St Helens in the Park at 50: 'We opened a caravan site in Scarborough when extraordinary summer of 1976 brought drought and flooding'

"Over the years, we have welcomed generations of the same families to St Helens," he explains. "Many people have grown up visiting us, often returning with children and grandchildren of their own.

"As we celebrate fifty years, we would love people to look back through their albums and share the memories that have stayed with them."

Simon is hoping some of those memories might be from the site’s first season. "Nobody could have predicted quite what 1976 would hold," he says. Historically, it was an extraordinary moment. In 1976, the government had changed Prime Minister in the spring, and there was economic uncertainty.

"The summer would be remembered as one of the most extraordinary the country had known – marked first by drought and soaring temperatures, then swarms of ladybirds and, finally, torrential rain and flooding."

Scarcely had Denis Howell been appointed to coordinate the country’s response to the drought than he was neatly dubbed ‘Minister for Floods’.

Yet against this background, families were still packing up the car and going on holiday – and St Helens was established in Wykeham by the Dawnay Estate in response to growing demand for holiday accommodation around the North York Moors National Park.

A family break would have looked rather different from today. "Bookings were made by telephone or even letter and guests navigated their way here using paper maps," explains Simon.

"Across our site, I suspect a few transistor radios also provided the summer’s soundtrack – both The Wurzels’ ‘The Combine Harvester’ and Elton John and Kiki Dee’s ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ were number one hits that year.”

Much has changed in the half-century since. "Fifty years later, St Helens is not only still here, it is thriving," adds Simon. "We were so delighted to be named the AA’s England and Overall Campsite of the Year for 2025/26 and a lot of the credit for that has to go to our visitors who help to create the sense of community we have on the site."

"This summer, we’ve been making lots of new memories with celebrations across the park,” he adds. “It has really reinforced for us how many special moments have taken place here over the last fifty years."

Visitors can share stories from their stays at St Helens, together with photographs, by emailing [email protected]. Staff are compiling a scrapbook to commemorate 50 years, which will be available to purchase with proceeds going to Macmillan Cancer Support.