Weekend Travels

High frolics on the beach that epitomise a typical 1950s British day out at the seaside, before vests and braces went out of fashion.

Castleford amateur filmmaker Eric Bolderson filmed several trips to Scarborough in the 1950s. On this occasion a coachload of Eric’s friends join him for a meal out and much larking about on the South Bay. Although all adults, judging by their playful antics on the beach, they seem to have reverted to a second childhood.

Eric Bolderson run a bookies in Castleford, following his father, and was well known locally, especially for his sense of humour. In fact his films of the people of Castleford in the 1950s and ‘60s – which he would show in a makeshift cinema in his small attic – seem to reveal a whole town that was able to enjoy life, and many in Castleford are now very grateful that Eric was around to capture this. Of note here is the Ballroom with the architectural arcade on South Bay that can be seen in the background. This doesn’t appear to have been there in 1955, and hasn’t been there for a while.