"What's a beach hut?" I hear all my American friends ask and from all my English friends "Oh I remember my summer days spent by the seaside in a beach hut". A beach hut for all those asking is a garden shed (for want of a better term) that's built on the promenade by sea. People own these sheds and spend their summer days by the beach in this shed, that allows them to cook and get changed before and after a dip in the sea. You are not allowed to sleep in them, although I'm sure some people do and really they only work for people that can make a day trip to the seaside from their homes. When I was growing up instead of going away some summers, we would rent a beach hut for the week at Frinton-on-Sea (once a very posh town). It was about a 20 minute drive from home and we would spend a family vacation everyday driving down to the beach. The day would be filled with swimming, building sand castles, flying kites and kicking a football (soccer ball) around. Then at the end of the day we would head home to get ready to do it all over again the next day. It's funny when you think about how as a kid you could make your own entertainment, there was no video games, DVD's, iPods (even the walkman didn't exist) or Internet but we could always find things to do and have fun with.
This photograph is of the beach huts near Bateman Tower in Brightlingsea. It was taken late at night with no wind and a calm sea. To the left of the beach huts the rocky shore that stretches into the distance used to be the embankment for the railway branch line that used to run to Brightlingsea from Wivenhoe. It was closed in 1964 and today is used as a footpath and makes for a very pleasent walk along the Colne estuary. Click on the photo for a larger version.