Pontins

Balloon car 707, seen with an all over advert for Pontin's, at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, 5 August 1990

Fred Pontin opened his first holiday camp in 1946 on the site of a former U.S. army base (built during World War II), at Brean Sands near Weston-super-Mare in Somerset at a cost of £23,000. Pontin formed a syndicate, in which he held 50% control, to own the camp.[2] Within a year he had six camps.[3] Over the years he bought more camps and personally ran them for a year, before selling them to the syndicate.[2] He gradually expanded his empire to thirty sites.[4]

The camps were smaller and less expensive than Butlin's holiday camps.[3] Pontins had Bluecoats to entertain their guests, as opposed to Butlins Redcoats. Among the Bluecoats were Stu Francis, Shane Richie, Bobby Davro, Bradley Walsh, Nick Wilton, Lee Mack and Carol Lee Scott (who later played "Grotbags").[3][5]

In 1978, the company was sold to Coral for £56 million. In 1980, Coral (including Pontins) was taken over by Bass Brewing, who sold Pontins in 1987 to a management buyout team led by Trevor Hemmings.[lower-alpha 1] It was sold again in 1989, to Scottish & Newcastle.

Over the next ten years, the company closed or sold off multiple sites. In a three-year programme in the mid-1990s, the remaining camps were modernised. By 2000, the company was operating only eight camps, and was sold back to Hemmings. In 2008, the company was sold to Ocean Parcs for £46 million.[6] Wall Park holiday centre was not included in the sale.

In January 2009, Pontins announced the closure of its Hemsby holiday centre.[7] Pontins Blackpool in Squires Gate closed in October 2009 and was subsequently demolished after being acquired by property developer Persimmon,[8] leaving only five parks still operating under the Pontins brand.

Pontins headquarters were relocated to the Southport Holiday Park, Ainsdale in Southport. From the original Hemmings buy-out until then, the headquarters were at Sagar House in the village of Eccleston, Lancashire.

In September 2009, Pontins announced a five-year multi-million investment plan for the remaining five parks. Refurbishment work completed in 2010 included a new half-board restaurant and ice skating rink at the Prestatyn Sands Holiday Park, and a new roller skating rink at the Brean Sands Holiday Park. Proposals of re-building the Camber Sands and Southport Holiday Parks and doubling the capacity of the Pakefield Holiday Park were also made.

In November 2010, Pontins entered administrative receivership[3] and in January 2011, the company was bought out of receivership by Britannia Hotels.[1] In 2014, the former Pontins resort at Sand Bay was purchased by the group and it became the sixth resort to be operated under the new Pontins brand.

• Brean Sands, Burnham on Sea, Somerset, Currently closed to tourists, being used to house workers for the local HPC Nuclear Site for 3 years
• Camber Sands, Camber, East Sussex
• Pakefield, Suffolk (adults-only)
• Prestatyn Sands Holiday Park, Wales
• Sand Bay, Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset (adults-only)
• Southport, Merseyside

Prestatyn Southport Brean Sands Camber Sands Pakefield Sand Bay Location of current Pontins holiday camps

This is a list of some former Pontins resorts in both Ireland and the United Kingdom that have either closed or been sold off:

• The 1973 British film Holiday on the Buses was filmed at and set in the Prestatyn resort. A plaque was erected in 2004 at the main entrance gates (unchanged since the film was shot) to note this event.[16] The same venue hosts professional snooker each year. Prestatyn Sands also hosts the finals for the annual Brass Band Festival;[17] historically, the qualifying rounds were held in other Pontins centres.
• The previous On The Buses film, Mutiny on the Buses (1972), depicted buses carrying adverts with the slogan "Go Pontinental", a chain of holiday villages set up in Continental Europe.[2]
• In November 2020, Liverpool-based indie band Courting released their fourth single 'Popshop!' which mentions the resort (in particular the Southport site) in its lyrics saying: "take the lads on tour, we'll go to Pontins."

• UK Family Holidays and Short Breaks | Pontins