Families enjoy day on beach as town gets seaside spirit

dewsbury is rather better known for its glorious textile history but on Saturday visitors might have confused it with Blackpool as they found themselves in the middle of a giant sandy beach.

Those people who were worried about getting stuck in the August bank holiday traffic to the coast, instead took their buckets and spades to the West Yorkshire town instead.

The annual Dewsbury-on-Sea extravaganza kicked off in the morning when the beach, sponsored by Ponderosa Centre, was opened at Market Place by the Mayor of Kirklees, Eric Firth.

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Among the activities taking place, families enjoyed a traditional Punch and Judy show at Dewsbury Market, donkey rides and a funfair, while keeping their eyes peeled for the giant lobster riding in a cart pulled by a human slave.

And who could fail to be charmed by the Van Dunk Brothers’ dry-land synchronized swimming display?

Other performances included a seafaring musical comedy and an amphibious pedalo which had been cunningly adapted to reach the places normal pedalos cannot reach.

A traditional singer and a traditional tea dance ensured that Dewsbury was the “in” place to be at the weekend. John Rufus, a father-of-four from Halifax said: “We’ve had a wonderful time.”