The little 9-acre Hemsby Holiday Camp was opened back in 1920 by Hector Potter and was the first camp in the country to have permanent structures as opposed to tents. It’s widely regarded as the first proper holiday camp in the country.
In 1924 Potter sold the camp to Harry Maddieson for £8,000 and went on to establish the Potters Resort in Hopton which continues to thrive today. Over the next 46 years the Maddieson family continued to operate and improve the camp. It was a full board facility so all meals were included and taken in the large communal dining hall. Chalets consisted of a bed and maybe a bathroom. Maddieson went on to acquire 3 more holiday camps along the south coast.
In 1970 Maddieson sold the camp to Fred Pontin who immediately acquired more land to the south, increasing the size to 22 acres. He then converted the site into one of his huge new self-catering “rent a chalet” camps. All the old chalets were swept away and replaced with new apartment blocks. Sadly the camp lost a lot of its old charm and ended up looking more like a council estate. Several of the old Maddieson structures were retained including the main entertainment building and club house. The old outdoor pool was enclosed inside a new building.
The new camp reopened on 17th July 1971 but construction wasn’t finished with plenty of customers walking out and demanding refunds. This continued for the remainder of that first year. The official opening took place in May 1972 when everything was finally complete. Once the initial troubles were ironed out it settled down to a successful existence.
Each of the 512 apartments had a kitchen, bathroom, lounge and one or two bedrooms. Electricity and heating was supplied via a coin meter and even the early TVs required a coin to operate. The showers had a button that had to be pressed every few seconds to keep the water flowing. The apartment meters were later converted to accept prepaid cards and the coins for the TVs eventually disappeared. But the push buttons in the showers remained until the end.
Facilities included a boating lake, ballroom, several bars, an outdoor playground, a kids nursery with resident nanny, games room, launderette, hairdressers and a first aid surgery with a registered nurse.
By the 1990s, the Hemsby camp, like many of the remaining sites, had become neglected and rundown. In 1996, Pontins launched a £55 million refurbishment program, though the funds were spread across eight camps. Most of the apartments received new double glazing, with some also getting new kitchens and bathrooms. Several new attractions were added including a junior driving school, quad bikes, an abseiling wall and a Queen Vic pub.
In January 2009 it was announced that the camp would be closing with immediate effect. It was hardly a big surprise as the site had been going downhill for a long time. Many people thought it was all a deliberate ploy so they could justify the closure and sell the land for housing.
The site sat abandoned and derelict for the next 11 years while various planning applications to cover the site with housing were rejected. In 2018 a huge fire destroyed the main entertainment building which dated back to the 1950s Maddiesons era.
In February 2019 the site was sold for £4 million and plans were announced to keep most of the chalets but convert them into 279 private apartments. Work soon began on stripping out interiors, knocking down walls and adding pitched roofs. The results were impressive.
After starting work the developers later collapsed into administration. In July 2022 the site was sold to new owners for £7 million who announced they’d be continuing with the previous redevelopment. The first family moved in the following year.
