Billy Butlin formerly possessed a clifftop home, which has subsequently been transformed into flats with beach chalets. The property is now on the market for £2.7 million.
Sir Billy Butlin, the founder of Butlins, lived in The White House, which was constructed in the Primrose Valley of Yorkshire in the 1930s. Sir Billy, who amassed a multi-million pound fortune after beginning as a young boy helping his mother sell gingerbread at travelling fairgrounds, transformed the traditional British seaside vacation for the general public.
The beautiful art deco mansion was purchased by Sir Billy in 1945, the same year he established his third Butlin’s in the little Yorkshire town of Filey and acquired the adjoining White House, where he often hosted gatherings for friends.
The 10-bedroom mansion was vacant when the present owners purchased it in 2009 since it had fallen into disrepair after his retirement to Jersey in 1969, his death in 1980, and the final closure of the Filey Butlin’s camp in 1983.
The derelict building was renovated by brothers Mark and David Hunter and their friend Gary Mason, both of whom are from Filey.
They turned it into two large flats with four beach huts nearby—two in the back and two on the beachfront—as well as a games area.
A private wraparound patio and beach access are also included.
Walking down the beach to Filey is not too long. Then, if the tides permit, a beautiful trek leads to Flamborough Head in the south.
Previously used as vacation rentals, the home is currently up for sale for £2.7 million via informal tender, with bids due to Nicholsons of Filey by November 1.
Even though Warner’s and other vacation camps had existed in some capacity before Sir Billy founded his, it was the businessman who made the ‘Hi De Hi’ camps a household name.
Sir Billy, who was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1899, had a difficult upbringing. Before he was seven, William and Bertha Butlin divorced, and he travelled to England with his mother.
He spent the next five years travelling the nation with his grandmother’s family fair, where his mother sold gingerbread, and rapidly picked up the business and entertainment lingo.
When he was twelve years old, his mother left him with his aunt for two years while she moved to Canada.
His mother encouraged him to move in with her after she had established in Toronto.
Butlin failed to fit in at his Canadian school and soon departed to take a job at the Eaton’s department store in Toronto.
He joined the Canadian Army as a bugler during World War One.
After the war, he travelled back to England with only £5. He used £4 of that money to lease a mobile booth at his uncle’s fair and found that offering clients a greater opportunity to win attracted more business. As a result, he swiftly found success.
One booth quickly expanded into numerous, including at well-known venues like Olympia in London, and he soon had the money to buy further fairground equipment and launch his own travelling show.
He created a static fairground in Skegness around 1927. In the next ten years, he grew his fairground empire while harbouring a plan to add lodging to his Skegness location in order to draw more visitors.
In 1936, his first summer camp opened in Skegness, then two years later, in Clacton. Due to the start of World War Two, plans to establish a third in Filey were postponed.
He took advantage of the conflict by convincing the MoD to finish the Filey Holiday Camp and build two further camps as training facilities that he would later claim in Ayr and Pwllheli.
He quickly acquired hotels in Blackpool, Saltdean, and Cliftonville and developed four other camps at Mosney, Bognor Regis, Minehead, and Barry Island during the post-war boom.