Away from it all: the heritage of holiday resorts
Mike Higginbottom
- Region:
- Anywhere
- Notice Period:
- Emergency (maybe less than one week's notice)
- Type:
- Architectural and social history
- Fee:
- Paid: Dependent on size of audience and distance travelled from South Yorkshire
- Category:
- History
- Updated:
- 23rd November 2017
- Tagged:
- Seaside | Victorian Architecture | History Of Blackpool | Scarborough
Away from it all surveys the history of leisure away from home, covering the spas and watering places that rich people frequented from Tudor times onwards, and the seaside holiday towns that grew up in Victorian times when the railway system enabled ordinary working people to spend time away from home enjoying themselves.
It explores the curative use of water from Roman times, through the Middle Ages in places like Bath and Buxton and after the Reformation, when the medical profession fostered the growth of new spas, such as Harrogate, and then examines the subsequent popularity of hydrotherapy, which created significant growth in such towns as Ilkley and Matlock.
The development of the British seaside during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries – the heyday of popular holidaymaking – directly resulted from the growth of the railway network. The lecture includes such major resorts as Blackpool, Brighton, Great Yarmouth and Scarborough, showing the unique quality of seaside structures such as piers, winter gardens and fairgrounds.
Views: 1350 | Enquiries: 0About Mike Higginbottom
I am a freelance history lecturer specialising in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with a background in university extramural education.
I offer distinctive, life-enhancing insights into the past, particularly the recent past, for people who enjoy visiting places and recognising the human stories behind this historical heritage.
I lecture for the Arts Society (formerly the National Association of Decorative & Fine Arts Societies [NADFAS]) in the UK, Spain, Australia and New Zealand.
Whether lecturing, writing or guiding tours, I provide detailed information in a lucid and entertaining way. My publications and lectures are copiously illustrated, as much as possible using my own photography.
Mike Higginbottom Interesting Times is the brand for my history education work – tours, lectures and publications. My blog is a fund of interesting, sometimes quirky insights into places, people and historical events.
I'm based in Sheffield and willing to travel anywhere in the UK or further afield.
Other Talks on SpeakerNet by Mike Higginbottom
- The Big Apple: the architecture of New York City
- Windy City: the architecture of Chicago
- St Pancras Station & Hotel
- Liverpool's Heritage
- Manchester's Heritage
- Fun Palaces: the history and architecture of the entertainment industry
- All the World's a Stage: the development of theatre buildings
- Dream Palaces: an introduction to cinema architecture
- Beside the Seaside: the architecture of British coastal resorts
- Blackpool's Seaside Heritage
- Yorkshire's Seaside Heritage
- Victorian Cemeteries
- Victorian Sewerage
- Temples of Sanitation
- English Country Houses – not quite what they seem
- Sheffield's Cinema Heritage
- Demolished Sheffield
- A Look Round Attercliffe
- Waterways and Railways across the Derbyshire Peak
- Waterways and Railways across the Northern Pennines
- Waterways and Railways between Thames and Severn
- The Derbyshire Derwent Valley
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