Bridlington | Dawn Of A New Season

Bridlington | Shifting Sands

For the next installment of my Yorkshire: Shifting Sands project, I wanted to move away a little from the erosion & environmental changes that the coastline is undergoing to start looking at some of the social changes.

Bridlington is the southernmost of Yorkshire’s ‘big’ seaside towns. Although it’s been a settlement that dates back to the Bronze age, becoming a town in Roman times, it wasn’t until the 19th century that Bridlington really found it’s footing. Similar to Scarborough, it became a popular Victorian holiday destination for the industrial towns of the North east of England as well as supporting a thriving fishing industry. Towards the latter half of the 20th Century, the traditional resorts of the UK started to decline, mostly due to people opting for the cheap European sun. Couple that with with the catastrophic decline of the UK fishing industry, especially over the last 5 or 6 years, and it becomes clear that towns like Bridlington and Scarborough are undergoing significant change.

At the time of writing, it’s Spring & the seaside towns are gearing up for another Summer season. I wanted the capture the sense of anticipation of a hopefully busy season, as the Winter dormancy comes to an end, which is why I chose to photograph the sea front just before the Easter holidays when everything was due to reopen, at sunrise.

It’s hard to say what the future holds for these towns. Whether people will continue to embrace the nostalgia of an old-time UK seaside break, with Amusement Arcades, formica tabled cafes, Ice Cream, a bag of chips and a trip to the joke shop (For some reason, I’ve only ever seen joke shops at the seaside). Or, will the towns embrace the need to cater for a modern generation of tourist?

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