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The Battle of Butlin's: Vulgarity and Virtue on the North Wales Coast, 1939–49

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2010

PYRS GRUFFUDD
PYRS GRUFFUDD*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, School of the Environment and Society, Swansea University, Swansea SA2 8PP, Wales, UK Email: r.p.gruffudd@swansea.ac.uk
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Abstract

At the outbreak of the Second World War the holiday camp entrepreneur Billy Butlin agreed a secret deal to build an Admiralty training camp near Pwllheli in North Wales. The camp would be transferred to Butlin at the end of the war for use as a holiday camp. Whilst planners were initially horrified, the strategic argument that such camps would concentrate coastal development and also provide the necessary places for the expansion of ‘holidays with pay’ prevailed. More sustained opposition came from those concerned about the imposition of a culture of urbanised mass leisure on the Welsh heartland of the Llŷn Peninsula. For some, the threat was ‘bathing beauties’ and alcohol; more profoundly, many feared the destruction of a Welsh-speaking rural polity. National sentiment rallied around an alternative social service camp and an overt form of Welsh nation-building. Nonetheless, Butlin won the case and the holiday camp opened in 1947.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , April 2010 , pp. 75 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

Notes

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48. Patrick Abercrombie, Letter to Clough Williams-Ellis, 3rd December 1943, CPRW Papers 9/39. The local branch of the CPRW had passed a resolution opposing ‘the introduction of an overwhelming and incongruous community’ that would be ‘alien to Welsh culture and tradition’ – Caernarfonshire CPRW Resolution, 22nd November 1941, CPRW Papers 9/39.

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57. Joad, ‘Butlineering’ p. 227. Joad's choice of metaphor varied between a ‘sewage farm’ and ‘reservoir’.

58. Joad, ‘Butlineering’ p. 227.

59. Joad, ‘Why Should They Not’.

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63. Undated and unattributed press cutting entitled “Hi-de-hikers” in Cecily Williams-Ellis Papers, B41.

64. Lleyn Defence Committee, (LlDC) Memorandum on the South Caernarvonshire holiday camp, 4th April 1944, Copy in CPRW Papers 9/39.

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68. MTCP, Penychain Camp, p. 82.

69. Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, “Opposition to Holiday Camp – View of Deputations”, 21st April 1944.

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71. MTCP, Penychain Camp, p. 82.

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77. For instance, in a letter to the Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, 19th May 1944.

78. W. E. Butlin, letter to the Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, 18th February 1944.

79. The proportion of visitors composed of families with children varied in Butlin's accounts between half and three-quarters.

80. For instance, Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, 12th May 1944.

81. Letter to the Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, 19th May 1944.

82. W. Thomas, letter to the Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, 22nd February 1945.

83. Quoted in advertisement in the Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, 2nd June 1944.

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88. LlDC, The Lleyn Camp: For Capitalist Monopoly?, p. 1.

89. LlDC, The Lleyn Camp (pamphlet) October 1945, copy in Cecily Williams-Ellis Papers, B41.

90. LlDC, letter to the Manchester Guardian, 18th February 1944.

91. Celt, ‘A Welsh Survey: The Proposed Holiday Camp’, Liverpool Daily Post, 17th February 1944, p. 4.

92. Liverpool Daily Post, ‘Invasion of Tourists – Danger to Welsh Characteristics’, undated cutting in Cecily Williams-Ellis Papers, B41.

93. J. E. Daniel, ‘Cyngor Llŷn a'r gwersyll gwyliau’, my translation of an undated cutting from Y Cymro in Plaid Cymru Papers.

94. Undated cutting from Liverpool Daily Post in Cecily Williams-Ellis Papers, B41.

95. Quoted in MTCP, Penychain Camp, quote p. 80. See Gruffudd, ‘Remaking Wales’.

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97. Western Mail, ‘Make Penychain a children's camp’, 9th November 1945.

98. Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, ‘Minister of Planning – Visit to Caernarvonshire’, 28th September 1945.

99. Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, ‘Future of Penychain Camp – Ministry's conference at Pwllheli’, 15th February 1946.

100. MTCP, Penychain Camp, p. 39.

101. MTCP, Penychain Camp, p. 59.

102. MTCP, Penychain Camp, p. 59. Williams-Ellis also urged that the camp's entertainments be ‘improving’ and Butlin responded. ‘Quiet lounges’ were hung with large oil paintings, bought for their size rather than their quality; nonetheless the collection at Pwllheli was said to be worth five million pounds in 1982 (Read, Hello Campers). Williams-Ellis witnessed a ‘most spirited’ performance of The Barber of Seville at Butlin's Skegness camp; see C. Williams-Ellis, Architect Errant: The Autobiography of Clough Williams-Ellis (Portmeirion, 1980).

103. MTCP, Penychain Camp, p. 86.

104. Liverpool Daily Post, ‘Welsh Features at Holiday Camp’, 27th July 1946.

105. S. Baron, ‘He Plans to Play Post-War host to 40,000’, undated cutting from News Chronicle in Cecily Williams-Ellis Papers, B41.

106. Read, Hello Campers.

107. Liverpool Daily Post, ‘Invasion of Tourists – Danger to Welsh Characteristics’, undated cutting in Cecily Williams-Ellis Papers, B41.

108. Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, ‘Penychain to be a Holiday Camp’, 29th March 1946.

109. Welsh Nationalist, ‘Butlin Unlimited’, May 1946, p. 2.

110. Rojek, C., Decentring Leisure: Rethinking Leisure Theory (London, 1995), p. 86Google Scholar.

111. The Eisteddfod is a traditional Welsh competitive festival of poetry and music.

112. Breuddwyd Billy B, Television documentary by Ffilmiau Eryri for S4C, 1997.