Nowadays, a day's outing to Cleethorpes would be looked upon with disdain but for the 500 children who went on the train in the summer of 1946 it must have been a wonderful if not magical experience.
You tend to forget the hardship and at times the fear that the children must have suffered in the preceding six years whilst the country was at war. For many it would have been their first glimpse of a beach and the sea.
It's importance in showing "that life was getting back to normal" was demonstrated by the fact that the BBC were covering and recording the event. I wonder if the footage still exists?
The other praiseworthy note in the article is that they were accompanied on their trip by volunteer teachers.
Of course such trips would not be possible today - 500 children on a train would give our franchised rail network a severe case of the "health and safety's". And imagine the paperwork the teachers would have to do to comply with current practices and regulations - they would be too exhausted to accompany the children by the time they had completed all the forms and assessments
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