Skegness Magazine

Well, our persistant historical research over the last few years seems to have uncovered many a skeleton in the Grand Cupboard of Skegness! First we discovered a spelling mistake on the Skegness Clock Tower, then we challenged the world when we proved that Skegness wasn’t infact the first UK resort to get a Switch Back Rollercoaster in the 1880s! And we uncovered a story only yesterday which reveals that Skegness Pier wasn’t officially opened by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, contrary to popular belief.

So what about another popular belief – that John Hassall, creator of the famous Skegness Jolly Fisherman, only ever visited Skegness just once in his lifetime? Of course, we all know that this well-documented visit took place in June of 1936, when Hassall visited Skegness to open the County Hotel, North Parade, Skegness.

Have we uncovered evidence that John Hassall made another visit to Skegness? Well that all depends on technical border lines and how pedantic we are!

Lets read the following story which appeared in a local newspaper on 15th September 1937:

Wonderful Performance by Blind Band

An outstanding performance by a band composed of blind musicians and the presence of two famous poster artists, who judged a bathing beauty competition, made Sunday an “all-star” day at Butlin’s Holiday Camp.

In spite of weather conditions which tended to say the least, towards decidedly “Septemberish” directions, a very large crowd of visitors mingled with the Campers, who numbered over 1,000, and listened to the talented show put over by Claude Bampton and his orchestra of blind musicians directed by Jack Hylton.

The orchestra which, with its leader, numbers twenty, is composed entirely (with the exception of Claude Bampton) of blind artists, and it is interesting to note that at twelve o’clock midnight, on Saturday, the band was playing at the Casino at Rochester, and made the very long journey to Skegness in time for a show on Sunday afternoon.

Their performance, which was of the style of the large stage dance band, embodied popular songs of today and several novelty items, all put across with an ease and manner which left the audience deeply impresses and admiring of such talant.

Artists Judge Beauties

Mr John Hassall, originator of the world-famous Jolly Fisherman poster, and Mr J Greenup, RI, creator of the latest Skegness poster, acted as judges for the Bathing Beauty Contest. Mr Norman Bradford, the energetic Entertainments Manager, accupied his usual position on the microphone, thorough which he kept up his quick-fire humorous running commentary.

[The article goes on to name the finalists in the contest]

Mr Bardford introduced the judges and made reference to the fact that Mr Hassall’s Jolly Fisherman was on the Camp badges and formed the Camp emblem. After the selection, he announced that Mrs W E Butlin, wife of the “Guv’nor” would present the awards to the prize winners.

The guests were afterwards entertained to tea, and Mr Hassall proved to be a very interesting conversationalist disclsing his deep interest in the collection of ancient flint and arrow-heads and similar relics of a long-past era.

Picture by Hudson’s Photo Service, Lumley Road, Skegness.

So John Hassall did indeed visit the area again, in autumn of 1937. But what is debatable, in order to challenge the popular belief, is whether Butlin’s Holiday Camp technically lies in Ingoldmells or Skegness. Technically, it is the former. Yet the article above considers Butlins to be in Skegness when it states that the band  “made the very long journey to Skegness in time for a show on Sunday afternoon”; of course it is possible that the band had another engagement which was geographically in Skegness before the one reported in the article. But if this were the case, why would the article so enthusiastically describe the band’s subsequent performance instead of its first?

Today, Butlin’s Holiday Camp is described as being in Skegness, even by Butlins itself! Everybody refers to it as “Butlins Skegness”.

In the light of this revelation, can we now say John Hassall visited Skegness twice in his lifetime? Or shall we remain pedantic?

Let’s just take one more tiny peek at the story about Hassall’s visit to Skegness in 1936. How did he arrive in Skegness? By train! Can we suppose that on his second visit he also travelled by train – he’s said to have died penniless just ten years after – are we to believe he had enough money to buy a car (which were rather expensive in those days)?

Where is the nearest train station at which to disembark for Butlins?

At SKEGNESS, of course!

UPDATE 11th May 2009

We have now discovered yet another visit that Hassall made to Skegness!

In June of 1939, Billy Butlin laid on the Butlin Holiday Camp Express Train to bring a party of VIPs to see the grand alterations which had been made to the camp. The VIPs consisted of LNER chiefs and representitives of the London Press, all of whom were the sole passengers on the train which ran non-stop from King’s Cross to Skegness in two-and-a-half hours.

The party arrived in Skegness on a Monday afternoon and stayed overnight at Butlins Holiday Camp before making the return journey the next day.

The picture below shows Billy Butlin with the VIPs (Mr Selway, Mr Dandridge and John Hassall, creator of the Skegness Jolly Fisherman) and the Skegness stationmaster, about to board the Butlin Holiday Camp Express Train at Skegness Railway Station.

If you use any information from Skegness Magazine, please credit us for the research.