Welcome to the History Extra Podcast, fascinating historical conversations from BBC History Magazine

and BBC History Revealed.

What did Victorians get up to on the beach?

When did fish and chips take off?

And what's the dark story behind Punch and Judy?

Well, it's time to pack up your bucket and spade

because for our latest everything you want to know episode,

we're taking a jolly holiday back through the history of the British seaside.

To answer your questions on everything from swimwear to bathing machines,

Charlotte Hodgman was joined by Dr Catherine Ferry,

whose books include the British seaside holiday,

and most recently, seaside 100, a history of the British seaside in 100 objects.

Thanks for joining us, Catherine, a very timely topic today as people are kind of thinking about

going off on their summer holidays.

We're going to be talking about the history of the British seaside holidays.

We've got lots of great questions from our listeners.

I think what might be a good place to start?

Got a question from Hubert Meyer on Facebook who wanted to know

what were some of the milestones in the kind of the British seaside holiday?

Yeah, that's a really good question.

I think it probably goes back later than people imagine.

I think that probably what I'd say was the first

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