Welcome to the start of our third and final week! Today marks the start of Visit England’s #EnglishTourismWeek (a virtual version for 2020, of course). To tie in with this and the bank holiday, we’ll be spending today looking at some of the ways the tourist industry has brought people to Plymouth, as well as how some of the city’s own residents have enjoyed holidays.
Sadly, many of us have had to cancel holidays this year, or adapt to enjoy the sunshine from our gardens and, where possible, strolls in local parks. As you can see from the photo above, sunbathing didn’t become popular until the 1920s and many people wore full clothing and hats to the beach to protect their faces from the sun!
Plymouth might have formed part of your itinerary if you were thinking of embarking on a cycling tour of the South West in the 1940s. Take a look at this video clip.
In the early 1980s, children from London’s Afro-Caribbean community were among the inner-city children encouraged to visit Plymouth in a scheme offering subsidised holidays outside London. Watch the BFI’s video here.
Later today, we’ll be looking at how the camp at Maker Heights offered holidays to Plymouth’s own inner-city children. We’ll also be highlighting local tourist attractions like the National Marine Aquarium and the Barbican.
We hope you enjoy the content we’ll be sharing today. We’ll wrap up this post with this clip which shows some of the delights of boating on the Tamar in the 1930s.
Plymouth History Festival 