What made our good fortune was the fact that we had a car – not until 1962 did as many as one third of all households have one of their own – plus my parent’s ingenuity & hard work. My father did all his own car maintenance, for example. And of course camping cost very little – I seem to remember fees of something like 1 shilling and sixpence per night for a pitch in a farmer’s field. This usually came with no amenities other than access to a water supply.
We never went abroad, partly because of my father’s gippy tummy (a legacy of the war) but also because my parents always said that they thought it essential that we got to know our own country first. But having fallen in love with Mrs Davis farm we always used that as our August base, except for one year when we did a tour of Devon & Cornwall, deemed too far to go for just one week in those pre-motorway days.
Otherwise I particularly remember Marske By The Sea, Abersoch, Amlwch & Ingoldmells (where we broke with tradition & stayed on a ‘proper’ campsite with a toilet block & a bar, an experience which we never wished to repeat.
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