Seabathing in scarborough - an article by John Rushton

As the first seaside resort, Scarborough pioneered "bathing machines" for women, who entered the ocean clad in vast garments, helped by servant women, from horse drawn sheds on wheels.. Men swam naked from boats or the sands. When the railways came , in 1845, far more trippers crowded onto the beach . A wealthy visitor complained of the "discreditable jumbling together of the sexes and the absence of proper hoods on the bathing machines".She saw a dozen "Goths" from a cheap day train eyeing the sands with glee.There were cries of "South Sea Islandism".

The Corporation quickly produced rules specifiying bathing areas, distances to be kept between men and women and the bathing clothes to be worn, from 7 a.m. to 9.p.m. Respectability was enforced and paddling became the poor man's pastime. Attittudes would change..The "Graphic in 1871 could say it was absurd that a house, a horse and an attendant were necessary to get someone into the sea. By 1904 Scarborough had bathing tents beyond the spaw and on the north sands.

Women's bathing costumes remained a problem. A common garment was "cut high to the neck, with knickerbockers of ample dimensions at the other end and a skirt which fell below the knees,almost invariably worn with stockings . It gave a soggy result. Hastings allowed mixed bathing in the sea under regulation and daimed it had become a happy family pastime, although "the better class and couples from boarding houses did it but the cheaper kind of visitor wasn' t partial to it" .Scarborough clung to tradition. A Leeds loiner staying at the resort said " mixed bathing is the half way house to mixed sleeping and might be a plank on the river leading to the Niagara of eternal damnation".So ,there you go.

John Rushton

OTHER ARTICLES
• Sea bathing was pioneered at Scarborough in the late 17th century.
• Scarborough ships in the baltic - an article by John Rushton
• The 200 year history of scarboroughs RNLI
• The history of the Scarborough Spa pump rooms
• The early years of the Scarborough Lifeboat
• Hinderwells account of the first launch of the Scarborough Lifeboat in 1802
• The German bombardment of scarborough in the First World War in 1914
• The national RNLI and the Scarborough lifeboat of 1861.
• The port of Scarborough in the late 15th Century
• Harwood Brierleys description of Scarborough harbour at the opening of the 20th century
• Thomas Crimlisk - First of the Crimlisks
• Scarborough : A seaside resort , in the 1820s
• Coastal erosion in the 19th Century around the North Bay and Scarborough Castle area
• Strange customs amongst the Scarborough shipbuilders
• The need for canals in the scarborough area - discussions in the late 1700's
• The Borough of Scarborough formed in the 12th Century
• A sea shanty about a storm on the Scarborough coast
• John Parkin. The Scarborough sailmaker turned bailiff. - John Rushton
• Watching for ships by the harbour walls in Scarborough

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