Let’s take a walk along the pier. What activities can we do here?

The following ‘tasks’ are suggested activities which you can choose from or adapt to make them suitable for your students.

Further information:

The Pier

The first seaside piers were built in the early 19th century. They began simply as places to moor boats but soon developed into impressive feats of engineering – places where holidaymakers would go for entertainment and relaxation. The oldest pier in Britain is at Ryde on the Isle of Wight, opened in 1814. One hundred years later, there were over a hundred pleasure piers around the UK, offering fine pavilions, penny arcades, refreshment and other entertainment.

Ice Cream

By the mid-19th century, ice cream had become popular and inexpensive in Britain. Street sellers of ice cream were known as hokey-pokey men. Nobody is quite sure where the name comes from, but it was used in a chant by the vendors to sell their wares: ‘Hokey pokey penny a lump, that’s the stuff to make you jump.’ As many of the ice cream sellers were of Italian descent, the phrase may come from the Italian ‘Ecco un poco’ (‘Here’s a little piece’).

The ice cream would be sold for a penny and served in small glass cups which were returned to the vendor after use, given a quick wipe and were then ready for the next customer. More environmentally friendly than cardboard tubs, but as hygienic?

Music

‘I do like to be beside the seaside’ was written in 1907 and first recorded in 1909, making it an Edwardian rather than a Victorian song! But it reflects how popular trips to the coast were becoming by the turn of the century. Some of the less familiar verses to the song talk of saving up all year to go away, arriving in Blackpool and having a few too many glasses of wine at the station!

There were all forms of musical entertainment at the Victorian seaside – town bands, music hall shows, classical concerts and musical theatre.

Ladies bathing from bathing carts 1890. Catalogue Ref: COPY1/91 (131-132)

Bathing from bathing carts at Blackpool 1895. Catalogue Ref: COPY1/421 (627)

The Morning Dip Tom Browne 1907. Catalogue Ref: COPY1/329 (3f)

Children on the beach at Blackpool 1895. Catalogue Ref: COPY1/421 (5)

Cromer Beach, Norfolk 1899. Catalogue Ref: COPY1/443/324 (A)

Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, Beach and Promenade, 1899. Catalogue ref: COPY1/443

Where do we want to sit on the beach? What activities can we do while we’re here?

The following ‘tasks’ are suggested activities which you can choose from or adapt to make them suitable for your students.

Further information:

Beach Trips

By the 1860s, railway companies were offering cheap excursions to many seaside destinations on Sundays and at holiday times such as Easter and Whitsun. In 1862, 132,000 visitors arrived in Brighton in one day. Its population at the time was less than 80,000.

Swimming at the beach

Before the Victorian era, men and women swam separately. Most people used bathing machines or carts. These were first used in the middle of the 18th century and looked like small horse-drawn caravans. The bather walked up the steps to get changed inside while the horse pulled the cart into the water. The bather could then enter the water without being seen. Sometimes chains were used instead of a horse to drag the cart into the sea. If you couldn’t swim, you might be accompanied by a ‘dipper’, someone to help you into the water.

By the 1870s, men usually wore one-piece knitted bathing costumes. Women’s outfits consisted of a knee-length skirt with loose trousers down to the ankles. This was worn with a blouse and sometimes a jacket too.

Excursion Train ABC, 1874 Catalogue Ref: COPY1/26 (373)

Railway guard, 1884. Catalogue Ref: COPY1/369