0:00:38 > 0:00:41If resort towns take your fancy
0:00:41 > 0:00:43then you're spoilt for choice.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46There are more than 150 around our coast.
0:00:46 > 0:00:52But as their fortunes ebb and flow, what does it take for a town to keep its head above water?
0:00:54 > 0:00:59To discover the secret of success we need to revisit the golden age,
0:00:59 > 0:01:03when seaside towns were in their Victorian infancy.
0:01:05 > 0:01:11That was also around the time people first started using picture postcards.
0:01:14 > 0:01:20This one of the sands at Rhyl in 1913 says, "Dear sister,
0:01:20 > 0:01:24"just a reminder from Rhyl we are having a good time and lovely weather,
0:01:24 > 0:01:32"I trust your decision, if made, is for the best. Love EEG."
0:01:32 > 0:01:36What I love about these cards is that all of them have been written here
0:01:36 > 0:01:42in Rhyl, perhaps not far from where I'm sitting almost 100 years ago,
0:01:42 > 0:01:46but here we are now getting a little insight into their thoughts
0:01:46 > 0:01:51and their memories immortalised on these simple bits of card.
0:01:51 > 0:01:56The messages from the past are charming, but it's the pictures on the flip-side that are the real
0:01:56 > 0:02:00clue to how Rhyl thrived in those heady Victorian times.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04Just look at all the people crowded on the promenade.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11Harry Thomas has amassed hundreds of these postcards,
0:02:11 > 0:02:17so who better to give me an insight into the unique attractions that used to draw holidaymakers to Rhyl?
0:02:17 > 0:02:19People in those early years,
0:02:19 > 0:02:22they'd enjoyed a day on the beach, they'd had an ice cream,
0:02:22 > 0:02:27possibly a donkey ride, and they'd love walking along the prom
0:02:27 > 0:02:30seeing the waves lapping beneath them,
0:02:30 > 0:02:34or sit down on a lovely hot summer's day and read a book.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38At the end of the pier visitors of the day could see the world famous
0:02:38 > 0:02:41swimmers and divers diving off the end of the pier.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44And of course we had the Rhyl Stately Dome,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48which is the Pavilion theatre, well that's where the sky tower is today.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52It was known as the stately dome of Rhyl, and at night they'd get dressed up
0:02:52 > 0:02:57and go to the Pavilion to see the acts of stage and screen of the day.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01Like the pier, that was demolished in 1973, unfortunately.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05The grandeur in these postcards is just something else, isn't it?
0:03:05 > 0:03:08Well, this is what I love about old picture postcards, they give us a window
0:03:08 > 0:03:14in which we can reveal the past and shows a world lost for ever.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19What these postcards show me is the scale of what's been lost here in Rhyl.
0:03:24 > 0:03:32To understand why our seaside view has changed I'm meeting resort expert Professor John Walton.
0:03:32 > 0:03:38There was competition from a lot of new waves of holidaymaking within and beyond Britain.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41As people moved from the railway
0:03:41 > 0:03:45to their cars and that broke old holiday travel habits.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49And what about losing its iconic buildings like the pier
0:03:49 > 0:03:53and the pavilion, I mean do you think Rhyl now suffers from a lack of identity?
0:03:53 > 0:03:56Yes, what seems to have happened is that in the '50s and '60s nobody
0:03:56 > 0:04:03was quite prepared to risk investing in new stuff when they didn't quite know what people wanted,
0:04:03 > 0:04:06and by the time they'd realised that things were changing
0:04:06 > 0:04:09it was a bit too late to rescue the old attractions,
0:04:09 > 0:04:12and so the pier couldn't be sustained and other buildings
0:04:12 > 0:04:15were lost, and they were distinctive buildings
0:04:15 > 0:04:18that made you know that you were in Rhyl, and not somewhere else.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22Do you think there's hope for Rhyl, could it re-capture its glory days?
0:04:22 > 0:04:25Yes, I think the British seaside really is about to come back
0:04:25 > 0:04:28into its own, and Rhyl should be part of that.
0:04:29 > 0:04:34The sense of loss in Rhyl is a story that's repeated all around our coast,
0:04:34 > 0:04:40as landmarks of the heyday of our seaside have slowly vanished from the landscape.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57Crossing the Dee estuary, we leave Wales behind for England.
0:05:03 > 0:05:08Halfway along the River Dee, on the banks of the Wirral Peninsula,
0:05:08 > 0:05:12there's an entire village marooned, Parkgate.
0:05:12 > 0:05:17Once a seaport, now it has no boats and no water.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21200 years ago, if I'd been walking along this edge,
0:05:21 > 0:05:26the water would have been lapping up 25 feet below me. This was one of
0:05:26 > 0:05:28the busiest ports of the North West.
0:05:28 > 0:05:34Now the water's gone, this is a seaside village without any sea.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42Parkgate was just one of a series of ports built further
0:05:42 > 0:05:46and further downstream as the River Dee silted up over the centuries.
0:05:46 > 0:05:54Eventually nature got her way, and Parkgate was also left high and dry.
0:05:55 > 0:06:00As we follow the Wirral northwards, the coast looks out
0:06:00 > 0:06:03on to Liverpool Bay, where the great ships that served
0:06:03 > 0:06:05the Port of Liverpool dominate the scenery.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18For almost 300 years,
0:06:18 > 0:06:23Liverpool has been connected to the entire world through trade and shipping.
0:06:27 > 0:06:29Where once they berthed ships
0:06:29 > 0:06:34now the docks are home to brash new business and leisure developments.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47But 40 years ago it was a very different story.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57ARCHIVE: Through the dock gates thousands of dockworkers are arriving.
0:06:57 > 0:07:02In port there are nearly 90 ships waiting to be loaded or unloaded.
0:07:02 > 0:07:08Every day 15 or 20 ships arrive with cargoes we need, every day 15
0:07:08 > 0:07:14or 20 other ships sail taking away the things other countries need from us.
0:07:14 > 0:07:19This is one of Britain's doorways to and from the rest of the world.
0:07:21 > 0:07:28Those same quays are mostly deserted today, but it's not just the ships that have gone.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35Being a docker was a way of life for people like Mike Cullen.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39For 30 years he came down to the waterfront,
0:07:39 > 0:07:41a workplace that's now a ruin.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45This place looks as if it was abandoned 100 years ago.
0:07:45 > 0:07:50Well, it is desolation but this was a working dock up to a few years ago,
0:07:50 > 0:07:51though you wouldn't think so.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55Looks like more than 20 years has passed here.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58Anything that gets left soon gets over-run, doesn't it?
0:07:58 > 0:08:02It's sad when you've lived in Liverpool all your life
0:08:02 > 0:08:06and you've seen what these docks used to be and what they are now.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09Some key landmarks have been saved.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15But what's lost completely is the way of life.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18In the early 1960s Colin Jones visited Liverpool Docks
0:08:18 > 0:08:22for the Observer to capture the dockers' working lives.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26When did you take these photographs?
0:08:26 > 0:08:29In the winter of 1963 I came up here.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32Because if you asked me when I thought it had been taken,
0:08:32 > 0:08:35I'd have said the 1930s or even earlier.
0:08:35 > 0:08:36It's amazing, isn't it?
0:08:36 > 0:08:38We were doing a thing on the recession,
0:08:38 > 0:08:42which in 62, 61 was terrible here,
0:08:42 > 0:08:47the unemployment and the recession was beginning to bite.
0:08:47 > 0:08:52- What age is this guy?- Well, it's difficult to say, but I think he must be between 30 and 34.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56- They always looked much older. - Looks about 50.
0:08:56 > 0:09:01Yes, sad, he died not long after the pictures were taken.
0:09:01 > 0:09:07Again, it looks like a photo taken from the depression in the 1920s or something.
0:09:07 > 0:09:12But when you were here it was busy and there were thousands of men, and to look at it now where it's dead...
0:09:12 > 0:09:15It's like as if... It's like as if the atomic bomb has happened.
0:09:15 > 0:09:21There's just a few crazy things left like the clock and these amazing buildings.
0:09:21 > 0:09:28Colin's photographs bring home the gritty reality of the dockers' world.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31Mike still remembers his first day on the job.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35That was the first day, a bit of a culture shock.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39You wasn't guaranteed a day's pay, you had to turn up at a pen,
0:09:39 > 0:09:44and you got a tap on the shoulder, they gave you a book, and you were hired for the day.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47If you didn't get a tap on the shoulder you didn't get hired.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50You got your book stamped, they put AP on your book,
0:09:50 > 0:09:52so attendance proven, so you'd get a nominal payment for that.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56When you talk about turning up and maybe getting work and maybe not,
0:09:56 > 0:10:01was it a case of who you were, whether your face fitted, who your dad was?
0:10:01 > 0:10:04There were bosses there who had their favourites.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07If you were a favourite you'd get a job.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10And so guys were bringing up families on that circumstance.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13It wasn't too bad for lads who were single or lads like myself
0:10:13 > 0:10:16who'd only just got married and had no children,
0:10:16 > 0:10:20but anyone trying to build a family on it, it was a horrendous way of working.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25Loading and unloading ships by hand was arduous and dangerous.
0:10:25 > 0:10:29It was all done under the careful supervision of the stevedores.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34It was his job to store the cargo in such a way that it
0:10:34 > 0:10:38was going to be safe when it went to sea and none of the cargo moved.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40So it was more of an art, more of a skill?
0:10:40 > 0:10:46It was a skill, yeah. He got a shilling an hour extra for being a stevedore.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49The skills of the dockers and stevedores
0:10:49 > 0:10:55put them in a position of power, controlling the imports and exports that kept the country moving.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59It was a power that their unions weren't afraid to exploit.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02But the shipping companies had an ace up their sleeve,
0:11:02 > 0:11:07a trump card that would consign the dockers' way of life to history.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10And the end came packaged like this.
0:11:10 > 0:11:15The simple metal box that changed the world, the container.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21Once container ships entered shipping lanes around the globe,
0:11:21 > 0:11:25the lives of the dockers would never be the same.
0:11:27 > 0:11:34As the old ways vanished, the new docks built to embrace container ship technology thrived.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38With containers and other cargo the Port of Liverpool is now
0:11:38 > 0:11:41busier than ever, but with a fraction of the workforce.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46The future of Liverpool as a port and a city looks assured,
0:11:46 > 0:11:50but that success was built on the backs of its dockers.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13Southport is the home of Britain's oldest pleasure pier.
0:12:13 > 0:12:19But this 140-year-old edifice has recently had a £7 million facelift.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25The new pavilion perched at the end may look space-age,
0:12:25 > 0:12:29but take a step inside and you're transported back in time.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35This is one penny arcade that really lives up to its name.
0:12:35 > 0:12:39The slots here will only accept old pennies,
0:12:39 > 0:12:44and all the amusement machines are the real thing, some dating back to the 1930s.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47I love these machines,
0:12:47 > 0:12:51but at the same time there's always a feeling of melancholy about arcades like this,
0:12:51 > 0:12:56because it was the kind of place you ended up in when it was raining and you couldn't go on the beach.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59But I remember the day trips to seaside resorts,
0:12:59 > 0:13:02I was just as happy to get in here and get some money from my dad
0:13:02 > 0:13:06to play these machines, as I was to do anything else.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09And I'm not leaving here without that little black car!
0:13:19 > 0:13:21Yes!
0:13:25 > 0:13:30Crossing the Ribble estuary, we reach the Fylde coast, and the restrained charms
0:13:30 > 0:13:37of Lytham St Annes, no preparation for what's in store as we head for its noisy neighbour to the north.
0:13:38 > 0:13:43Blackpool is Britain's most visited seaside destination.
0:13:45 > 0:13:50How has this resort succeeded when others have gone under?
0:14:04 > 0:14:08The flashing lights and the in-your-face razzmatazz
0:14:08 > 0:14:15might not be everyone's cup of tea, but to many this is the Las Vegas of the north!
0:14:20 > 0:14:24In the cold light of the morning after,
0:14:24 > 0:14:28the glamour fades but the resort rolls on.
0:14:33 > 0:14:39What I want to know is how Blackpool has always continued to pull in the punters.
0:14:39 > 0:14:45Tourism expert Professor John Walton is on hand to help me out.
0:14:45 > 0:14:50Well, John, here we are in Blackpool and what strikes me first of all
0:14:50 > 0:14:54is that it seems to have retained all its major attractions.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57To me the view is largely unchanged.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59Yes, you've got the tower dominating,
0:14:59 > 0:15:03to the right the big difference is the gigantic wheel.
0:15:03 > 0:15:10It came down in 1929, it was actually put up in 1896 just two years after the tower.
0:15:10 > 0:15:15The idea was brought over from the Chicago International Exposition of 1893,
0:15:15 > 0:15:18they tried it out in London and Blackpool had to have it,
0:15:18 > 0:15:21because Blackpool had to have everything that was new.
0:15:21 > 0:15:27What do you think the key innovations that Blackpool latched onto have been throughout its history?
0:15:27 > 0:15:33Blackpool was always very keen on being first with things or early with things, so it had probably
0:15:33 > 0:15:37the world's first public tramway system running along the seafront.
0:15:37 > 0:15:42And Blackpool was very early in having electric lighting so Blackpool was very proud of being
0:15:42 > 0:15:48in the vanguard of new developments, and of course its town motto is "progress".
0:15:48 > 0:15:53Blackpool has always imported ideas from around the world to attract visitors.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55The saying, "Las Vegas of the north"
0:15:55 > 0:15:58has more than a ring of truth.
0:15:58 > 0:16:04The American influence runs especially deep here at the Pleasure Beach.
0:16:04 > 0:16:10Blackpool has made a virtue of its past by preserving its heritage.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14Scattered amongst the state-of-the-art thrill rides are attractions
0:16:14 > 0:16:18that hark back to the park's origins over a century ago.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22And this is one of the oldest in Europe.
0:16:22 > 0:16:27And it's just one of many innovative attractions imported here from America.
0:16:32 > 0:16:39The inspiration came from a visit to Coney Island in New York by William George Bean in the 1890s.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46Bean returned to Blackpool to build an American-style amusement park.
0:16:47 > 0:16:52The big idea, make adults feel like children again.
0:16:52 > 0:16:58It's a philosophy that's still paying dividends for William Bean's great-granddaughter, Amanda Thompson.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03What I want to really know is the whole story of your great-grandfather.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Well, originally, many, many moons ago his father was
0:17:06 > 0:17:09a river pilot on the Thames, and he was from London and he went off to
0:17:09 > 0:17:11explore and went off to New York,
0:17:11 > 0:17:15went off to Coney Island, saw what they were doing there,
0:17:15 > 0:17:18and was very excited about the prospects of bringing
0:17:18 > 0:17:22something that was started and created in America back to England.
0:17:22 > 0:17:27And so he brought back the Hodgkiss bicycle railway, and it was quite exciting
0:17:27 > 0:17:31really for him because when he brought it back he had no place to put it, and eventually
0:17:31 > 0:17:37decided upon Blackpool, so Blackpool was chosen as the spot to basically start the pleasure beach.
0:17:37 > 0:17:42The fortunes of Blackpool as a resort were really down to him in many ways.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46A Londoner, a good old Londoner brought Blackpool alive!
0:17:48 > 0:17:53William George Bean's innovation and showmanship created a pleasure park
0:17:53 > 0:17:56that's continued to entice people in over the years.
0:17:58 > 0:18:04Blackpool's not been immune to the decline of our seaside resorts,
0:18:04 > 0:18:07but it still has 70,000 holiday beds.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11So what does make this town tower above the others?
0:18:11 > 0:18:17Part of it is that Blackpool has a very, very strong brand, a very strong historic identity
0:18:17 > 0:18:22as the world's first working class seaside resort, and that's something that's given it a unique heritage.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27So what do you think the future for the British seaside resort town is?
0:18:27 > 0:18:29The worst thing you can do is throw everything out,
0:18:29 > 0:18:33get rid of your old visitors, try and start again from scratch.
0:18:33 > 0:18:38What you need to do is actually work with what you've got and make the very best of it.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49Maybe there are lessons to learn from the early pioneers of towns
0:18:49 > 0:18:54like Blackpool, who gambled on innovation to bring in business.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58Nearly 100 years ago, Blackpool found a novel way of extending
0:18:58 > 0:19:05its season by a whole two months, and that brainwave still lights up the North West coast every year.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15The illuminations stretch for almost six miles.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28If other resorts can find their own inimitable way of drawing in
0:19:28 > 0:19:32the crowds, then maybe the future of our seaside towns is bright.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43Subtitles by Red Bee Media
0:19:43 > 0:19:45E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk