You are here:  Home ---> Butlins Minehead Home Page

Starting collecting your Butlin's Minehead Memorabilia with eBay, have a look at these items below

Butlin's Minehead 

**There is a lot of history here if you wish to bypass this and go to the Minehead submenu, click on these words**

Before the Butlin's Holiday Camp
Looking for a new location for his next holiday camp, Sir William (Billy) Butlin would arrive at Minehead in Somerset. The location of his camps had to be in areas that had advantages for his customers to enjoy the Butlin's magic and the beauty of the town.  The 165 acres of farming land was purchased that was close to the railway, the ocean, the town and transport links. 

1961 - Construction had started
Building the new Butlin's camp was not going to be easy as the land was known for flooding. To help solve this issue, a trench was built around the camp to allow the water to drain away. A lake was built at the rear of the resort which later became the boating lake.  The cost of building this camp was 2 million pounds with chalets, a dining room and entertainment buildings in place. 
 
1962 - Butlin's Minehead opens its gates for the first time
The gates would open for the first time in Somerset as another Butlins was added to the United Kingdom map. The camp would have chalets, entertainment buildings and a dining room with the traditional funfair included. 

1964 -The miniature railway
The magic of Butlin's continued to expand as other areas were added to increase the experience for the customers as a miniature railway was added. 

1965 - Chairlifts
The chairlifts were added in 1965 to allow the customers to see the pure beauty of Minehead town and the camp. 

1967 -  The Iconic Butlin's Monorail Train
For the second time in Butlin's timeline, the Monorail train is installed in the Minehead camp. The track was not the same as Skegness as this one travelled around in a figure eight. This monorail train track was also unique as it allowed the trains to travel above and below each other above the outside swimming pool

1986 - 1998  - The birth of Butlins Somerwest World
The owners of Butlins, the Rank organisation, had made some major changes to Butlins with the closure of many other locations such as Clacton and Barry Island. With only five camps remaining, Minehead was one of the selected locations to continue the Butlin's name. Renamed Butlin's Somerwest World, the camp would see some major changes such as new villages built (Exmoor and Somerset Village) and the introduction of the caravans for the first time. The swimming pools would change to funpools with the main pool having flumes and rapids installed. The Oasis swimming pool would also be added at a later stage with the outside swimming pool being converted into a funpool also with slides being added. 

1999 - Butlins Holiday Camp was renamed to Holiday Resort
The owners at the time, the Rank organisation, had made a bold move to change Butlins in a big way and further reduce the number of camps and hotels that represent the name. All the hotels were sold as this division came to an end with only three remaining locations continuing the Butlin's name. They are Skegness, Bognor Regis and Minehead, which were all now known as Butlins Family Entertainment Resorts.

2002 - 2021 - Butlins Minehead has a new owner
Bourne Leisure Limited purchased the Rank holiday division and made some changes that brought back some former areas that were removed in the change in 1999. This included the reintroduction of the Adult weekends, which were stopped in the new resort format. Many chalets on the camp were upgraded to meet the new demands with a former single-decker accommodation being completely demolished to make way for the new Lakeside village chalet design.  Bourne Leisure Limited had invested a great deal of money in Butlins with many changes to make it modern with a traditional twist. 

2022  - 2024 - Butlins has a new owner -  The Harris Family Trust
Bourne Leisure Limited had seen a change in the ownership as a company called Blackstone had purchased a majority share. New plans were being made for the Haven and Warner's location with Butlins not fitting into these ideas.  Butlins was put up for sale for all three locations and this was when the Harris family had purchased them and from there, Butlin's continued to be in safe hands. 

Join the Butlin's Memorabilia Social media groups

Send Mark a message to have a chat!

Just click on an icon below to send  Mark a message to chat about your time at Butlins and memories

Who and What is Butlin's Memorabilia Website

Mark Banks owns and created this website to show his collection of Butlin's memorabilia items. It was created during my spare time at work and is a hobby of mine and has since grown into a site that offers a chance for others to smile. This website is NOT the official website for Butlin's and is NOT the official archive of Butlin's at any stage. The website has expanded to show stories, with permission from that person, of a moment in Butlin's from people who are either a customer or former staff. This website is in loving memory of all that had come to this amazing company and to Sir William Butlin, the founder.  This website also has information about research regarding Butlin's history with information obtained from the research I made, which is not official. 

Butlins Memorabilia extra areas

This website is made and maintained by me, Mark Banks, as a fan site to celebrate the amazing Butlins name as it has such a large meaning to me.  Below is additional information about the website and answers to questions that you might be thinking of (hopefully I have covered them all, if not, get in touch)

Learn more about the Butlins Memorabilia website by clicking on these words

Butlins Memorabilia Support and help

If you get stuck and need help with an area of the website, please click on these words to read the about known problems and how to solve them

The Untold Stories of Butlin's

The website has expanded to now include an area called "Untold Stories of Butlin's". These stories have been added to the site by a member of my group who has shared their moment at Butlin's. These stories are not from the official company and are from the person it represent, as shown on the page. The stories shared are from that person's memory and show the magic of Butlin's on how it creates that special moment. 

If you are not official, who is Mark?

Butlin's Memorabilia is NOT the official website for Butlins. This site is also NOT the official website for the archive of Butlin's. The owners of Butlin's, Butlin's company, and Butlins.com have NOT approached me to design this site. They have no involvement with the development of the website or with the information that is shown. I am extremely thankful that they allow me to continue showing you their company's rich history. 

The number one website for Butlins is always, www.butlins.com where you see all the information about booking a break.

eBay and Google adverts

If you would like to see further information about this area of the website, please click on these words to read more about how these help the website.


Butlin's Memorabilia Sitemap - Visitor layout
For those who prefer a sitemap layout to the menu, please click on these words.