Monorails and Minigolf at Butlin's Minehead

A look back at the Monorails and Minigolf course at Butlin's Somerwest World holiday camp in Minehead.

My brother Christopher was recently looking through some old family photos and spotted this snap of us riding the monorail at Butlin's Minehead back in the early 90's.

Riding the Tango branded Monorail at Butlin's Minehead in the early 1990's

My family holidayed at the camp a number of times in the late 80's and early 90's and I've got brilliant memories of the monorail, funfair, laser tag and arcades there. It's little wonder that even now I'm such a big fan of the British seaside, monorails, crazy golf and video-games.

Emily and I also had one of our first holidays together at the camp in 2004 and we remember playing the Arnold Palmer Putting Course you can see in the postcard below. This card is from the time the camp was known as Butlin's Somerwest World from 1987 to 1999. Sadly we haven't got any photos of us from our pre-Crazy World of Minigolf Tour game on the course.

A Butlin's Holidays postcard of Somerwest World. Postally unused. Undated

While looking at the history of Butlin's for a feature in Picture Postcard Monthly to mark the 80th birthday of Butlin's in 2016 I found that the UK's first commercial monorail was opened at Butlin's Skegness in 1965! The Skegness holiday resort is the one remaining camp I haven't been to.

It's brilliant collecting old postcards of minigolf courses, monorails and holiday camps as they are superb pieces of social history, as well as bringing back some great memories.

Related blog posts:
- Butlin's
- Postcards

Link:
- Butlin's