Warner Puckpool

[stormandstress]

Glorious memories of going on holiday here two years in a row, 1986 and 1987, aged 5 and 6 respectively. Stands out in my mind as the happiest holidays ever for me, most vivid memories include the swimming pool with it's pineapple water slide, and the greencoats including one called Lanky Legs, who was almost a carbon copy of Michael Barrymore right down to the "Awight" catchphrase, and one called Tina who, along with her partner (Nigel?) did magic and illusion together.

I remember being disappointed the following year (87) that all the kids green coats had been turned into a set of Clowns, found this a bit creepy :lol:

Met my first "girlfriend" at the camp in 86, Lisa Spillman from Pangbourne in Reading... if you are out there, I still remember you :lol: Briefly spoke to her on the phone in 1992 and then never again... :(

I also won the Prince of the Week competition the first year, how cool was that? 8) and sang "As Time Goes By" in the talent contest.

Does anyone have any photos or memories of Puckpool around this time? Please?

[Jintygirl]

Sorry, stormandstress - can't help you there - but haven't been on the Warner's section for months! You winning Prince of the week is extremely cool! Did you get a crown and all that?? :lol:

[SweetDenzy]

Warners puckpool was merged with another camp and became harcourt sands which is owned by renownded holidays, when I went there it was owned by Haven.

[REDSHED]

Warners puckpool was merged with another camp and became harcourt sands which is owned by renownded holidays, when I went there it was owned by Haven.
It's a small world, I'm working there on Saturday night.

[SweetDenzy]

I used to go to Puckpool as a kid too, and the one now Norton Grange (was called Yarmouth then). I have a brill pic of me there with a toy snail in the nursery. I was 3 i think. There was a greencoat who was the spitting image of Gerry Marsden (out of Gerry and the pacemakers) so much so I thought it was him but then I was only 5 at the time. He pretended to be him so there was me going round boasting that I had met him and a few years ago my mum told me he just pretended to be him. Huh I even got his autograph. We used to go with friends cos I am a only child and they had one boy. :roll:
Oh happy days

[REDSHED]

Just to let you know that I worked there that night and I'm there again tonight as it happens, and its now owned by Renowned Holidays but they sold the others Mill Rythe, Hayling Island and Lyme bay Holiday village, Seaton, to The Hollybush Hotels Group Harcourts a great venue to work.

[REDSHED]

I used to go to Puckpool as a kid too, and the one now Norton Grange (was called Yarmouth then). I have a brill pic of me there with a toy snail in the nursery. I was 3 i think. There was a greencoat who was the spitting image of Gerry Marsden (out of Gerry and the pacemakers) so much so I thought it was him but then I was only 5 at the time. He pretended to be him so there was me going round boasting that I had met him and a few years ago my mum told me he just pretended to be him. Huh I even got his autograph. We used to go with friends cos I am a only child and they had one boy. :roll:
Oh happy days
I worked there tonight SweetDenzy and took some pictures for you.

[REDSHED]

I've put lots more here for you.

http://butlinsmemories.com/imagegallery/thumbnails.php?album=99

hope you enjoy them.

[SweetDenzy]

I CLICKED ONTHE LINK AND IT CAME UP ERROR. :cry: I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING THEM. :oops:

[Bengo]

But somebody found it because I'd been blogging some childhood memories of the summer of 1976 over at http://bengobaz.livejournal.com/.

I LOVED Puckpool. Really really loved it. My sister and I even made it on to one of the postcards they sold in the camp shop.

At the height of that summer we went to the holiday camp at Puckpool on the Isle Of Wight with nan and grandad. I won some kind of dancing competition for rock 'n' roll bopping in crepe soled shoes to 'Jungle Rock' and Lou won the kids fancy dress which she entered as a stick of rock. She was wrapped in melting green crepe paper with an Isle Of Wight label stuck on so for her to actually have won must have meant the other entrants were really bad. That time, I wasn't in the fancy dress as an anything because I was out of action with food poisoning for two days, hallucinating in the heat. I caught it one night when I nipped out of the disco - my favourite aspect of the camp, along with the pinball machines - to buy a hamburger, sorry, beefburger from a man in a food van parked outside. I was so desperate to get back to the disco (I could hear all my favourite records, coming and going) I took to whining at him, "Is it ready yet?" and "Hurry up" etc., and in the end he just dumped it in the bun and gave it to me. It was completely frozen in the middle - I can still taste the beefy ice crystals - but I scoffed it all down anyway. For the next two days I remember being so ill but - and this is what they did in holiday camps in those days - I was confined in the chalet while everyone just carried on with their contests, sing-songs, sunbathing and day trips. A camp nurse checked on me every half hour, where presumably she found me reading my Whizzer & Chips Summer Special and / or vomming up burgery bile.

[Bengo]

We were called Wagtails. It went

"We are Warners Wagtails / Happy as can be / Loving ev'ry minute / By the deep blue sea / When you look around us / You'll always see us smile / We are Warners Wagtails happy all the while".

This was the mid-to-late '70s, right? At the height of punk and disco and yet that Wagtails song is so Second World Wart / Ovalteenies, don't you think?

[festive50]

I used to go to Warners Puckpool (next door to St Clair) in the 50 and 60s when I was a kid.
In the 90s the 2 camps were merged and then renamed Harcourt Sands.
It was also taken over by Haven. Several years ago it was taken over by Renown. I've been taking my family there for the last 11 years and have just come back from a holiday there yesterday.
It has gradually been going downhill these last few years and in fact closing next Monday.
It is rumoured to be redeveloped as time-share flats but no planning permision has been given yet.

:sad:

[Steve]

Had my last holiday at Harcourt sands this month.Been there the last 10 years.Closes for good in September,lots of sad faces around this year.

[iowg2006]

Harcourt Sands is CLOSING DOWN this Monday (4th September 2006)

Reasons for closure:

Gas/electric costs rising
Cancellations from coach companies
Not enough business/ poor start to the year
Rise of miniunum wage in october.

Staff were informed of the closure back in May, this year and have recently been given redundancy notices. Up to 168 of staff are losing their jobs.

There's been rumours going around that the head owner of the holiday village wants to demolish and start again, in the past he's asked for permission do carry out various work but never persued his plans. We still don't know whats happening with the site. lets hope it doesnt stand derilict for years.

It's a great lose to ryde :sad:

[iowg2006]

saw from a previous member something about time shares? - not true

I'm a member of staff= been there 4 years

[Steve]

I`ve spent the first 2 weeks in August at harcourt for a few years now IOWG2006, Im sure Ì must know you along with Wallace,Simon & Laura,Dan,Brian,Rob,Sarge,Pat & all the rest.Hope it all turns out ok for you all in the end.

[concept-uk]

Anyone have any Recent or old photo's of the place?

Anything will be great. :)

Many thanks. - Nik

[Steve]

There you go Nik.Not much but the best I could find.

[concept-uk]

Thanks Steve.

I found this on Google Earth of Puckpool. Always great to see...


http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DTnik/NEW1/ppool1.jpg

You can still just make out the Boating lake next to the Tennis courts, now overgrown with grass. :(


-Nick

[Steve]

Nice one Nick.The boating lake goes back before my time.I think my first visit to Harcourt was 1997.

[Steve]

I`ve only known this camp as Harcourt Sands.Can anybody give me an idea of what part was Puckpool,and what part was St Clares.

[concept-uk]

I`ve only known this camp as Harcourt Sands.Can anybody give me an idea of what part was Puckpool,and what part was St Clares.

Hi Steve.

The part on the Right of the map is the Old Puckpool, and the left was St Clares.

Hope it helps. if anyone has any pictures of Puckpool, please post them. :)

http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DTnik/NEW1/oldpool.jpg

-Nick

[Steve]

Cheers for that Nick.

[Longshot]

The two camps used to be Puckpool and St Clair, they merged together to make one big camp, used to work there as a saturday luggage boy and my mum worked there to so might have some pics of the place knocking round somewhere

[Steve]

The two camps used to be Puckpool and St Clair, they merged together to make one big camp, used to work there as a saturday luggage boy and my mum worked there to so might have some pics of the place knocking round somewhere

That would be nice.

[tim]

Hey stormstress the chap mentioned might be SIBLY.He was at Mill Rythe with Chris AND you mention Tina and Nigel THESE MAY have been the ones referred to in my previous blog

[tim]

ANYONE remember a real old fasioned "TED BOVIS " csalled GUS.He looked like Jimmy LOgan he was at PUCKPOOL when i was there in 1979 and does anyone remember the Putting course on a Hill?

[festive50]

ANYONE remember a real old fasioned "TED BOVIS " csalled GUS.He looked like Jimmy LOgan he was at PUCKPOOL when i was there in 1979 and does anyone remember the Putting course on a Hill?
I remember a greencoat named Gus. He had very curly hair (pre-perm).
I also associate him with another greencoat Cyril who was older and quite bald with possibly a very early "comb over".
It was most likely to have been Puckpool as that was the Warners camp we went to the most and remember him to have been there during several holidays.
I suppose it must have been between c 1957 and 1968.
In that time the camps I stayed at were:-
Minster - once
Seaton - 2 times
Woodside Bay 2-3 times + once in 1970. Where I booked in the week-end of IOW festival. Went from festival to camp Saturday afternoon, booked in, had a bath and dinner. Returned to festival to see Hendrix, Neil Young and The Doors and went back to the camp on Monday
Puckpool - 5-6 times

Phil

[potwashken]

I worked on Puckpool in the 80s and Gus was the head green coat then...he used to have a great catch phrase...when kids would come up to him he would say in a deep voice " sod off " ....oh how we all laughed...he was also good friends with the late " Ollie " Reed who came down now again and spent most of the time drunk in the bar with Gus, and to prove how popular Gus was at Puckpool he even had a Burger named after him...oh yes the Gus Burger..beef burger..bacon...mushrooms...and a few other fillings if i remember correctly...one probably being whisky !

[little_AL]

Hi there, I'm not sure if anyone is still following this thread but i went to Puckpool throughout the 80's as a youngster with my grandparents. I too remember Gus. My Nan had been going to Puckpool since the late 50's. and she and my Granddad knew Gus very well. I got speaking to her the other day reminicing and i typed in "Puckpool" into google and came across this thread. Sadly Gus passed away many years ago. I Was shocked to see the state of the old holiday camp in photos i found on the internet-does anyone know whats happening to the site now??

[toots]

Hi Lil Al,

I have just come across these pages on Puckpool & was so glad when I found a recent entry.

My friend Michele & I worked at Puckpool in 1985 as barmaids, and have very fond memories of the punters, staff and bosses. I was sorry to see that a few had passed away, just reminds me that we are all getting older. I was 22 and had the time of my life, met some wonderful people and still keep in touch with one of the waitress's. We worked there for 3 months, then travelled around the south of England before going up to Scotland for a couple of mths. Then returned to Australia.

I was sad to hear that it had closed down, as I was telling my daughter about working there, googled to see if I could find some images and came across this website.


Hope to come across some photos, if I do then I will try to load onto this site if possible.

Cheers

D

[Bigbadbush]

Hi all

Lovely to see so many memories of the old camp on here.

I used to go every year to a different Warners camp around the country, but some of my best memories are of Puckpool. I must have stayed at Puckpool around 4 times and St Clair twice in the 80's, fond memories of being a wagtail, t-shirt and all, the weekly boat race in the swimming pool, I think my mum might still have some of the old medals they used to give out during your stay each night on the dance floor. Remember doing the birdie song on the dance floor every night, the morning talk from the green coats at breakfast about the events of the day, the photo boards, fancy dress contests and waiting on the stone seats by the tennis courts.

I also visited the camp when they combined the two old camps into Harcourt sands and built the large indoor swimming pool, when it was still Warners, and once with Haven. Only a few years ago I went back with my parents and little girl as a Renowned camp, have to say it hadn't changed much but needed a lick of paint to bring it back to what it once was. Very sad to see the you tube videos of the place on fire etc, we were planning on going back again this year.

It was a great shame when Warners went to adults only, a gap in the market that has never been filled, what made Warners for me; was the size, big enough with the things you needed, but not to large so you could meet and get to know most people staying, plus the kids clubs were the best. As a family of course we love and moved onto Haven, Butlins and later Center parcs, but for me Warners was always number one, my parents still go every year to one of there adult hotels, must be the number one customers by now!

I'll have to dig out the old photos my mum has of the Green and Blue coats and scan them in.

[warners chef]

i was the 2nd chef at puckpool in 1986 and then went on to bembridge in 1987
i emigrated to aus in 1988 and returned to uk and was head chef at lake side in 1999/2000 and then opened thoresby hall as head chef prior to this i was a chef at pontins little canada

[Mr Pogle]

Did anyone see this (http://cgi.ebay.es/WARNERS-PUCKPOOL-PROMS-1979-LP-VERY-RARE-ISLE-OF-WIGHT_W0QQitemZ200305202922QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_M usic_Music_Memorabilia_LE?hash=item200305202922&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A895%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C2 40%3A1318)?



Mr Pogle

[roger]

PUCKPOOL HOLIDAY CAMP


I was very young when I was taken on holiday by my mother 4 or 5 times but my memory is very vague. My mother used to buy me a new bucket and spade each year, also a boat so that I could sail it on the boating lake. I can never remember what happened to them after the holiday. Also my best memory Is the footpath down to the beach, there was pine trees along the right hand side. Oh the smell of pine and the sound of the wind though the trees, when ever I find a place similar I takes me back to lovely days.

Roger wood

[toots]

Hello all,

Well it certainly was lovely to see that there was still interest in Puckpool after so long. I will definately go searching for photo's of my time in the UK during '85, this weekend. I shall post information stating as to if I have photos or not. I am rather excited to revisit my time at Puckpool, and happily telling both hubby & daughter (who just roll their eyes). What do they say - 'living in the past makes happy memories and youthful skin' (or did I make that up!)

Have a wonderful weekend all.

Donna

[toots]

Hi

As previously mentioned I have been on the search for Puckpool photos and been successful. Apologise for the quality, however they been packed away for the last 20+ yrs.

Hope they bring you some nice memories.

Donna

[Mr Pogle]

Nice pictures Donna, thanks for sharing.


Mr Pogle

[mark howe]

Some of the happiest holidays i ever had with my family as a kid between age of 5-9 was at Puckpool. Loved the kids club made great friends but my most proudest moment was winning the dance contest and winning a small trophy.
To this day i still do the dance.

Love you Malinder xxx