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That sounds like a good place to stay - good prices, good food, clean and friendly AND a bar. Like the family run Hotels of yesteryear who took pride in the care that they provided and you would go back every year!

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Men may come and men may go but Mablethorpe goes on for ever. (Apologies to Alfred L T) All your memories resonate with me too. Remember the little boating lake with hand cranked paddle boats? An

I recall my first family holiday, was at Mablethorpe, Golden Sands Caravan Park - it must have been around 1963 - not sure, I was very young. We would go every year and meet up with the same families

This photograph was taken around 1946 when we were at Sutton on Sea or Mablethorpe.  I was told by dad  that the defences were up to stop those nasty Germans getting into Britain!   For several y

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"You never know how many friends you have got until you have a cottage by the sea" :)

Thats true Mick, Niece and her family from Brisbane here in Mabo this Wednesday, really looking forward to it, never met the Husband or the children.

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I recall my first family holiday, was at Mablethorpe, Golden Sands Caravan Park - it must have been around 1963 - not sure, I was very young. We would go every year and meet up with the same families from other areas. I recall the earlier caravan's - the gas lamps that had that certain smell when lit. Riding those double bikes, where you sat side by side, often I was crammed into the middle, flanked by my older brother and sister. Days were filled going to the beach or if it was windy we'd sit in the sand dunes, with one of those canvass windbreakers wrapped around us. Donkey rides on the beach; the fun fair (I believe there was one that was indoors). At the caravan site, my dad would win prizes for singing.. still have some photos tucked away - with unfamiliar faces sat at the table with my parents and my dad being awarded a lamp or cigar/cigarette case by the 'compare'. They'd have a bingo game, where you could win prizes (not cash). I think there was a disco - but I was too young to go in it, just remember hanging around outside (with my older sister/brother) and listening to the music..I always think of that when hearing Locomotion by Little Eva. Putting pennies into the slot machines, I think we won candy (sweets) from some of them. Watching my older siblings in the sack races; Later years we upgraded to the more deluxe caravans - a little more spacious, with flushing toilets, electric lights and bunk beds in the back bedroom. One model had some that had a very uncomfortable top bunk, which actually propped up, like a hammock, not a solid mattress. Mom and dad would sleep on the Murphy bed in the lounge area. Later, my friend and her parents would join us - and we'd run around playing most of the day, without any fear of getting lost or anything happening to us. A few years back, my brother told me he had returned to the area, and it hadn't really changed that much. Not sure if I'd ever get there again as I moved to Canada and most visits back to England involve visiting family. It always seemed to be sunny at the Golden Sands Caravan Park..occasionally windy, but always sunny.. We must have returned for many years, my brother eventually brought his girlfriend with him, and they've been married now for some 43? years. I remember we'd drive there from Yorkshire, I suppose my dad would get fed up of me asking "are we there yet?" and then would say "can you smell the sea?" Glad I stumbled onto this site, it evoked many happy memories, dad passed 31 years ago and mom 8 yrs ago. Now my brother has a static caravan up in the Lakes, quite a bit different from those 1960's models.

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That sounds like a good place to stay - good prices, good food, clean and friendly AND a bar. Like the family run Hotels of yesteryear who took pride in the care that they provided and you would go back every year!

re the merrydale hotelwe have had to go back to the first b and b we stayed in jeff deens for rockers reunion as kathy and collin have left and moved on to a new b and b in blackpool.when dave and i went down just after christmas to see if it had been taken over the hose was completely empty . so we went to geoff deens again no one about but rang a couple of days later and got the room we orignally stayed in for first too years price still not bad but they were not so friendly and helpful as kathy and collin were that was a real home from home.

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Welcome Yorkileass :)

I too remember Golden Sands and the 'Disco' No DJ just a room with blue lights and a Juke Box.

The first time I saw my white shirt glow in those lamps. Waterloo sunset by The Kinks takes me straight back there :)

The Amusement arcade was a wooden flat felted roof affair with big windows, and the machines were all 1d.

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THINK THE LAST TIME I WENT THERE WITH MY MUM AND DAD WAS 1966 WENT TO THE DISCO MOST NIGHTS WITH THE TEENAGERS OF DADS MATES BUT I WOULD ALWAYS GO OFF ON MY OWN FOR AN HOUR OR TWO UP TO THE FUNFAIR TALK TO LOCAL BIKER GUYS WHO HUNG AROUN UP THAT END SHOWED ME A NICE LITTLE BIKER CAFE DOWN ONE OF THE SIDE STS BUT CARNT REMEMBER ITS NAMEBUT MET SOME NICE GUYS AND GELS DOWN THERE FROM ALLOVER INCLUDING A FEW FROM NOTTINGHAM I ALREADY KNEW GOOD WEEK THAT WAS BUT HAD TO MAKE SURE I WAS BIKE DOWN THE STE BY 10 BEFORE MUM AND DAD WERE COMMING OUT THE CLUB AND BE BACK IN DISCO. ONE OF THE GUYS WOULD OFTEN TAKE ME BACK DOWN THE LANE DID NOT NEED A HELMET IN THEM DAYS SO COULD GET ON THE BACK OF A BIKE WITHOUT ONE I HAD ONLY JUST LEFT SCHOOL THE WEEK BEFORE AND WAS STILL ONLY15 SO ALTHOUGH DAD WAS NOT ALWAYS BOTHERED SO MUTCH WHEN WE WERE AT HOME HE WAS A BIT MORE FUNNY WHEN WE WERE AWAY ABOUT TIMES I WAS BACK AND HE WOUULD USUALY COME OUT ADOULTS CLUB TO MAKE SURE I STILL GOT MONEY FOR A DRINK AND GO AND GET SOME CHIPS IF I WANTED THEM DISCO DOWN THERE WAS OK BUT DADS MATES KIDS WERE ALL A BIT YOUNGER THAN ME AND I USED TO GET A BIT BOARED WITH THEN,

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Yorkshire lass mentioned the 1d slots paying out sweets. There were a number of different sweets to win. here's a picture of a Rowntree's fruitgum machine:

657%255B1%255D.jpg?gl=GB

And a Spangles one:

spangles.jpg?gl=GB

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This was one of my favourite slot games and I recall one in Mablethorpe played by my brother and me on a visit to see the "Vintage" arcade at Mabo in about 1975:

Football%255B1%255D.jpg?gl=GB

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Nice to see Mabos raised its head again, everything is still here. Indeed exciting times, talk of a tidal swimming pool being built no less, events later in the year include The buskers festival and in Sept The Bathing Beauties weekend, Sat 16th of March is The Motor Bike festival held mainly around The Queens Park area, further updates to follow.

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was hoping ti make bike festival but dave will be fishing for the first time since october on the sunay so dont think he will want to comee all the way down there on the saturday. but hope to get down for a few days in may if every thing goes to plan .

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Yorkshire lass mentioned the 1d slots paying out sweets. There were a number of different sweets to win. here's a picture of a Rowntree's fruitgum machine:

657%255B1%255D.jpg?gl=GB

And a Spangles one:

spangles.jpg?gl=GBI'd forgotten about Spangles.... still like to stock up on some British candy when over - better than what we can buy in Canada and beats the USA's abysmal selection! Cadbury's chocolate still tastes best from Britain... but trying to avoid them all now...too many sweeties.. now I'm on a sugar search - and since I'm currently in California, stuck with the US's poor supply!! ha ha... But those are the machines I remember the little ball would flick all the way around until it (hopefully) landed in that little hole... thanks for posting the photos,

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Here's a few random memories from me about Mablethorpe.

Must have visited there several times on day trips over the years, but only ever stayed there once - for a week or so with my mother in either 1958 or 1959. I can’t be sure, but I don’t think it was a bed & breakfast place we stayed in, but took rooms or a flat. What I do remember is that it had gas lighting.

We spent nearly every day on the beach, and always seemed to have sardine sandwiches for a picnic lunch. A highlight of the beach for me was the ‘sand train’, which was either this one or one very like it:-

http://www.nfa.dept.shef.ac.uk/images/quiz03.jpg

We went to the cinema (was it called the Lyric?) almost every evening we were there (no TV where we were staying!). There seemed to be a different film on every night, and I remember we were able to book seats in advance like in a theatre. Two films that I can remember seeing were ‘Boy on a Dolphin’ with Sophia Loren, and ‘The Deep Blue Sea’ with Kenneth More.

One day we had a train ride to Louth, but it was early-closing day and there was nothing to do but look in shop windows! As stated on an earlier post, Mablethorpe was on a railway line from Willoughby, which continued on to rejoin the Boston – Grimsby line at Louth. The Mablethorpe to Louth section
closed at the end of 1960.

I always remember my parents telling me about how the sand dunes at Mablethorpe had been mined during the war, and in relation to that, there used to be a gate leading into a wood somewhere in Lincolnshire along the way to not just Mablethorpe, but also the other places like Chapel St Leonards and Skegness, which had a notice on it: ‘Beware of Mines’ (or words to that effect). Why there were mines in that particular area I couldn’t say. The thing is that the war even to people of my generation born a few years afterwards (1950 in my case) was something from history, something you read about in comics or saw in the films on TV on Sunday afternoons. But in the late 1950s it was only 13 or 14 years before, and when you think back to 13 or 14 years ago from NOW it seems like only yesterday. The mines in the sand dunes and so on must have all seemed so recent to my parents.

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