I Am A Beach Boy

A Memory of Severn Beach.

I was born in July 1942 at 2 Church Road ,the youngest of eight children,the time I remember best is around 1952,being a kid in the Beach then was brilliant,so many things to do, Boating Lake,Minature Railway,Swimming Pool,Funfair and all the normal things,the highlight of our week was the visit to the Galvanised Gaumont picture house,it would cost 6d on a Wednesday & Saturday and was situated at the back of the Rustic Stores,in later years I became the "Ice cream lady" and got to watch all the films for free.
A lot of us kids worked on the fairgroud starting at the bottom(Darts,Bow & Arrow,Swings,Big Wheel,Slot Machine Arcade and finally to the pinnacle collecting the fares on the dodgems)it was the finest place for pulling you could have.
My mate Grimo and I used to go to Church(Galvanised)St Nicholas at the top of Church Road,every Sunday evening Grimo would pump the Church organ I would
be making a terrible noise in the choir,dressed in our Church robes and wearing jeans,t shirt and monkey boots underneath, as soon as the service finished we would be on our bikes and staight back to work on the dodgems .
The best time of the year would be the Summers (remember them)home from School and into the Swimming Pool the famous"Blue Lagoon",(in 1995 I was doing a show in Oman and mentioned I was from Severn Beach and someone said Is the Blue Lagoon still there)there was even a poster on Paddington Station showing "THE BEACH" and calling it The Blackpool of the South.at times it would be impossible to move for so many people visiting,they would come by Train,Bus,Cycles and of course the Cars.we had an abundance of cafes,Weatherheads,Andrews,Shirleys and the local hang out Monty`s an experience never forgotten even after 55 years.
It has been the norm since for journalists to "knock" the Beach but anyone who grew up in the fifties will tell you just how magical it was,friendships made then still lasting to this day,I`m back living in the Beach again and it feels like I`ve never been away.