History of the Seaside – Sun, Sea and Sand Art Gallery
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Teacher Resource /learning Seaside History: History of the Seaside – Sun, Sea and Sand Art Gallery scarboroughmuseumstrust.com Key Stage / Art Curriculum Links KS1 /2 English KS1/2 Reading, writing and composition History KS1/2 Learning Objectives Exploring ideas of changes in historical perspectives Listening, speaking and writing skills Understanding basics of drawing and painting © Scarborough Museums Trust www.scarborougmuseumstrust.com Page 1 Orientation All spaces in the Art Gallery, particularly the seascapes by Grimshaw. Focus And Narrative Sun, sea, sand In the 1700s, coastal spas began to offer more than just ‘taking the waters’ for health. Doctors began to recommend sea bathing as good for the body. King George III helped to promote its health benefits by bathing in the sea at Weymouth in 1789 after a bout of illness. Bathing and swimming really became popular in the 1800s as a pleasure activity. At that time, it was socially unacceptable to reveal too much flesh on the beach and bathing machines were used for privacy. These machines looked like beach huts on wheels. They were mobile changing rooms with a door at the front so that bathers could step out into the sea without being seen from the shore. Once it became acceptable for men and women to bathe and swim together, the bathing machine faded from use and had mostly vanished by 1914. Water entertainments became popular at seaside resorts. Many entertainment performers offered swimming lessons as a means of earning extra money. Swimming clubs started to appear from the 1860s onwards. Other popular activities included surfing, with Newquay in Cornwall establishing itself as the British surfing capital. Today Fistral Beach at Newquay is still the surfing hub of Britain. Where did people stay when they visited the seaside? Today you can chose from lots of options, from Bed and Breakfast or self-catering accommodation to hotels or caravan parks. The earliest visitors to the seaside mostly rented rooms in other people’s homes. The building of large Georgian terraced houses in the 1800s allowed some wealthier families to take up residence for a whole summer. Hotel building didn’t start until the railway brought more and more people for shorter stays to the seaside. The Grand Hotel at Scarborough opened in 1867 and at the time was the largest hotel in Europe. Apartments also became very popular where people could rent either the whole house or a single room. Many holidaymakers stayed at lodging houses in streets behind the seafront. They were often cramped and many seaside postcards joked about how small they were. Boarding houses or ‘bed and breakfast’ appeared in the 1930s and were mostly run by women. By the 1970s, many hotels and boarding houses were put up for sale as seaside holidays started to change. Fewer people visited for longer stays and as more people owned a car there was an increase in day-trippers instead. It’s believed that the first bathing machines were used at Scarborough. However, by the early 1800s most seaside resorts had bathing machines available to hire. Queen Victoria had her own personal bathing machine built at Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight. Coastal lidos became a common sight in the 1930s as swimming increased in popularity. One of the earliest lidos was Scarborough’s South Bay bathing pool, which opened in 1915. Holiday Camps also offered an alternative seaside experience. The first camp of this kind was Cunningham’s on the Isle of Man established in 1834. Billy Butlin opened his first Butlin’s camp in Skegness in 1936. These camps offered accommodation, meals and entertainment all on the same site. By the 1960s, Britain had over 100 holiday camps. A trip to the seaside wouldn’t be the same without taking home a souvenir. Souvenirs became popular in the Victorian period. They were often made from china-ware and depicted a town crest © Scarborough Museums Trust www.scarborougmuseumstrust.com Page 2 and name. Many of these souvenirs were produced by a handful of English companies such as W.H Goss who manufactured souvenirs from 1858 to 1939. Beach huts were a mid-Victorian invention and were sometimes converted into bathing machines or fishermen’s huts. Today, there are more than 20,000 beach huts around the UK coast and there is even an annual competition for ‘Beach Hut of the Year’. From 1894, the Post Office started allowing postcards to be sent via the postal system. By the 1900s, picture postcards had really taken off. Before 1902, the back of the postcard was strictly for the address and stamp leaving only the space around the image on the front for a message. After 1902, Britain pioneered the divided back, where the address was on one side and the message on the other leaving the image on the front free of writing. The famous comic seaside postcard had its heyday in the 1920s and 1930s. Questions How has the seaside changed? What is a spa? Why do we no longer have bathing machines? Activity Design postcards with pupils using different media. Pick one theme they enjoy – e.g. Donkeys, ice cream. Draw on the techniques displayed in the pictures e.g. building up colour, line drawings, washes for pupils to choose how to express their imagination Do a consequences game getting the class to tell the story of their day at the seaside. Each pupil picks another pupils line at the end puts on a postcard and adds their own line – creating strong sharing dynamic in writing and reading process. Resources See examples of work from workshop delivered in summer using the Grimshaw pictures and a “banquet of materials” laid out on lining paper – the black and white photocopies provide an excellent canvas for ideas development (photos in here - B&H see attachments) © Scarborough Museums Trust www.scarborougmuseumstrust.com Page 3 .