I was recently looking through some photos of recent trips back to England and found some from 2015 of a day out I spent in a small coastal fishing village called Beer, on the south coast of Devon. And it made me realise that I had not yet swum in the ocean in 2021. I love the ocean and beach, so this was a big deal for me. So I organised a quick trip down to South Izu with a mate and spent two days messing around in the surf and generally recharging the batteries before the busy end of year period. For me, the sea and surf are therapeutic, a necessary part of my life.

Beer is a beautiful small fishing village located in Lyme Bay in the Jurassic Coast Unesco World Heritage Site, the UK’s first World Heritage Site. Surrounded by white chalk cliffs, the village feels like it is hidden away from the world. You might be disappointed to learn that the name of this small coastal Devon village actually originates from the Old English word ‘beare’ or ‘bearu’, meaning woodland or grove, rather than the alcoholic drink.

The beach is a working one, with a small fleet of fishing boats operating from it. There is no port or harbour, which makes it a hive of activity most days, with fishermen pulling and pushing brightly coloured boats up and down to the shoreline and bringing in their catch. The range of fish caught in these waters is incredible, the best of British seafood. Check out this list of locally caught fish and shellfish available at the beach fish shack:

I have very fond memories of day trips to Beer when I was young in the 1970’s. My brother and I would spend weeks of our summer holidays staying with our grandparents and uncle on their dairy farm in central Devon and a trip to Beer was always a highlight. It would take about an hour to drive there, on narrow roads through the beautiful Devon countryside. We would then spend the morning on a fishing boat, catching mostly mackerel with hand lines. There always seemed to be plenty of fish, I cannot remember a trip where we didn’t catch a bucket full. Back on the beach, we would then cook the fresh mackerel over fire and sometimes buy cooked fresh crab from the fishermen’s shack. So simple and so good.

And that’s the beauty of Beer for me, its simplicity. The history of Brits holidaying at the seaside is long, starting in the 1700s, But this was only for the very rich, many of which would have second homes in coastal towns. It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that the great British seaside holiday really became available to all. Now affordable to many through paid annual leave (thanks to the Holiday Pay Act 1938), the destinations of choice depended largely on where you lived. For example in the north, those from the mill towns, Manchester, Liverpool or Glasgow would most likely go to the seaside towns of Blackpool or Morecambe: those from Leeds would head for Scarborough or Filey. Londoners might choose Brighton or Margate. And these seaside towns grew and were developed with hotels, cafes, amusement arcades, funfair rides and much more.

Beer was a very long way from the densely populated industrial areas and before motorways were built, it would take a full day to get there by car, even longer by public transport. Beer was therefore predominantly a holiday destination for local West Country people and on top of that, mostly day trippers. So there were very few hotels, no amusement arcades or fairground attractions. Just the basics for a good day out – a fish & chip shop, proper Devon ice cream, local sweets, including the famous Devon clotted cream fudge, souvenir shops and of course, a couple of good pubs!

And Beer remains today traditional and low key in its tourist appeal. When I visited in 2015, I was so happy to see that the beach was still lined with simple wooden beach huts and deck chairs were available for hire. These are images that could have been taken 50 or more years ago and remain charming to see today.

A beach hut is a small, usually wooden and often brightly coloured, box above the high tide mark on popular bathing beaches. They are generally used as a shelter from the sun or wind, changing into and out of swimming attire and for the safe storing of some personal belongings. Some beach huts incorporate simple facilities for preparing food and hot drinks by either bottled gas or occasionally mains electricity. The sites for the beach huts on Beer beach seem to be owned only by the local council and it takes between 4 and 6 years on a waiting list to have the chance to rent one. You then have to build your own hut, no doubt under strict rules on size, colour etc. The huts do not have electricity and water is from a communal tap. So nice and Basic!
The site rental is from about £800 a year, or ￥120,000.

Or you can rent them for a day (about £10) or week (£55) from a few local businesses.

Long live the great British seaside holiday.