An army anti-aircraft training camp until 1958, a family-run campsite ever since — the same stretch of marsh has spent longer as a place to pitch a tent than it ever did as a base.
The story so far
An anti-aircraft training camp opens: soldiers under canvas and in Nissen huts, with a cinema, dance hall, chapel and sergeants’ mess.
Training ends and the camp falls quiet.
The Ministry of Defence sells the site, and the same family has run it ever since.
The campsite as it looked in the earliest photographs on this page.
The camp’s original wash-houses finally give way to proper shower blocks.
The old chapel builds boats, the sergeants’ mess holds the Rescue Wooden Boats Centre and Maritime Museum, and the view hasn’t changed.
From 1939 to 1958 this was an army anti-aircraft training camp — soldiers under canvas and in Nissen huts, with a cinema and dance hall, a chapel and a sergeants' mess of their own. When the Ministry of Defence sold the land in the early 1970s, a local farming family bought it, and it's been run by the same family ever since.
Still standing
The chapel is now a boat-building workshop. The old sergeants' mess became home to the Rescue Wooden Boats Centre and Maritime Museum. The Guard House was renovated and now houses the site's stewards. The camp's original wash-houses served campers right up until 1994, when they were finally replaced with proper shower blocks.
