Vehicle belonging to Middleton Tower Holiday Camp, Heysham

Vehicle belonging to Middleton Tower Holiday Camp, Heysham
Vehicle belonging to Middleton Tower Holiday Camp, Heysham
Vehicle belonging to Middleton Tower Holiday Camp, Heysham
232618
NMO20110210019
Vehicle belonging to Middleton Tower Holiday Camp, Heysham
Heysham
Middleton Tower Holiday Camp, near Morecambe, opened on Saturday 19th August 1939. The man behind the venture was Harry Kamiya, who also ran the Luna Park at Blackpool and 24 other amusement concessions in various parts of the country. The opening ceremony was performed by Lady Bridgett Poulett but almost immediately the camp was requisitioned by the government when war broke out, the intention being to use it as a prisoner of war camp but it was instead put to other uses.

Costing £50,000 and spread over 60 acres, it had 900 chalets and was a full-board camp with dining rooms for 3000 people. The main entertainment building, which also housed a 2000 seat theatre, was built in the style of an ocean liner and was known as the SS Berengaria. This ship, once the pride of the Cunard trans-atlantic fleet, was scrapped in 1939 but a number of its relics were auctioned and later used or displayed in the Berengaria building at Middleton Tower. The camp also had it's own country pub converted from a "haunted" 17th century farmhouse.

Mr Kamiya died in 1952 and the camp was operated by his family until being sold to Pontins in 1964. All of the chalets were then replaced with new brick structures and the outdoor pool was enclosed within a new building. In 1976 the camp gained fame by hosting the televised Miss Great Britain finale. Unfortunately the camp closed at the end of 1993. This was in line with Pontins desire to trim down their empire and to focus instead on a smaller number of mainly self-catering sites.
1950s
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