On this day in Wembury — 9 June 1938

The Western Morning News advertised the Heybrook Bay Lido, billing it as a “New Holiday Centre on Glorious Sea Front. Warm and Perfect for June.” The price was 55 shillings a week, with promises of excellent catering, large chalets, organised games, and free car parking. A full week in August was also available, with brochures offered by P. Trott, telephone Wembury 230.

Context and history

The Heybrook Bay Lido opened in the late 1930s, part of a wave of South Devon seaside developments catering to the growing motor-bus and car-borne holiday market. Unlike larger municipal lidos such as Plymouth’s Tinside, this was a privately run holiday camp and bathing venue perched on the cliffs above Heybrook Bay. Advertisements in 1938–39 show it targeted families and Plymouth workers seeking inexpensive, local summer breaks.

The lido became well-known locally but had only a short heyday: the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and the subsequent militarisation of Wembury Point overshadowed such leisure ventures. In the Wembury archive, accounts note that the Heybrook Lido site later fell into decline, with only traces of the buildings surviving after the war. The area eventually returned to its quieter residential and coastal character.

(Source: Western Morning News, 9 June 1938 — Heybrook Bay Lido advert; Wembury Archive references to 1930s seaside developments and post-war decline.)