Louise Perrin

The history of visiting the sea is not just about the growth of leisure: it is part of a complex social phenomenon that directly reflects the society in which it developed and the society in which it continues to exist. For the past 250 years, tourism has been the main industry of many well-known resorts on the English coast, and indeed their continued existence is directly related to the growth of tourism as traditional industries declined. Coastal tourism in Dorset is a major industry in terms of the income it generates, the numbers of people employed, the number of leisure hours spent and the volume of visitors. With established resorts, unspoilt cliffs and beaches, together with the declaration of sections of the East Devon and Dorset coastline as a World Heritage Site in December 2001, backed by a wealth of history, the tradition of visiting the coastline is guaranteed.

The move to the sea

People have always lived close to water. The abundant fish and raw materials provide food and resources for life. In the days before roads and reliable forms of travel, water provided a known, if unpredictable, means of transport. As societies developed, produce would be sold or traded on the water’s edge, so the strand – that area between sea and land became a centre for community life; a meeting place, a market and where associated industries, such as boat building, flourished.

The coastline of Dorset has been an arena for human activity for thousands of years, but the idea of enjoying a day by the sea or venturing out to sea for pleasure is a feature of post-industrial society. That is not to say that before this time the pleasures of sea bathing were unknown - the English climate is not as convivial as that of the Mediterranean. In Ancient Greece, cleanliness and hygiene was part of the Homeric version of civilisation, but it is the Romans who are best known for their love of bathing and the establishment of public and private baths throughout the expanding empire. What is less well known is that they also established pleasure resorts along the coast of Italy for relaxation and to escape the confines of hot and stifling city summers. They built roads to help them travel to their villas and these roads to the coast were busy with urban Romans escaping for the summer. After the collapse of the Empire, invading peoples from Northern Europe dismantled the infrastructure set up by the Romans and for the next 1,000 years the legacy of Roman society was almost certainly forgotten.

Britain experienced a succession of invaders from mainland Europe, but in the 14th century a deadly invader landed at Melcombe, near Weymouth. In 1348, the plague or Black Death as it came to be known was introduced by fleas from infected black rats, carried by ships that docked in the harbour. It spread quickly and by the end of the outbreak between 30-45% of the population had died. Lack of knowledge about the causes collided with the contemporary belief in the inhospitable nature of the sea. The Medieval vision of the final apocalypse believed it would be announced by the rising up of the waters of the ocean. The flood of the Old Testament was evidence of divine retribution and God’s unrelentless and unpredictable anger with his sinful people. Not least, the nausea and discomfort of sea-journeys was, for most people, proof of God’s displeasure. The sea was full of dangerous and grotesque creatures and returning sailors had plenty of stories of what they had seen. Water was thought to enfeeble.

A sea change

By the middle of the 18th century, there was a noticeable difference in people’s attitude to the sea and by the beginning of the 19th century there was a complete about-turn that continues to the present day. Previously only those people who made their living from the sea chose to live nearby. Houses were well away from the shore, built side-on or in sheltered valleys to avoid the worst of winds and storms. As a fashion for sea bathing took hold, the new houses that were springing up for the visitors were built close to the sea, often facing straight on, taking advantage of the views and the proximity to the health-giving water and sea breezes. Water was no longer thought to enfeeble: it was the new wonder-cure.

Spas

By the 1750s, it was a well-established custom amongst those who had both time and money to visit mineral water spas to ‘take the cure’ – the therapeutic use of mineral waters both internally and externally. People sought relief in particular from skin diseases, rheumatism, and the consequences of overeating, especially at the end of a busy social season. The healing nature of certain waters had been known since ancient times, associated with magical springs and sacred wells and individuals made pilgrimages to obtain relief from their particular ailments. Different spas were popular at varying times according to the fashion of the day, but Bath was especially popular as it was the only naturally hot water spring. While there were claims of miraculous cures, for many visitors it was probably the regimen of diet, exercise and rest that did as much to improve their health as any curative properties. Time spent away from the stresses of daily life helped, not unlike today. Scientific analysis of the waters suggested benefits for particular sorts of illnesses and the recommended routine at each spa would be determined by the requirements for each illness.

The pleasure of taking the cure provided not only relief from ailment but also an opportunity for social pleasures. After paying attention to the necessary treatments, the afternoons and evenings were free for social calls, taking tea, dances, playing cards, all conforming to a strict social etiquette, so well described in the novels of Jane Austen.

The gentry were also accustomed to travel abroad to continental spas and these were more like health resorts, in the same way that we use the word ‘spa’ today where many hotels and resort centres offer ‘spa’ facilities. However, the ability to travel abroad was interrupted by the French wars at the end of the 18th century. As the popularity of the spas increased, the elite visitors looked for new playgrounds as the old ones became less exclusive, inviting a host of crooks and those involved in sharp practices, or predatory mothers with their eligible daughters. Physicians, looking for additional income, searched for new sources of mineral.

Sea bathing

The first visitors came to the seaside in the 18th century attracted by the health-giving benefits of seawater. It was Dr Richard Russell in his book A Dissertation on the Use of Sea Water in the Diseases of the Glands, published in 1752, who promoted both bathing in sea water and drinking it! This ‘seaside’ was not to be enjoyed. There were strict instructions about the best time and frequency to bathe, the temperature of the water, and how much seawater to drink to obtain the best purgative effect (usually a pint). The visitors were not meant to swim but to be 'dipped' straight in and out of the water usually by female attendants. Some of the attendants became quite notorious and were caricatured in the cartoons of the day. Customers would change in bathing machines that were hauled into the water by horses.

But people not only visited spas to improve their health but to see and be seen. The established social pattern at the inland spas was copied at the new spas-by-the-sea, indoor hot and cold-water baths, an assembly room, circulating library and of course places for visitors to stay. At first people did not build houses, but rented apartments for the season. The pattern of a seaside holiday developed as a contrast between enjoyable idleness followed by frenetic activity.

In the same way that the inland spas were identified by the efficacy of the waters in controlling particular diseases, so were the developing coastal resorts. As late as 1898 Bradshaw’s Dictionary of Bathing Places and Climatic Health Resorts includes an alphabetical list of ‘Diseases, and places where they are most effectually treated’ from Acne (nowhere in England) to Uterus (diseases and affections) for which the only English reference is the chlorinated waters of Droitwich. This small handbook describes Bournemouth as ‘most fashionable in the winter’ and especially suited for those with ‘pulmonary and bronchial troubles, convalescence, debility, scrofulous diseases and anaemia’ and with an annual death rate of only 10.8 per thousand. Weymouth, Swanage and Lyme Regis are listed as having sea baths, and in particular Swanage is described as ‘very healthy’.

Initially men had bathed naked and women wore very flimsy costumes, but the Victorian sense of decency resulted in town councils legislating to separate men and women on their beaches and enforce a dress code. Later in the century, as more families headed for the beach, it was realised they would not be able to spend time together. In 1896, Paignton in Devon became the first resort to permit mixed bathing again on the town's beaches.

The Industrial Revolution and holidays

The concept of travel for pleasure did not exist as such before the 18th century. People travelled for business, education, on pilgrimages, or as soldiers and mercenaries. Most people did not travel much further than the village where they had been born. The movement of people from the land to find work in the centres of employment created by the Industrial Revolution resulted in a rapidly growing urban workforce whose working hours were much more strictly controlled than had been the case when they were tied to the land. This established for the first time a distinction between working time and non-working time. The creation of a middle class with money to spend, an increasing amount of leisure time in which to imitate their social superiors, together with the improvements in transport, beginning with the turnpikes, faster coaches, and ultimately the arrival of the train, meant that by the end of the 19th century travel for pleasure had become a well-established fact.

The beginning of holidays

The Victorians were very family minded. The introduction of Bank Holidays in 1871 enabled many families to have a day by the sea. Early photographs show people doing many of the things we do today, walking along the seafront, paddling or playing by the water. Swimming became a popular activity from the middle of the 19th century. People would often arrange outings and a trip to Corfe Castle from Bournemouth was described as an enjoyable day's outing in an 1888 guide. Pleasure steamers would travel along the coastline between the different towns, where previously they had only been used out of necessity. The early landing jetties for passengers later evolved into that essential feature of the seaside, the pier. There was a mania for natural history in the mid 19th century and people would spend time looking in rock pools, shrimping or collecting seaweeds to take home.

Photograph of holiday makers on Bournemouth beach (RCAGM).

Postcard of holidaymakers on Weymouth Beach (BBC)

An evening at the microscope - a popular form of entertainment

The growth in the number of visitors to Dorset coast coincided with a fashionable interest in natural history and collecting specimens between 1820 and 1870. Seashells, sea anemones or any marine creature that could be brought back to an indoor aquarium, as well as plants such as ferns, and of course fossils, were all popular. Natural History Societies flourished and it was part of the attributes of being a gentleman that he should be able to talk knowledgeably about the latest scientific discoveries. While women were not permitted to attend these meetings, apart from the occasional ‘ladies evenings’, an interest in natural history was thought a very suitable way for women to spend their leisure providing fresh air, exercise, and of course, education.

As explorers travelled into the unknown parts of the world, they brought back new species of plants and animals, dead or alive, fuelling interest in the odd or curious. Lyme Regis had been the focus of attention earlier in the 19th century. It was well known as a place for collecting ‘curios’ found in the rocks exposed by cliff falls. The discovery of a fossilised skeleton of an ichthyosaur in 1812 by a 12-year-old Mary Anning was a significant feature in the development of the new science of geology. An early trade directory for Lyme Regis lists Mary Anning as a ‘fossilist’ as well as two others.

The First World War and After

Many men had the experience of travel while they were in the armed forces during both world wars which they would not have had otherwise. This led to an awareness of opportunities for travel. The development of the motorcar made personal travel much easier and allowed access to previously inaccessible parts of the country. Combined with a steady increase in living standards and access to paid holidays, the practice of taking an annual holiday continued. The trend up to the Second World War was the development of holiday camps and the growth of motoring holidays. Families would return year after year to the same resort, if not the same boarding house.

The 1950s saw the consolidation of the now traditional seaside holiday, the annual holiday by the sea being within reach of many of the working population. The decline of the railways began as more people owned cars, which in turn made them less tied to the formal boarding house accommodation. Although there was a decline in the number of boarding houses, there was a corresponding increase in caravan and camping sites.

By the 1970s, many resorts were in need of redevelopment and updating. This factor, combined with increasing public access to foreign package holidays, meant that levels of tourist spending began to fall at home. Amenities would be closed and not replaced. For an increasingly sophisticated visitor, now used to better standards of service and entertainment, it was no longer sufficient to sit on the beach every day. They began to demand more than buckets and spades, and deckchairs.

Moving away from the traditional concept of a holiday, there has also been a trend towards activity based holidays, leisure breaks and off-season holidays. The important conference market, the development of marinas and the growth of English language schools are all aspects of the modern coastal resort. Competition amongst resorts for ‘blue flags’ and other ‘best beach’ awards is fierce. Fashion turns full circle and so from the trend for sunbathing and exposing the body to the health-giving properties of the sun’s rays which started in the 1930s, people are now becoming aware of the damage caused by the sun and are beginning to cover up once again.

The Dorset coastline

At the beginning of the 19th century, Dorset was primarily an agricultural county, with little industry and ports of varying sizes. Poole with its natural harbour was the largest. A key factor in the increase in visitors to the Dorset coast came as a result of the Napoleonic War. People were unable to travel to France or further and were looking for new areas to spend the season. As people began to appreciate the beauty of the unspoilt landscape, the rugged and sometimes dangerous coastline, the first few visitors developed into a rush for the coast. Weymouth had a reputation to compare with that of Brighton, promoted amongst the beau monde by George III’s visit to ‘take the waters’ in 1789. A contemporary cartoon shows the King being assisted into the water by several robust ladies while the band strikes up ‘God Save the King’. The early descriptions of the pleasures of the growing resorts contrast strongly with that of Poole in an early trade directory. The Universal British Directory Volume 4 described it as lying ‘on the border of a barren dreary heath which affords no pleasant view to travellers who come from the more delightful part of the county’.

Most notable is the development of Bournemouth from a very small fishing bay to a major coastal resort. The romantic story of the ‘founding’ of Bournemouth tells of Lewis Tregonwell, Captain of the Dorset Volunteer Rangers between 1797 and 1803, remembering, as he travelled the south coast on the lookout for invaders from France, what an ideal location it would be as a summer residence for his wife who was recovering from the death of a baby. It certainly is true that in 1810 he purchased 8½ acres of land from Sir George Ivison Tapps, the local landowner, for £179 11s, and built the ‘official’ first house in Bourne Mouth now enveloped in the Royal Exeter Hotel.

The evolution of fishing port to spa-by-the-sea was hastened by the improvement in transport, initially in better and faster coaches and the development of turnpike roads. In 1658, the coach from Dorchester to London took 2½ days over inhospitable tracks in uncomfortable coaches. By the heyday of coaches between1820 -1840 the same journey took 14 hours. The railways changed everything. Those towns with early rail links developed more rapidly, such as Weymouth, while Lyme Regis still had to be reached by coach from the station at Axminster. By the 1850s, it only took 5 hours and 20 minutes to travel the 141 miles to London from Weymouth by express steam train.

By the turn of the twentieth century, seaside tourism was established throughout Dorset and all of the county’s popular resorts were fully developed and flourishing. Having been segregated during the nineteenth century, the sexes were once again permitted to bathe together and swimming in the sea was part of the fun. The issue of health was taking second place to that of entertainment. However, not all visitors appreciated the widening social mix and increasing entertainments. A 1901 travel guide mentions Swanage as having ‘quiet, health, vigour, and relaxation of mind without the usual Negro minstrels, Punch and Judy, organ grinders etc, Swanage can be confidently recommended’.

Images of the Dorset Coastline

The archive contains numerous examples of images of the Dorset coastline which were produced from the beginnings of tourism.

Paintings, prints, photographs & postcards
Images of the Dorset coastline have been reproduced in a variety of media, paintings, prints, photographs and postcards, and on souvenirs. These strikingly different images provide contrasting ways of looking at the same scene over the centuries and how it has been interpreted by artists.

Painting of Chesil Beach by Leslie Ward (RCAGM)

The landscape, with its evidence of antiquity, ancient, and not-so-ancient ruins, and almost the entire coastline, has been the source of inspiration for many artists. Painted views of Dorset have been interpreted in fine-art through Landscape, Picturesque, Romantic and Modern movements, by marine and topographical artists and the full range of artistic ability. While some artworks may not merit the attention of the international art market, they are each of interest to the individual historian or geographer, amateur or professional. Amateur watercolours, while not always displaying a complete grasp of perspective by the artist, can sometimes be a more reliable image as the artists attempt to reproduce what they are looking at. Certainly, images produced for the commercial market can have an element of ‘artistic license’. Dorset has not been the centre of any artistic ‘school’ such as Newlyn in Cornwall but the county has attracted a fluctuating community of artists, including those who came to visit their contemporaries or who chose to settle here.

Prints
Printmaking as a popular form appeared in the 18th century. Prints were sold in books illustrating tours around Britain, such as William Daniell’s Voyage Around Great Britain, published in 2 volumes between 1818 and 1824. As travel opportunities increased in the 19th century publishers responded to the demand for illustrated guide and travel books. The development of printing in the later years of Queen Victoria’s reign resulted in many new popular magazines often with ‘giveaway’ prints. In an era before television and mass media, these images increased the readers’ knowledge of far-away places.

Engraving of Durdle Door by an unknown Artist (DCM).

Engraving of Portland Bill and cliffs by an unknown artist (DCM).

Photography & postcards
New inventions are usually more expensive and bought by those who can afford them, but as techniques improve and production costs decline the same product becomes available to a wider audience, and eventually becomes almost commonplace. Photography is a prime example. It encompasses the spectrum of human experience from a personal record captured in a moment to the great pioneers of social recording, such as the photographs of the American Civil War, or the changing social record photographed by Francis Frith, and the business he founded, for over 100 years. People took cameras on their travels, recording what they saw and what they did. Photographers set up booths in the coastal towns and visitors could buy popular views of the places they had seen.

Photography and the development of the postcard are intimately linked. It is hard to believe today, where the postcard is arguably the one souvenir that a visitor is likely to buy, that the picture postcard only began in England just over 100 years ago, when Adolph Tuck printed the first Post Office approved picture postcards in 1899. At half the price of letter post, the postcard rapidly became a quick and easy means of communication, although at first there was a lot of suspicion that the clearly visible message could be read by the postman, or even worse, the servants!

Postcard of the cliffs at Southbourne (BBC).

Postcard of nesting swans at Abbotsbury Swannery (DCM)

Postcards
Postcards are a vivid visual record of the many changes in society during the 20th century. They were an immediate success as a quick and reliable way of communicating, at a time when post was delivered up to 5 times per day and messages such as ‘am arriving on the 10.30 train tomorrow’ would arrive in sufficient time. Photographic views of cities, towns, villages and places of interest were the most popular, but enterprising publishers began to commission artists to paint scenic views, some of them highly romanticised, to be reproduced as postcards.

Postcard showing view of "Rodden Row" in Abbotsbury village (DCM).

Postcard showing illustration of the Abbey at Abbotsbury, Welch & Sons (1901-1910).

The postcard was not superseded as a cheap and reliable form of communication until the telephone became an everyday feature of the home. Today, in the world of instant electronic communication, the postcard might seem obsolete, but we continue to use them as a non-urgent means of communication. Sending postcards is almost a social obligation when we go on holiday.

Souvenirs
People have always returned with mementoes of their travels. Pilgrims came back with relics and souvenirs from the holy places they visited. Soldiers came home with the spoils of war or objects taken from the battlefield. People would return with shells or pebbles from beaches, or stones from archaeological sites.

The Grand Tour

The idea of a ‘gap year’ between school and university is nothing new. During the 18th century, the sons of the aristocracy would undertake a ‘Grand Tour’ between the end of their studies and before taking up their careers, undertaking a continental tour of Europe, primarily to Italy. It was thought that such a journey would be a formative experience, educational, and improving their moral and personal development in preparation for future roles as members of the ruling class. Visiting the great classical cities, they studied paintings by the great artists and saw the ruins of the ancient world. The young men would return with pastels, drawings, antiquities, books and prints to display in their country houses.

The post-industrial era of mass production together with the entitlement to holidays for working people saw the advent of purpose-made souvenirs. Such souvenirs could be expensive luxury items, or cheap and nasty novelties. The more popular items could be bought at railway stations, sweet shops, books stores, novelty stores and ‘fancy fairs’.

Heraldic or Crested China

Heraldic china is the term given to a range of small ceramic souvenirs, very popular between 1900 and 1930 and found in a variety of different shapes and designs. These helped fulfil the desire for cheap and cheerful novelties.

The first models were worthy miniature replicas of ancient pots or Roman vases found in museums each with a town crest printed on the side. Later on, novelty shapes appeared such as shoes, teapots or animals, as well as the usual ashtrays and trinket dishes. Unsurprisingly, souvenirs from seaside towns began to take on a marine flavour with shells, fish and marine animals, and even bathing machines. The First World War (1914-1918) manufacturers produced a torrent of patriotic pieces including models of the Lusitania sunk by German forces in 1915.

The most famous manufacturer was W H Goss (1833-1906) who owned the Falcon Works in Stoke-on-Trent. The firm eventually had over 2,500 different designs. As the popularity of the souvenirs increased, other Staffordshire potteries, such as Arcadian China and Carlton Ware, produced their own designs, and eventually they were also made in Germany and Czechoslovakia.

Examples of Goss ware souvenirs of Bournemouth, including a minature teaset and two decorated bowls (RCAGM)