‘I ran away to be a Bluecoat!’: Staff and guests at Pontins recall happy memories of the once-loved holiday park, now rated the worst in the country and on the brink of extinction.

It has been voted the worst holiday park in the country and is at the bottom of a survey of UK holiday parks by Which?.

But Pontins, for millions of Britons, used to be a much-loved holiday staple, as underlined by former guests and staff we spoke to as the chain teeters on the brink of extinction, with just two parks out of the original 33 remaining. .

The level of devotion was intense for some – one person revealed to MailOnline that he actually ran away to work in a Pontins camp.

Pontin’s was opened (with an apostrophe) in 1946 by Sir Fred Pontin (1906-2000) as an affordable coastal holiday for working-class families, with chalets arranged around communal areas to encourage guests to get to know each other, a defining part of experience.

The bluecoats, which rivaled Butlin’s redcoats, provided entertainment and kept guests happy throughout their stay, involving a smorgasbord of activities, from talent shows to tug-of-war and from knobby-knee contests to glamorous granny parades.

And over the years, Pontin formed connections with celebrities, and even royalty.

Many Bluecoats, such as Shane Richie, Bradley Walsh and Bobby Davro, had successful careers in entertainment, David Bowie and fashion designer Alexander McQueen revealed in a Dazed and Confused Magazine interview that they used to holiday at Pontin’s Camber Sands, and that Princess Anne reportedly stayed at Prestatyn Sands Pontin’s in North Wales as part of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme in the 1960s.

This park is perhaps the most famous, in part because it was the filming location of the 1973 film Holiday on the Buses, commemorated with a plaque in 2004.

Unfortunately, Pontin’s popularity waned in the 1980s, when holidays abroad became more affordable.

The company struggled to keep up with maintenance costs and failed to modernize the parks.

The chalets and community kitchen became obsolete and the parks in Pontin began to close.

In 2010, the company went bankrupt, most of the parks closed, and in 2011 it was bought by Britannia, a company continually derided as Britain’s worst hotel chain by the annual Which? survey.

Britannia operated six parks in 2023, but reviews were generally poor with many commenting on the outdated facilities.

Now, most of the empire has been shut down, along with the apostrophe.

The two remaining open parks are Sand Bay Holiday Village in Weston-super-Mare and Pakefield Holiday Village in Lowestoft (which will temporarily close to guests in 2025 to accommodate workers building the Sizewell C nuclear power station).

Looking back to happier times, Kymberley Darby told MailOnline she was a Bluecoat at Pontin’s Brean Sands and Prestatyn in the early 1990s, a role that was a life goal at the time.

She revealed: “I actually ran away to become a Bluecoat at 17 years old. I packed up my little VW Polo and followed my dream. Talking to people and making their vacation memorable was the best thing I have ever done.

‘Sometimes I worked 18 hours a day, but it felt like a constant vacation. Lack of sleep never bothered me, who cares when you’re having fun?

‘When I left my parents’ house, my mother was still making my bed and tidying up for me. I got a shock when I entered my shared chalet in Pontin with an outside bathroom!’

Happy camper Martin Johnson said: ‘From the age of 40 my husband and I went to Pontin’s in Prestatyn. It was a wonderful holiday park and we had many good times there. We even won some contests!

“I’ll never forget when they came to our table with a birthday cake for my husband and of course we cut it and shared it with all the Bluecoats.”

Meanwhile, Lisa Lacking, from Winsford, Cheshire, said: “I have been going to Prestatyn Sands Pontin’s since 1985.

‘I went when I was a child, then I took my children. I also used to attend Holiday on the Buses weekends. It was a lot of fun and I made a lot of new friends. “Many very happy memories.”

Pontins did not respond to a request to comment on Which? report.