The British seaside: Dud or dud?

The rest of the place is a shithole, full of shitbags. It's the end of the line from Liverpool Street station - 50 years ago half of East London came down for the weekend and just sort of well, stayed, really. This is of course not a bad thing, but it does have that London suburb small-mindedness about it - regular glassings in locals, tarted up Ford Novas going round and round and round, half- arsed mafiosi linkings.

I was there last weekend and encountered a fight outside the main pub on the seafront.

Shitbag 1: "Fuck off" Shitbag 2: "No, you fuck off" S1: "Fuck off" S2 "FUCK OFF" etc. etc.

Very funny, and very indicative of Clacton. DG, I know what you mean by Frinton, but you can see why when they're next to this place. This may come across as snobbish, and I shouldn't forget that those years were the best years of my life and I met some wonderful people, but I'm so glad I got out. I could handle the generall naffness of the place, but the narrow-mindedness makes me so depressed.

Clacton is Romford with sand.

Neither are as bad as Walton-on-the-Naze, though.

Beer's good, of course, although with a name like that it should have an all-round classic pub and it has no such thing. If you're in the area pop down to Branscombe. But Branscombe has no Peco and once, Peco was King.

x0x0

The whole Whitley Bay / North Shields / Cullercoats conurbation is K- Ace. I like that completely inappropriate Australian-styled cafe tucked into the sea front, totally lashed by the North Sea. Cool.

1. Also memory of giant dragonfly dead in a jar of pickled eggs at the chippie = reason why I have never quite got round to sampling PE since...
2. Also tale heard later, of a neighour walking dog on cliffs one v.early morning, looking out to sea and seeing a GRATE WAVE on the horizon, rushing in. Man stands transfixed w.horror, as wave hurtles towards Seaton, sweeping all the way up the beach over small wall IIRC, before slapping several feet up first row of houses. Much noise and minor damage, no injuries or worse. Wave a national news story following day, a similar occurred all along s.coast (this wd be mid/late 80s I think).

Man had walked dog across beach not five mins before.

Big waves? biggest I've seen were crashing onto the headland at Scarborough, the one that separates north and south bay, they looked lethal, my Mum wouldn't let me get very near.

It's called BORTH!!!

http://completelyinthedark.com/main.php?g2_itemId=12896

Scarborough :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuthbert_Brodrick

v interesting architect

The Leeds Corn Exchange and the Grand Hotel at Scarborough are classic buildings imo

Burgh Island and its magical tide-defeating monster tractor was on Coast, it is definitely real.

Do find it's odd how Coast has made all this sort of thing almost-fashionable again, but still not quite.

i think stuff like The Idler and The Chap and I suppose before them a bunch of twee indie miserabilists have been repping for the British seaside for a good while now but a) semi-ironic nostalgia not really most people's cup of tea and b) the reality of lots of places is just a little too grim to be totally fun times.

i like grim and unironic nostalgia so i'm good tho.

Very good book on This Sort Of Thing by a pal:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yvVAEBKoL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

6 months living in Hastings/St Leonards cured me of any lingering nostalgie, I have to say.

aren't they full of junkies

Thing is, it depends on if you mean 'the seaside' as in pleasure beach tacky shit type way, or 'the seaside' as in the bit of land that is right next to the sea. Britain has some great moody tempestuous bits of sea.

but seaside as a word definitely implies "tacky" pleasure beach shit and the decayed corpse of the 50s and 60s before society became a hole.

I don't know that it does. Or is there another word you're thinking of, that implies "seaside" as being "bit of land by sea" without that connotation? Because I don't have that automatic assumption. I don't get that automatic association unless I see it used in a phrase like "faded seaside glamour" and the like. It comes from context.

I suppose I like a bit of crumbling maritime heritage, harbour walls being pounded back to nature, piers falling slowly into the sea - but that's because I'm not really one of those people who goes to the sea for "fun in the sun, swimming etc." but I go to the sea for bleakness, windswept desolation, THE SKY IS BIGGER THAN YOU, THE SEA IS BIGGER THAN YOU, time will eat you all up, you are as dust in the wind, oh look on my works ye puny humans and despair.

Because that's what I go to the seaside for, really, not to sit in a canvas deckchair with rose-tinted sunglasses on, reminiscing of parish holidays in the 70s. But then again, I only ever really go to "seaside resorts" in the off season because it's the desolate atmosphere that I like.

Does anyone remember when they tried to revive that CITV show called Knightmare back one summer in the mid-'90s with a one-off Seaside special?

Gameplay was more or less the same - one guy had to walk around the levels while his teammates guided him with instructions from afar, except instead of a large viking helmet he wore an outsized kiss-me-quick hat and carried a stick of rock. Tregard was dressed in a lifejacket and sat quite high up in an adirondack chair, helping the team with cautions like "Warning team, the tide is coming in!" and then you'd hear a ship's horn blow in the distance, a bit like when the hobgoblins would come in the original. I remember they managed to get rid of a fearsome dog walker with "Spellcasting: J-E-L-L-Y-F-I-S-H".

Shame it didn't really take off. My mate reckons they also did a 1978 version where you carried a fondue set and wore a huge permed wig, but I don't believe him.

I think that the connotation of deckchairs and funfairs and sand castles etc is definitely strong with 'seaside', but I can't think of an alternative word for 'bit of land next to the sea'. Maybe just 'sea'? Or 'coast', I guess?

Definitely look for the same thing as you, KDT. The vastness gives me the fear, but in a beautiful way.

xpost no! Are you sure that's real? I've always thought they should revive Knightmare, though. I loved that shit.

Britain has some great moody tempestuous bits of sea.

Well, we are surrounded by the stuff

Coast, yes.

The Coast will do. "Going for a run to the Coast", I'm sure we used to do that on a Sunday back in the day.

"coast" or "seashore" for the Romantic bits. or even "strand" eh? I guess "seaside" is too close to "Oh I Do Like to Be Beside the" for me to shake the resort connotations

... run in the car, in case there's any confusion. When I think of Ayrshire, which is where we used to go a run to, then I think "Coast" not "Seaside"

"Seaside" to me is yes, wurlitzers, crap fairground rides, icecreams and deckchairs, kind of creepy/depressing '60s locarno kitchen sink stuff. "Beach" is B-52s spastic post-punk jellyfish wabbing. "Coast" is rocks and rain and Scottish people in anoraks telling you about "the awesome power of the sea" and shit.

B-52s spastic post-punk jellyfish wabbing

OK, fair enough. Understand the distinction.

Definitely more of a The Coast fan than a Seaside fan then.

For me, emil.y it's more like it *removes* THE FEAR from me, in a beautiful way. Like all the petty problems that buzz around my head and fill up my consciousness, they just evaporate, because in 200 years, 500 years, this sea will still be here, but everything I've ever done, and even this lump of rock I'm standing on, it will all be eroded away and that is just so comforting and calming and gives one a real sense of perspective.

I think that's what Romantic poets used to call The Sublime before appreciation of that became Quite So Utterly Utter.

B-52s spastic post-punk jellyfish wabbing

Give me rocks and rain and Scottish people in anoraks any day.

Scottish people in anoraks

Not the fuggin' Pastels again

I actually really like the seaside aesthetic though. I also like the spastic B-52s jellyfish wabbing, despite living very much in land. When I eventually start this band, we're going to take direct influence from "Rock Lobster" and The Special's "Friday Night, Saturday Morning", thus marrying both the American beach and the British seaside. Maybe add a toxic take on South Pacific too. We will rule the waves.

a littoral--maritime themed british indie band seems like a really amazing and novel idea

Not the fuggin' Pastels again

http://www.open2.net/open2static/source/file/root/0/58/52/240936/neilscotland.jpg

"The past is a disaster now (preferably with TALL SHIPS crashing into LIGHTHOUSES)
The future's coming faster now (automated foghorns)
Let's just go and get a beer (make mine a Doombar)"

When I eventually start this band, we're going to take direct influence from "Rock Lobster" and The Special's "Friday Night, Saturday Morning", thus marrying both the American beach and the British seaside.

http://www.chartstats.com/image/r8411_300.jpg

Do find it's odd how Coast has made all this sort of thing almost-fashionable again, but still not quite.

Perfectly happy with this state of affairs tbh.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/4/19/1271691257621/Blackpool-beach-in-1982-b-001.jpg

I'm gonna get that blown up and stuck on my wall. Actually, might just use it as a desktop background, same difference IG.

haha! that dog's having a wazz! YESSS!

It is Chris Steele-Perkins, I went to the exhibition, and that one was my favourite

Martin Parr does some good seaside pics too

http://bp0.blogger.com/_023w4hdG0iI/RkANGps474I/AAAAAAAABzg/vdWoTKONP2s/s1600-h/Martin_Parr_The_Last_Resort_1145_67.jpeg

http://blog.happyfoto.at/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Fotoausstellung-in-Wien_Martin-Parr.jpg
http://www.seminario.edu.uy/bibliowp/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/mp3imagen1.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TSMBHnhrP4Y/TUbqnBapo1I/AAAAAAAAApM/Cn5yfnoI174/s1600/IMG.jpg

was it martin parr who released those books of boring postcards too? (love all these photos btw)

I think so, try an image search for john hinde, for postcards

Yes it was...he did 3 of them (boring, boring USA, and boring Germn postcards)

He also compiled a book of Butlins postcards (from John Hinde as Proger mentions)which is excellent.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41N5gSUU%2BoL._SS500_.jpg

I prefer these to his actual photos tbh, which seem to border on 'LOL working class people', although tbf he does also do 'LOL rich people' and 'LOL people who want to be middle class'.

As for Martin Parr, I am not sure he has an agenda to mock working-class people having days out, it is more a "what are people like?" in glorious technicolor.

http://www.dimagemaker.net/ktml2/images/uploads/exhibit/parr/509.jpg?0.24452934250892122

http://www.hipshots.co.uk/images/parr3.jpg

Some of his stuff I like, some I am not sure about, but I know they are all better than any pics I take. But I always like the seagull one http://dbprng00ikc2j.cloudfront.net/work/image/104974/qg7swq/Seagulls.jpg as something you see in every UK seaside town and probably have done every day for 60 years or so.

yeah i don't necessarily see mockery so much as ultra-candid frozen moments. the old couple in the caff is very tender in a way.

I've actually met him and he says "yeah, i totally am taking the piss, I mean have you seen these people...disgusting savages imo"...no, he didn't say that he gave a very eloquent and thoughtful answer to a similar question (not from me, but from someone who who articulate proper) much along Noodles lines - and, it's a fair point that this is what it actually looks like sometimes. But I'm still a bit uneasy with a lot of them. Maybe I've seen so many similar pics that it seems too easy? I don't know, I'm rambling.

Anyway, I do admire his ability to get up close though. Ballsy without being obnoxious.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulrussell/303499383/

Woman "Don't look now love but I think that bloody Martin Parr is behind us"

Man "He's been at it all day, lets just get it over with"

Woman "I'll look northern and you say something parochial"

Man "right. Aye up lass, take in that bracing air, you'll sleep well tonight."

Woman "good, I think he's gone"

Man "Oh shit...look who is coming now. it's that damn Alan Bennett and he has his notebook out. I had better start reciting Alfred and the Lion.

Albert sorry. Used to hear it a lot in Filey.

There's a famous seaside place called Blackpool,
That's noted for fresh-air and fun,
And Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom
Went there with young Alberttheir son.

A grand little lad was their Albert
All dressed in his best; quite a swell
'E'd a stick with an 'orse's 'ead 'andle
The finest that Woolworth's could sell.

They didn't think much to the ocean
The waves, they was fiddlin' and small
There was no wrecks... nobody drownded
'Fact, nothing to laugh at, at all.

So, seeking for further amusement
They paid and went into the zoo
Where they'd lions and tigers and cam-els
And old ale and sandwiches too.

There were one great big lion called Wallace
His nose were all covered with scars
He lay in a som-no-lent posture
With the side of his face to the bars.

Now Albert had heard about lions
How they were ferocious and wild
And to see Wallace lying so peaceful
Well... it didn't seem right to the child.

So straight 'way the brave little feller
Not showing a morsel of fear
Took 'is stick with the'orse's 'ead 'andle
And pushed it in Wallace's ear!

You could see that the lion didn't like it
For giving a kind of a roll
He pulled Albert inside the cage with 'im
And swallowed the little lad... whole!

Then Pa, who had seen the occurrence
And didn't know what to do next
Said, "Mother! Yon lions 'et Albert"
And Mother said "Eeh, I am vexed!"

So Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom
Quite rightly, when all's said and done
Complained to the Animal Keeper
That the lion had eaten their son.

The keeper was quite nice about it
He said, "What a nasty mishap
Are you sure that it's your lad he's eaten?"
Pa said, "Am I sure? There's his cap!"

So the manager had to be sent for
He came and he said, "What's to do?"
Pa said, "Yon lion's 'eaten our Albert
And 'im in his Sunday clothes, too."

Then Mother said, "Right's right, young feller
I think it's a shame and a sin
For a lion to go and eat Albert
And after we've paid to come in!"

The manager wanted no trouble
He took out his purse right away
And said, "How much to settle the matter?"
And Pa said "What do you usually pay?"

But Mother had turned a bit awkward
When she thought where her Albert had gone
She said, "No! someone's got to be summonsed"
So that were decided upon.

Round they went to the Police Station
In front of a Magistrate chap
They told 'im what happened to Albert
And proved it by showing his cap.

The Magistrate gave his o-pinion
That no-one was really to blame
He said that he hoped the Ramsbottoms
Would have further sons to their name.

At that Mother got proper blazing
"And thank you, sir, kindly," said she
"What waste all our lives raising children
To feed ruddy lions? Not me!"

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRdHS9mztSkLovkSK99PirEf-Je9ePiBHciQSqBd-xpTCc3CnSJdg&t=1

More "coast" than "seaside" but has anyone been to the islands off Pembrokeshire?

went to Caldey Island as a wee child, memories are mixed up with other places but I know there was a monastery and you could walk there when the tide was out and i got a sweet patch for the back of my Wrangler jacket.

Ah, yes, have similar childhood memories. Except the patch.

was there a monkey sanctuary there or was that somewhere else?

my girls were fascinated that monks wore crocs. monkey sanctuary is on the mainland, near kilgetty iirc

yeah it's quite possible. we stayed in Tenby for a fortnight, think it was the summer of 76? i sunburned my legs so bad early on that i had a day when i couldn't walk on them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KQ6Wmbi5ig&feature=related

Get back to basics my friends.

My father in law point blank refuses to believe that that track is about anything other than how sticky rock gets. "We didn't sing about those kinds of things back then." I tried to play him "Shave 'em Dry" but he put his fingers in his ears and went 'la la la'.

I am not sure if Fornby wrote his stuff, but the song is surely less than innocent.

Wd've thought so, it seems in the vein of the old music hall tradition, like the Fella that Played the Trombone or Cock-a-doodle-doo, barely a comic song that didn't have that sort of innuendo.

I think he was a latter day arctic monkeys, but with better backing tunes. It was the george Fornby subterranean homesick blues lyrics stolen by Bob Dylan, that I remember best. The genius of Fornby and Morris.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d9C5KHP5z0

Well the whole sketch is genius, but I think most of the ILX people out there are aware of it.

With my little stick of Blackpool Rock, along the promenade I stroll
In the ballroom I went dancing each night
No wonder every girl that danced with me, stuck to me tight...

Yes, Formby did write his own lyrics (mostly). It was actually banned by the BBC (or rather unplayed, I think they still persist with the myth that they didn't ban songs) because of its suggestive lyrics.

(actually Formby's lyric writing is not quite as straightforward as I though - http://www.georgeformby.org/biography/records-songs-films/)

there is no evidence that Formby even contributed, let alone actually wrote any of the songs synonymous with him and his ukulele, and plenty of evidence that he didn’t. He and Beryl would insist that his name be added to the songwriting credits, thereby earning him a nice bite of the royalty pie

Does anyone remember when they tried to revive that CITV show called Knightmare back one summer in the mid-'90s with a one-off Seaside special?

This... cannot be true...

Sadly I wish it were. Sorry for getting yr hopes up :-/

:(
Spellcasting J-E-L-L-Y-F-I-S-H lol tho

Seaside:

<img src=http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4392398773_5929f8d62b.jpg>;
<img src=http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/4336756901_f551d5d1b7.jpg>; <img src=http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/4392417919_5ebd053482.jpg>;

Coast:

<img src=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3184/3107551633_e3633810f3.jpg>;
<img src=http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5309/5674559671_760a209976.jpg>;
<img src=http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/4393224122_f8d5213efa.jpg>;

And Burgh Island:

<img src=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2446/3804470624_6bb7c2d9dc.jpg>;
<img src=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2610/3804473968_762dd9db15.jpg>;

I grew up by the seaside in Dawlish (birthplace of Nicholas Nickleby). When Brunel built his railway it went from being coast to seaside (and "a watering hole for Victorian celebrities" according to Wikipedia). Amusement arcades, nuclear-bunker-esque ice cream shops, dilapidated beach huts, deckchairs, budget Butlins-esque holiday camps and caravan parks down the road at the Warren; I grew up with all that.

Once more, with feeling.

Seaside:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4392398773_5929f8d62b.jpg;
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/4336756901_f551d5d1b7.jpg; http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/4392417919_5ebd053482.jpg;

Coast:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3184/3107551633_e3633810f3.jpg;
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5309/5674559671_760a209976.jpg;
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/4393224122_f8d5213efa.jpg;

And Burgh Island:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2446/3804470624_6bb7c2d9dc.jpg;
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2610/3804473968_762dd9db15.jpg;

I grew up by the seaside in Dawlish (birthplace of Nicholas Nickleby). When Brunel built his railway it went from being coast to seaside (and "a watering hole for Victorian celebrities" according to Wikipedia). Amusement arcades, nuclear-bunker-esque ice cream shops, dilapidated beach huts, deckchairs, budget Butlins-esque holiday camps and caravan parks down the road at the Warren; I grew up with all that.

I think I pretty much love all that. There's a nice (or there was) pub on Burgh Island too.

has anyone read this?

http://www.alexandraharris.co.uk/modernism-on-sea

I loved her book on Romantic Modernism so I'm thinking of giving this a go, hoping it will be more Coast than Seaside?

I guess since she's focusing on architecture it'll be more Seaside but at least it'll be the beautiful bits.

Unless I've seriously missed something, I don't think she's focusing on architecture? She's been much more interested in Modernism as a whole movement, literary, visual arts, architecture is part of it but certainly not the main focus. At least of her other book.

only skimmed the blurbs tbh but the places that are named are quite firmly rooted in a form of Seaside culture. seems perverse to think of the wild stuff breaking into Modernism much, but i'm cool with perverse. Definitely looks worth a read.

Was last night's Coast worth catching when it's repeated?

Kimmeridge. Worth a visit?

?

No idea, sorry. Just bumping the thread for you, though.

Missed this. Yes it is. At least as far as that bit of coastline is involved, I don't know much about Kimmeridge per se - 'cept there's not much there. Maybe that's what you're after though? It's near Lulworth Cove which is lovely and there's a splendid and unusual church near Worth Matravers which is on a nice walk onto the headland.
http://people.bath.ac.uk/lismd/dorset/churches/st-aldhelm.html

And there's Corfe Castle nearby of course, from which you can get on the Swanage Railway (if you like that kind of thing, I do, but I am old and love trains).

it makes my Tryophobia act u pBIG TIME

For Llewelyn Powys the cliffs and downland of the Dorset coast sustained a poetic experience of the world in which 'to be alive is the prize above all prizes, to be out of the grave, the great exemption'.

Sounds ok.

I'm going for a very short, possibly quite glum, weekend to Margate soon. What to expect?

people telling you you can keep your costa brava

sunburned ppl

crushed hypodermics

donkeys

contentment

i have never visited any of the classic south east seaside resorts but i'm pretty comfortable with that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs4-lxrTK-8

november is good for the seaside, on a good day it's still mild yet almost totally deserted

they could literally blow up a hotel in brighton and nobody would know

seaside towns out of season always remind me of the small town i grew up in, tons of metal kids, random and frequent brute violence, every scene the decaying corpse of something that the city kids got bored of 10 years ago, desperation fitted as standard.

the home counties bourgie population have just about enough residual enthusiasm for blighty-on-sea that about half of brighton-hove-worthing and maybe a couple of places in suffolk have escaped that fate

hastings can be fucking grim, most of north kent too

Try Hastings for authentic violence and desperation.

lol xp

Hastings - bookshops, heroin and black black depression. Still quite like it. Lovely walk you can do from Hastings over to Rye. Changes from chalk cliff downland to marshes and military canals. Some pleasant bathing to be had within sight of Dungeness as well.

Folkestone is fucked tho. I went there for the first time in ages last year and it was the bits of it that weren't being demolished were utterly dilapidated. And there was a grime singer channeling a curious mixture of enthusiasm in his delivery and seaside no-hope bleakness in his content, standing in a bandstand with some pensioners who had nothing else to be curious about swaying slightly in front of him. Some vicious sods in a transit van driving round swearing at Asians.

Hastings is fine. I seriously do not get a heroin and violence vibe from it. The seafront is remarkably intact and rather lovely (in the sunshine).

Such a shame they got rid of the old cricket ground -

http://theidiotandthedog.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/priory-meadow-cricket.jpg

The Central Recreation Ground, Hastings was a cricket ground in Hastings, Sussex. The first recorded match on the ground was in 1864 and the last in 1996, following which Priory Meadow Shopping Centre was built on the site.

With perfect timing the Guardian big up Kent.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/aug/05/kent-coast-art-summer-holiday

Somewhere between this and ilx's bleak view lies the truth.

Saltburn by the Sea. Worth a visit?

Hmm. Is that a "no"?

No, it's definitely worth a visit. Earlier this year I drove down the coast from Newcastle to Whitby. I wouldn't recommend doing that in one go though as it takes a lot longer than you might think (getting round Middlesborough is the problem). Anyway, it's a got a nice beach, a quaint and creaking funicular railway, and some faded Victorian grandeur which is always nice.

And The Guardian thinks it's like a Northern Southwold (which is pushing it a bit).

That whole coast is definitely somewhere I want to look around more.

Ta. Was born there but don't remember it and feeling a vague pull to visit.

Right ... off to Saltburn in a couple of weeks: pubs I must drink in? places to eat? walks?

My housemate's from Saltburn, so I'll see what he recommends.

I'm staying at the Midland in Morecambe in a couple of weeks. Northern seaside > Southern seaside

Have had The Ship and a cafe "called something like Del Mar" recommended.

What did your housemate recommend?

Ah fuck, he fucked off for a few days without telling me. I will pursue this.

Right then ... Saltburn this weekend.

OFFICIAL GUIDE

Pubs: The Victoria is the best one. The Mermaid is fine. The Ship is better for its location than for its drink.

Food: I wouldn't really trust my housemate on food choices tbh but he says there is an Italian place called Alessi's which is 'alright'. Vista Del Mar is also good apparently. Popular with Boro legend David Wheater.

Walks: Go down to the valley gardens and through there. There's a miniature railway. Then you can go on the cliffs towards Boulby.

If you have a car then you should go out to the moors.

That all sounds very nice.

Nice one, thanks.

The walk from Saltburn to Skinningrove was lovely.

Amazed at how well used the beach at Saltburn was.

Glad you had a good time. I've had to postpone my Morecambe trip but want to get that done soon, then maybe visit Robin Hood's Bay nearer the summer.

Impressed at how well-used the beach was.

Saltburn *felt* less run down - less "Every Day Is Like Sunday" - than I was expecting though may not have been seeing the full picture.

It does seen to have aged better than a lot of similar places. Not really sure why, but I think it's still seen as a 'nice' place to live for the North East's wealthier residents (unlike e.g. Morecambe and Blackpool which have declined as the money moved inland/to the Lakes).

Might have asked this elsewhere and forgotten/been drunk ... recommend anywhere to stay along the Pembrokeshire coast?

If you want to stay in a town, Tenby is highly recommended. It's a small to medium size, traditional seaside resort town that has a bit of life but is also very picturesque. St. David's is also nice. It's a small town, a mile or so inland, noteworthy for the cathedral but also very well placed for walking. I also quite like Fishguard, which is more rough and down to earth, less touristy.

All these places are quite small so it's pretty easy to get out and onto the cliffs etc. To be honest you could stay anywhere and it would be fine, although I guess it depends on your need for public tramsport. Tenby and Fishguard can be reached directly by rail. St. David's can be reached by bus from either Fishguard or Haverfordwest (where there's a railway station).

Nice one, thanks.

Public transport not a huge issue - we'll be driving there though it is always good to try and use buses once there.

Any recommendations for specific self catering places to stay (to accomodate two people)?

Many plans for the holiday: to get on the coastal path, to visit Skomer/Skojholm, to drink beer, to sit and watch the sea.

http://www.caldey-island.co.uk/

maybe worth a visit while you're there, i was only a wee boy when we visited but it was pretty special

Stayed here several times and was really happy with it:

http://www.solvaholidays.co.uk/cottages.php

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Solva&hl=en&ll=51.872702,-5.194892&spn=0.003604,0.006899&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=14.149238,28.256836&oq=solva&hnear=Solva,+Pembrokeshire,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=17&layer=c&cbll=51.872724,-5.195067&panoid=0qD_n-JmdwGsmlv6nAmNEw&cbp=12,342.12,,0,0

Solva is about three miles from St. David's. The bus to/from St. David's/Haverfordwest passes through the village.

I've also stayed at a place in St. David's itself, just across the road from the Farmer's Arms pub, but I can't remember what it was called.

Brighton seems an interesting place.

http://www.cyriak.co.uk/gifs/flick.gifhttp://www.cyriak.co.uk/gifs/batfair.gifhttp://www.cyriak.co.uk/gifs/piereaten.gif

Thanks Dubmill/Noodle Vague.

Have a week off work booked for June and September.

Want to be by the coast but aside from that ... recommendations welcome, either vaguely (area) or as specific as a nice cottage for two. Anywhere in the UK.

Tempted by this:

Waves: The Sounds of Britain's Shores (British Library Sound Archive).

The current series of "Coast" is lacking something (and, unusually, finding Nicholas Crane a bit annoying - okay when he's on screen but his voice overs are grating.)

Also, best bit of Scottish coast?

Is Mull nice? Any recommendations?

Or any of the other Scottish islands?

Any bits of coast/seaside nice along near Weston Super Mare?

http://www.skye-light.com/images/threlfallc07.jpg

sandwood bay, sutherland.

http://www.harlechcottage.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/6.jpg

morfa harlech, cardigan bay.

don't know about weston super mare but these are both recommended.

A return trip to Saltburn planned for January.

Looking for accommodation for eight (three couples, two kids) in Saltburn or thereabouts. Any recommendations?

How are the roads between York and Whitby at the moment?

(Basically, is it insane to drive from Oxford to Whitby via York this weekend?)

Was a bit bored by Coast this evening.

Communities urged to prepare for coastal flooding

04-Dec-2013

Communities along the north east coast of England, including Yorkshire and the north coast of Norfolk, should prepare for the risk of coastal flooding.
The Environment Agency and Met Office are forecasting that gale-force winds and large waves will combine with spring tides and a large surge later on Thursday and through Friday. This brings a risk of significant coastal flooding.

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/151055.aspx

The Northumberland coast worth a visit?

What's a "kiss me quick" hat?

And do I need one?

http://cdn.maximise.co.uk/images/locations/55000-hen-blackpool.jpg

http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/passtheremote/6270172-1.jpg

These are...a thing people associate with the beach? I mean I see that they are from the GIS but I'm just so confused.

Well, the British seaside is often associated with bawdiness (see McGill and other saucy postcards). And it's a popular destination for stag & hen parties. And, uh, you wear hats at the beach to protect you from the sun?

Also, sorry, don't want to detract from this question, which I'm afraid I can't really help with: The Northumberland coast worth a visit?

And, uh, you wear hats at the beach to protect you from the sun?

lol

Really, you have to buy them on a pier for maximum effect.

Just today I went to the Tony Ray-Jones exhibit. Clearly don't make enough of the English seaside

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/~/media/RWSCIM/image_galleries/only_in_england/beachy_head_boat_trip.jpg

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/~/media/RWSCIM/image_galleries/only_in_england/blackpool.jpg

^ Great pics.

I have a book of his photos and I love looking through it. Thing is, a lot of seaside towns had professional photographers who worked the season taking pics of people on the beach, in sandcastle contests, fancy dress costumes, passengers disembarking from ships, seaside queens being crowned etc. The seaside town we used to go to had a guy who did this professionally for about half a century and his best stuff was very similar to Tony Ray-Jones. The archive material across the country must be massive.

dud

v rarely been to The Seaside & not been to the coast much in general. assynt, ullapool, mull, skye are amazing tho, mb the most beautiful bits of the uk

its too cold and everyones all naked

Whenever I travel to Cornwall on the train the coastal stretch of the journey is the bit where I have my face pressed to the window, with all the other children, wowing at the natural beauty after we have just travailed the likes of fucking Doncaster and Birmingham. I think you arrive at Plymouth after this bit, so more realness. I was sad to see it getting taken by the sea, but you have to face up to - places like this are going this decade rather than in geological time.

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSp2YNkA2IfiEW-Aooyqk1AK38uJDTjb8g7u_CoD3L1vFDG7k5xXw

nice to see Damo assign Doncaster its full name

The Jurassic Coast in Dorset is very nice. Durdle Door!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Durdle_Door_Overview.jpg

Posted more images of the train tracks at Dawlish and other images of Cornwall/Devon devastation on this thread:

Monster Waves!

What's terrifying is, this is not just the "main route" to Cornwall. This is the ONLY route to Cornwall. Seeing the folly of Beeching again and again and again.

indeed many places are going under - I live on the coast and was very careful to buy a place that is not at sea level! I found the highest hill in town- there's a be floodin in the future!!

I guess this is the place to post about these submerged forests appearing in Wales and Cornwall?

Sorry for Torygraph link, but a friend linked to it: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/10653204/Submerged-forests-revealed-by-UK-storms.html

Link with pictures: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/pictures-bronze-age-forest-revealed-6730477

http://i4.walesonline.co.uk/incoming/article6730673.ece/ALTERNATES/s1227b/JS32760119-6730673.jpg

Yes yes yes! The submerged forests of Mount's Bay turn up every now and then. The Cornish name for St Michael's Mount is Karrick Loes in Koes which means "the grey rock in the woods" which shows that the bay was above sea level and wooded within Cornish speaking memory.

Forests off Portreath are new though and v v interesting. MAYBE ALL OF LYONESSE WILL RESURFACE. yes.

Bit of Lyonesse. Clearly:

https://twitter.com/Phil_kernow/status/436517602706620416/photo/1

F-me does Cornish speaking memory go deep into the last glacial period? Serious question, not being facetious. Wow ancient forests! That is incredible.

Those are not pre-glaciation forests, as stated in the Telegraph link. They are about 4000 years old which is Bronze age I believe, so yes, Brythonic of some stripe is likely to have been common then, of which Cornish is a surviving branch.

Sorry i was more responding to the image didn't want to click on the link, was only a few thousand years out!

The title of the welsh link says "bronze age" in it! In English, too!

Agan yeth yw nebes koth. Nebes koth, hepken. ;-)

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a82/bobbysixer/tankerton_zps4d8f5a30.jpg

Tankerton-on-Sea earlier today (next to Whitstable)

Trying to plan a holiday this summer that is cheap as hell and involves coastal type action for a 12 yr old kid with autism, kinda struggling, but will get there.

maybe somewhere in Wales, you looking for low stimulation?

Hmm sounds like an option worth looking into. Low stim is not essential, unguarded drops are more of a hazard than the odd sensory overload. Used to rent a cottage in Newquay, but the price kept going up ...

maybe have a look round Barmouth area on the west coast, feel like it's not too cliffy but some nice beaches and probly not crazy expensive

We're just booked a Northumberland coastal holiday that seemed very reasonable. No idea how nice it is going to be - we've heard positive things - but is alongside beaches rather than cliffs. I guess it depends where you are travelling from.

I have the sudden inexplicable desire to go to some godforsaken faded seaside glamour bit of the Essex coast.

Like, Shoeburyness or Walton-on-the-Naze or somewhere. Where has a good pier?

I'm going to yarmouth on Friday who's gonna stop me

Which Yarmouth? I <3 the Isle of Wight Yarmouth but not sure about East Anglia.

Essex walks website recommends me Clacton-on-Sea to Walton-on-the-Naze, 7 mile walk taking in TWO piers. Has anyone done this? It's a sea wall, so it should be pretty much flat, the whole way.

(I confess, half the reason I want to go to Walton-on-the-Naze is the name, and the other half is Tracy Jacks.)

Did you ever do The Broomway?

No, it seemed semi-suicidal to attempt by myself.

Kinda want to do the Saxon church walk on the sea wall at Bradwell (another Macfarlane rec) but the train is quite some way away.

There look to be guided walks.

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2014/apr/15/britains-coastline-captured-in-atmospheric-photos-for-rnli-contest-in-pictures

I'm not a big fan of guided walks, really. They never seem to go at the right speed.

Those are beautiful photos; that last one of Sennen looks like a John Martin painting. Which I guess Sennen often does, in a storm.

"They never seem to go at the right speed."

^ Yes, this.

bb, I mean the norfolk yarmouth, as it's near me. I'll probably wander over to hemsby or somewhere once I've checked in at the hotel.

Can anyone recommend a cottage by the (UK) coast, that might be nice/available towards the end of this month ... ?

budget?

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3414940?s=rPlF

We'd found somewhere in Norfolk for £400 ... but then it was cancelled to be refurbished.

That does look quite nice.

Sorry djh, I just saw this - I go to the Suffolk coast from time to time, Southwold, Aldeburgh, Orford etc, and there quite a few airbnb places for below £400 if you go out of season.

Was in Rhyll last week. It was like a place just recovering from a nuclear or zombie apocalypse. Sea was out and there's several bits of front between the last houses and the littoral, and it felt desolate and hopeless beyond belief. Only saw one or two other people on the front itself, usually negotiating various awkward bits of front infrastructure (two main roads either side of a promenade, then beach), sitting for about ten minutes at a bus stop as if waiting for a bus out of the place, but then moving on. A couple went into the dark entrance of the otherwise closed looking 'Seaworld' aquarium. An old man on a mobility scooter made incredibly slow progress by the main road.

On the way out passed one of the holiday camp resorts, looking very much generally like military camps, apart from various large cartoon characters on each set of huts giving big thumbs up etc.

I grew up in a Devon seaside town. The British seaside is awful and soul crushing. The coast, on the other hand, is wonderful.

We spent a beautiful week on the north Norfolk coast (Stiffkey); we've just booked a week on the Lincolnshire coast for the first week in January. Have never been to Lincolnshire before (and have never met anyone who has).

So ... if you were in Whitby but finding it a bit impossible (too busy, too difficult to physically distance) where would you go? Seaside/coast would get bonus points but anywhere to avoid people, really? Entertaining a six year old gets more points.

Back to Transylvania?

Not an easy task w/ the kicker of entertaining a child! If Whitby's too busy, Robin Hood's Bay probably will be as well, though there is a pretty long stretch of beach. You could go down the coast a bit further and have a stroll around the amazing Ravenscar Hall hotel (the gardens are free to roam around iirc, last time I was there) and it has amazing views.

Your best bet probably could be the Folling Foss Tea Garden, a really nice tea garden in the forest w/ lots of room for kids to run around or do whatever it is kids do :) And for you to enjoy the sights and nature as well (and some grub). Website is here

*Falling Foss, that is

That looks so idyllic. I cannot possibly express how much I want to be sitting outside a tea room in a forest right now.