Summer Holidays In Westgate On Sea

A Memory of Westgate on Sea.

I wonder if anyone is old enough to remember Westgate on Sea before the war! Our family would go there every year for 2 weeks and stay at a guest house not far from where the railway crosses the road that leads down to the beach. It was run by Miss Prior. We had so many happy years there - my grandparents, my mother and father and me aged from about 4 until the start of the war when I was 8. I can remember that on that fateful Sunday - Sept 3, I believe, I had just got down to the beach where my grandparents were waiting when this strange noise broke out - the air raid siren! Immediately, we all rushed back to the house, grabbed our gasmasks and went down to the cellar where the other guests were assembled! After about an hour, the 'all clear' sounded and up we came. That was the end of Miss Prior's for us as we never left home during the war years and my grandfather died in 1944. Every summer there was a carnival through the streets of Westgate. I can remember my mother making me a white rabbit costume for it and another year I went as 'little old lady passing by' with an umbrella etc. Oh, and another year as a Dutch girl with clogs! There were entertainers down on the seafront and always a section for children to compete in(which I would, reciting a poem). Has anyone out there similar memories? I would love to hear.