EAW002148 ENGLAND (1946). A clifftop campsite, Crimdon Park, 1946

Crimdon Holiday Park



A Trimdon man named Mr Lowes bought some land from Mr Collingwood a local farmer who owned Hart Dene and Beach Bank fields. Mr Lowes built wooden huts to hire to people looking for work at local collieries. These were people who had travelled from places such as Wales or Cornwall.



Crimdon Dene camp started sometime in 1946 with ex-army tents. The picture also shows round the side of the camp a small number of caravans. The photo shows a small wooden building, could this be a shop? We can also see a brick building, maybe this could be a toilet block? Looking at the photo we can also see people walking from underneath the railway bridge possibly from the buses that are parked there.

In the 1950s the site was filled with Aluminium Altents. These had a table, four chairs and four bunks. Blackhall History group writing on the Durham County Council website durhamintime noted that they were shaped like African round huts and were made of aluminium sheeting which made them hot in summer and cold in the winter. By about 1955 caravans took over the site.



I can remember in the 1960s friends of my mother, who had a caravan at Crimdon, asking if I could go and spend the weekend with them. I found this very different to what I had done before. My friend and I slept on the top bunk with her mam, dad and brother on the bottom bunk (which had turned into a double bed) her sister and her friend slept on the other double bed which during the day was the table. My friend’s dad had to climb into bed with the door of the caravan open then lie in bed and close the door, this did look very funny. On the Sunday morning my friend and I went outside and watched the Jazz Band come round the caravan park. Later we went back to the caravan and had our dinner before we packed the car and came home. What is different now is we would not be allowed to pack a car or I suppose even a caravan the way we did then.



Rhoda