PRESTATYN PIONEERS

The following photographs came from George Owen who says that they must date from World War 2. On the back are pencil notes indicating parts of the camp used by soldiers. J. W. Jones in his book Rhyl The Town And Its People notes that Prestatyn Holiday Camp was used as a training place for ‘the Pioneers.’ The Pioneer Corps was a fighting unit used for light engineering.

The top picture shows The Britannia Bar which became their Mess, the next shows chalets where they slept 3-per-chalet, and the final one shows The Ballroom where they had concerts and film shows.

The camp was new at the time, having only just been opened in 1939 by the railway company LMS in conjunction with Thomas Cook’s. Pontins took over in 1970s and closed it in mid-1980s. It lay derelict until the present housing estate was built on the site. The estate is named Tower Gardens in memory of the camp’s famous landmark tower which is shown to good effect in these later pictures:

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