Ryde Social Heritage Group research the social history of the citizens of Ryde, Isle of Wight. Documenting their lives, businesses and burial transcriptions.
RYDE SOCIAL HERITAGE GROUP
Based at Ryde Cemetery Heritage & Learning Centre. Preserving, documenting and promoting the social history of Ryde on the Isle of Wight.
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Seaside Landladies 1913

The Beach at Ryde 1945

LONGER SEASIDE SEASONS 1913

Reports from a number of holiday resorts showed that the season was likely to last longer in 1913 than previous  years.  The widespread discussion of the mistaken idea of everyone trying to crowd their holidays into the same short period around August probably had something to do with that.  Landladies and shopkeepers would welcome any changes that extended the holiday period and allows them a longer time to reap their harvest.

Landladies 1955 Ryde & Seaview Guide

That year there was no great difference in the time of the season’s commencement, but that may have been because the subject was hardly raised early enough.  The business man usually had to fix the date of his holiday a long way ahead, and was not likely to change it at a few weeks’ notice, and the mother with a family of children to consider also liked to have her seaside quarters engaged well in advance.

Perhaps the next year (1914) would see the season in full swing in June and July, and full advantage taken of those summer months.  (How wrong they were, with the beginning of the Great War, and the change in peoples lives for the coming years).

The image (right) shows the beach at Ryde, people in their Sunday best clothes, trays of tea and sandwiches, which inevitably got sand on them when eaten.

The long list on the left of boarding/guest houses, were all landladies advertising their holiday accommodation.  Just look at the Prices.  If it included interior sprung mattresses and evening dinner, the average price was 4-5 gns per week.  Whereas a B and B with use of sitting room was £2.10s.  Hot and cold water, probably a jug and basin in their room, was beginning to be offered by that year, one was even advertising the use of a bathroom, quite a luxury.

Note:
Famed for their gruff manner and strict rules and regulations, the seaside landlady is now considered a dying breed, but between the 1940s and 1980s, you would have been spoilt for choice from hundreds of terraced boarding houses on roads within a short distance from the promenade.  It reminds many people of simpler, happier days, when a holiday consisted of a stroll along the promenade, making sandcastles, taking a dip in often very cold water, followed by a hearty meal, and perhaps a show if you were lucky, all the while being looked after by a friendly landlady.

Sources: RSHG, IW Observer, Historic England, Ryde & Seaview Guide
Image: Ann Barrett Postcard postmarked 1945
Article: Ann Barrett