Donkey Rides Banned From Beach

May 18

lauraballBeside The Seaside Blog , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

This new blog post has come about sooner than I imagined. I was planning on blogging every Sunday during my long cliff top walk with the dog. However, in the light of recent news I just had to write about it… “Donkeys Banned from Cromer Beach”. A mother of three living in the traditional seaside town famous for Cromer crabs has proposed to run a donkey ride service on the wonderfully sandy beach. However, according to tourism officials at The North Norfolk District Council they do “not fit with what the town has to offer” and are not safe… This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! My morning was nearly spilt all over my lap when I heard the news reader.

Donkey rides have been a traditional feature of the British seaside resort since as early as 1895 when the first rides began in Bridlington. These brightly coloured donkeys originally were heavy lifting draught animals working in the cockle picking industries around our coastline. However, as tourists flocked to the seaside to soak up the salty air and sea water their purpose quickly changed. With the segregation of the sexes on the seashore the donkeys, chosen because of their quiet dispositions, were used by the upper class lady visitors who were pulled in small carriages led by small boys dressed up as coach men. This allowed the gentle folk to take in all the seaside has to offer without doing anything as undignified as walking. From 1918 the post-war boom created more employment for the masses and as a result rising wages for the previously pauperised working classes allowed for more affordable travel to the coast. With this new financial freedom the population of key resorts such as Brighton shot up to well over 80,000. Inevitably to make room for a sudden influx of holiday makers men and women began mixing on the beaches and slowly segregated class areas within resorts emerged. After all, you can’t expect a respected member of the community to ride in their carriage past less fortunate folks can you?

During the 1920′s along with the increasingly relaxed social attitudes regarding women’s domestic rights the British seaside was transforming. Women in scantly clad fashions exposing their knees and arms rendered the bathing machines and donkey drawn carriages obsolete. Purpose built beach huts were erected to give the upper classes a home from home on their holidays. It was then that children started to ride donkeys for entertainment and more risque forms of adult entertainment emerged from the woodwork. From mutoscopes and naughty postcards to end of the pier shows.

Even before the emergence of the great British seaside holiday donkeys were a part of our coastal fishing towns. I live a stones throw from Cromer and at low tide scuttling crabs and shellfish are plentiful so I am pretty certain that donkeys would have been used in the past to save fishermen’s backs when landing their daily catch. It therefore seems absolutely absurd to me, I’m sure you will agree, that donkeys have been banned from the beach! Have those council officials never been to the seaside?! They truly do not know what they are missing. All I can say is health and safety in this country has gone mad!

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