17 rare Blackpool pictures which go beyond the gates of Pontins to the lost era of British holiday camps

It wasn’t actually like that, of course, it was an old myth which derived from the post war era but the holiday camps of the 1960s onwards prided themselves on holidays of freedom, choice, value for money and above all a good time. These pictures go right back to the early days of Blackpool Pontins (which was flattened and is now a housing estate) and for us locals it wasn’t a place we ever saw, not beyond the entrance at least. The take us inside the chalets, pools and leisure facilities in never seen before pictures from our archives.