Nostalgia: Back to the days of bathing machines in Clacton

AFTER Clacton Pier was built in 1871, many visitors came to the new resort by steamer from London.

The families wore their Sunday best clothes, but they wouldn’t have brought their swimming kit.

The first bathing machines arrived on Clacton’s West Beach in 1873 and were owned by the Cattermole family.

These were really huts on wheels, which were drawn into the water by horses.

The cost was 6d for half an hour and extra if you wanted a servant to help you change.

Clacton Council laid down strict rules and bathing machines for the different sexes had to be 100 yards apart.

Towels were provided and ladies could choose a swimming gown to wear.

There was also a brush and a cushion for their hat pins inside the bathing machines.

Once changed, he or she would walk down the steps into the water, submerging themselves quickly.

Many Victorian visitors could not swim and so dippers were employed to help.

However, there were complaints that the Clacton ones were very rough.

By 1908, Clacton boasted 65 bathing machines, which were situated on both sides of the pier. It was compulsory to use them.

In 1909, two Clacton vicars were arrested for walking down to the beach in long coats, wearing their swimming costumes underneath.

They claimed it was 5.30am in the morning and nobody was around, but a policeman was hiding behind a bathing machine and arrested them.

After the First World War, bathing machines were no longer used, so several bathing stations were built on the prom.

Visitors could pay a small fee to use one of these huts to change into their swimming costumes.

There were tents on the beach, too. In 1927, a gentleman wrote to a Clacton newspaper.

He said: “I wish to draw attention to a disgusting spectacle I witnessed on Sunday afternoon.

“I saw two young men walking along the upper promenade in just bathing suits. Cannot this be stopped by the police?

“Why should residents in one of the best parts of Clacton be annoyed like this and they were near a high-class girls’ school, too.”

How times have changed...