With around 50 miles of picturesque coastline, it’s no surprise that West Sussex has been a popular summer destination since the 1700s. As a result, resort towns like Bognor, Littlehampton, Worthing and the Witterings developed rapidly and have all been home to beachfront villas, donkey rides, boarding houses, bathing machines, and of course ice cream!
Plunge into this blog and immerse yourself in a selection of summer-themed archival records.
Summer on film
Snippet from the Summer film on Vimeo by Screen Archive South East, part of the series for West Sussex Unwrapped.
Images should not be reproduced without permission from West Sussex Record Office.
Summer in the archive
Postcard by The Cynicus Publishing Co. Ltd., 1908 – PD 1549
Byelaws under the Public Health Act of 1875 forbade adult men and women to bath together. However, these rules were relaxed in Bognor in 1898, allowing everyone to go into the sea at once. As one of the first beaches to do so, this made the town a very popular destination for holidaying families, and a good topic for humorous postcards!
More humourous postcards from the archive
Mary Wheatland, ‘bathing woman of Bognor’, by Gerard Young, c1910 – GY PH 3045
Mary Wheatland was the manager of the Bognor bathing machines from the 1860s until her retirement in 1909. She was an iconic character not least because she was responsible for the safety of her bathers, saving many lives during her tenure as the ‘bathing woman of Bognor’.
Courtesy of the University of Chichester.
Bathing machines were popular from the 18th century until the early 20th century and were an important part of beach etiquette. They allowed swimmers to modestly change out of their clothes into swimwear and wade into the sea, away from prying eyes.
Bathing machines at Bognor c1910, PH 3963
Animals by the sea
Elephants at Bognor, c1890, PH 4032 
Donkey rides at Bognor, 1920s, PH 4089
Whilst the only animals you’ll find on our beaches today tend to be more along the lines of pet dogs, elephants and donkeys were once popular! Well, perhaps not the elephants, though they did indeed visit Bognor in around 1890. They were part of Sanger’s Circus, a popular travelling show, who took their performance elephants to exercise on the beach – much to the bemusement and wonder of the locals!
Bognor also offered donkey rides to excited children. However, Worthing went to another level and offered goat rides! Popular in the Victorian era, children would clamber aboard a miniature carriage and potter about the beach courtesy of a couple of goats.
Punch and Judy show 
Accommodating the holiday makers
(A few select hotels. Clockwise from left to right – PH 3963 – PH 575 – detail of Kevis 4/360 – Kevis 4/360)
The Beach Hotel in Bognor (image PH 3963) as seen in around 1900. Bognor is more recently famous for Butlin’s which opened in 1932 with an amusement park. A zoo was then added and finally a holiday camp was launched. Similarly, the Marine Hotel in Worthing (image PH 575) was a popular beachfront hotel, and it is seen here also around 1900. Lastly, in the heart of West Sussex was the sizable Swan Hotel in Petworth (image Kevis 4-360) which employed many local people from the surrounding area during it’s time, until it closed in the 1980s.
National Dairy and Ice Cream Convention certificate – AM 613
I scream! You scream! We all scream for ice cream!
This certificate was awarded to Mr T. E. Pescott of Straits Diary, Middleton-on-Sea, for the ‘Best Dressed Ice Cream Window’ in January 1935. Yes, we know, January is an incongruous time of year for such a convention. Nevertheless, his window display must’ve looked tempting and delicious enough to win such an accolade! We can only imagine the taste of award-winning ice cream….
Ice cream sales 1930s, FBP 1/12/39 
Eating ices on Bognor beach, 1931, AM 320/3/49
Brighton Railway poster advertising trips to Selsey, c1912 – Add Mss 13773
Selsey, like a number of resort towns on the coast of West Sussex, was a popular destination for day trippers in the early 20th century. Note the language used in this poster, “a healthy rural village”. The clean, fresh air and comparatively slower pace of life in rural towns was a tonic to worn-out city dwellers and factory workers. Those with a little more to spend may have even stayed in a local boarding house or B&B, or perhaps a hotel if they were feeling extravagant.
You can read more on the history behind this poster here.
Sunny Worthing magazines, 1960s
The sixties ushered in higher national employment levels and more disposable income, and a yearly holiday was increasingly affordable for many families. Seaside resorts experienced a boom in tourism. These brightly coloured publications were more like holiday brochures, promoting a summer spent in Worthing and luring back repeat visitors. From entertainment listings to taxi services, they covered everything that a holiday-maker would need to know about the town. Highly saturated photographs filled the pages, enticing potential visitors with blue skies, fashionable restaurants and trendy clientele.
Keep an eye out for next week’s theme, ‘Nursing’, on Tuesday 23rd June.
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West Sussex Record Office 
Good morning,
Do you have any information on staff members at Cuckfield hospital between 1967-73. My wife was a S.E.N. Student at that time and went on to work there when trained. Her name was Jennifer Florence LeCornu.
Thank you
Ray Jones
PS. She is now Jennifer Jones.
Thank you
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Hello Ray, thank you very much for your message. Can I ask you to email us with your enquiry, please? Our email address is record.office@westsussex.gov.uk – thank you.
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