble. Residents of Higher Penn, whose gardens backed onto the site, were outraged to discover that the chalets were being erected “within a few yards of our back doors.” A petition signed by 2,800 townspeople forced Pontin to back down, and he eventually agreed to demolish and resite some of the buildings slightly further away.
Tensions with the town did not end there. Fresh applications in 1967 and 1968 to add more chalets were refused outright. One particularly scathing objection, quoted in the local press, captured the hostility many locals felt towards the camps: holidaymakers, it complained, “scatter fish and chip wrappers around the harbour, walk about with ‘Kiss Me Kate’ hats on, and generally lower the tone of the town.” The same letter concluded that Brixham was in danger of becoming a “mini Blackpool.”
Because of all the planning issues, Dolphin became something of an oddity within the Pontins empire. While most of the chain’s camps were modernised and rebuilt during the 1960s, Dolphin clung to its past, retaining many of its original chalets right up until the end.
Unlike St Mary’s Bay and Homelea, Dolphin always remained a full-board camp, with all meals provided, and these were taken in the huge communal dining hall. The newer chalets all had private bathrooms, but most of the older huts just had a sink and toilet with guests using communal shower blocks. None of the 331 chalets had kitchens or dining areas but they were fitted with electric heaters which were operated by coin meters.
Disaster at Dolphin
In February 1991 disaster struck when a major fire tore through Dolphin’s main entertainment complex, destroying the reception, ballroom, dining hall, and kitchens. With the scars of past planning battles still fresh – and the holiday camp industry itself in decline – the decision was taken not to rebuild. Dolphin closed its doors for good, its once-bustling chalets and facilities left to decay. Over the following years the derelict site became a magnet for arsonists, vandals, and urban explorers. A proposal in 1995 to replace the camp with a 165-bed hotel briefly raised hopes of redevelopment, but the scheme never materialised, leaving Dolphin’s story to end in silence and abandonment.
In 2004, the decaying remains of the camp were finally demolished. A new housing development – known as Sharkham Village – was built on the site, with roads such as St Mary’s Hill and St Mary’s Drive now covering the land. A wooden carving of a dolphin was erected at the entrance as a nod to the holiday camp that once stood there.
