Mablethorpe, Home of the Bathing Beauties

Mablethorpe hosts the UK's only Beach Hut Festival. This year it runs on 14th, 15th and 16th September. This is known as the Bathing Beauties Festival.

Beach Huts are billed as a wonderful place to take shelter from the Lincolnshire East winds or simply a place to hide away!

"The Bathing Beauties Festival, celebrating the unique beauty, culture, architecture and history of the Lincolnshire coast, is the longest linear arts festival in the world. If you are a hut owner join in the festival by entering the Beautiful Beach Hut Competition."


Beach huts all along the coast from Trussville at Mablethorpe to Sutton-on-Sea and Sandilands (a distance of approximately five miles) will host a variety of performances. These will include poetry, music, fire dancing and fire eating, art galleries, exhibition spaces for sculture and installations, film and drama events and fun should be had by all!

Dr Kathryn Ferry has chosen the Festival to launch her new book 'Sheds on the Beach' She is the country's leading expert on Beach Huts.

Fondly remembered from my childhood and subsequent visits! The Penny Arcade was an amusement arcade with a difference, it featured rescued antique amusements that ran on old fashioned large copper pennies and the prizes were usually sweets rather than money. The games were truly games of skill and winning was always possible with practice.


The visitor would "buy" their pennies at the entrance desk and proceed to "lose" them in the many wonderful old machines. These included old fashioned upright pinochle, the forerunner of pinball, a tableau called "The Death of the Miser" - complete with little skeletons and closets - no prizes on this, just a salutary lesson on the consequences of miserliness! There were old fashioned bioscopes portraying "What The Butler Saw" and the inevitable grabbing cranes. These were the old-fashioned mechanical sort, so had no annoying money-grabbing "time out" on them!


There were statues outside, laughter inside and nostalgia for a bygone era! Truly this was a special attraction and I dearly hope it remains!

"Encams, the Environmental Charity, only awards their Flags to seaside resorts that can demonstrate they meet stringent standards in cleanliness and have sound environmental management.

"Being given the privilege of flying the Blue Flags and Seaside Award Flags also demands that each resort has good facilities and information available to the visitors."
The beaches at Mablethorpe have always been spacious, clean and safe for bathers. In addition you can rent Beach Chalets to relax in the shade or have a cuppa whenever you want.

On visits to the coast, you may be lucky enough to see wild seals. I have seen them at Sutton-on-Sea and recently they were seen off the pier at Cleethorpes.

The long expanse of sand with its shallow incline makes for fast tides and also for seals on the beach. Sometimes the seals get into trouble and Mablethorpe Seal Sanctuary is there to assist. It has rescued hundreds of injured and orphaned seals since opening in 1974. These seals are cared for in a special hospital facility and then released into the wild. For those too sick to be released, the Mablethorpe Seal Sanctuary offers safe haven to these wonderful creatures who live a contented life.


The Wildlife Hospital was opened in 1989 thanks to a major donation from the readers of the Daily Mail and donations from many businesses and individuals alike. As well as seals many other animals have since been treated in the hospital. Foxes, badgers, barn owls and kestrels have been provided with a refuge in this natural environment after treatment and visitors can walk through two acres of dunes looking for local wildlife.

The Seal Sanctuary at Mablethorpe

Cat Rescue Centres in North Lincolnshire

The Ark Animal Rescue and Retirement Home

Zoos and Wildlife Centes near Mablethorpe

In the early 1800's the sand dunes formed the East Coast's sea defenses. As a child, Alfred Tennyson and his brothers played in the sand dunes at Mablethorpe. They stayed in a cottage a mile from the sea which cost them 25 shillings. Later they lodged on Quebec Road at Ingoldby House.

In 1827 "Poems by Two Brothers" was published; Alfred and Charles traveled to Mablethorpe by carriage and happily shouted their poems to "no other audience than the deaf sand and the sounding sea waves."

Over a period of 14 years up to 1843, Alfred visited Mablethorpe and stayed at Marine Villa at the Pullover end of High Street, lodging with Mrs. Wiliman.

In the 18th and 19th century, smuggling was as common along the Mablethorpe coast as anywhere. People, desperate for money, ran huge risks to smuggle goods in without paying duty.


Horses faces were camouflaged with soot and their hooves covered with sacks to deaden their sound as smugglers passed on chalk roads. Iron shod cart wheels were wrapped with straw. Otherwise, the noise would carry a long way over flat land on a still night.

Gin, tobacco and bales of silk were hidden in barns, cellars and chimneys. The export of wool was taxed and illegal wool exporting carried harsh penalties of whipping, transportation to Australia and even hanging.


A distance of up to ten miles inland was patrolled by Riding Officers of Customs and Excise to prevent goods moving inland. Shallow water made it easy for carts and horses to pass over the sand dunes and head out to where the ships waited.

Find out more in "The Book of the Lincolnshire Seaside"
by David N. Robinson

Another famous Lincolnshire poet is Oliver Tadpole who wrote:

Algernon Rudd, Algernon Rudd
Lived with the bats in a steeple.
Who would live there? Algernon would
Preferring the bats to people!

This links us nicely into Meg's most recent famous fan - the prime minister of Australia!



Kevin Rudd, PM

Kevin Rudd, a keen traveller and Twitter user was recently discovered to be one of @mymablethorpe's earliest followers. This made National news. In response, it was stated that he follows anyone who follows him and uses an API to do so!