Horrible Histories: Break by the Ocean song

Learn all about how the Victorians made the seaside a popular holiday destination and sing along to this Horrible Histories tune.

If you like to be beside the seaside, then this is the song for you! Grab your bucket and spade and head to the beach with the Horrible Histories gang. Join Queen Victoria as she tells you all about how the vile Victorians flocked to the sea to cure their ghastly gout (and other illnesses!) Then learn all about how brilliant Billy Butlin pioneered the seaside as a place for family fun - and made lots of money from it. 

Sir William Heygate Edmund Colborne Butlin MBE (aka Billy Butlin, that's a mouthful!) was an entrepreneur who launched the Brits' love for holiday camps by the sea. Butlin wanted to make the seaside THE hottest place to be, despite the chilly weather! He hoped Butlin's would encourage families to sit back, relax, get an ice cream and be looked after. The first camp was opened in sunny Skegness in 1936. It was so popular that camps popped up all over the coast, like Clacton-on-Sea, Bognor Regis and Barry Island! RATTUS FACT: Did you know there are still three huge resorts in 2025? Bognor Regis, Minehead and the og, Skegness.

Oh, no.

The beach was not traditionally

where one would go.

And here in Bognor,

Yeah this water’s so cold!

But doctors said it helps

to make your gout go,

gout go.

It's cool to be by the sea.

Now it's cool to be by the sea.

I like to be by the sea,

and to take all my family.

I change in a bathing machine,

I see the sea but it can't see me.

Even a royal empress needs a staycation by the sea.

I'm promenading,

while the kids are bucket and spading.

Oh yeah!

In the sea we're paddling and wading.

Na na na na.

Break by the ocean,

break by the ocean.

Donkey rides baby.

Or, we'll dig a sand castle maybe.

Oh yeah!

Watch a Punch and Judy show daily.

Na na na na.

Break by the ocean,

break by the ocean.

Seaside,

factory workers sure like to be beside.

I thought for their week off I could provide,

a holiday with entertainment supplied,

supplied.

Holiday camp by the sea.

My holiday camp by the sea.

I called it Butlin's ‘cos I named it after me.

I'll do everything I can to make my campers all happy.

Catering for all their needs.

Obviously, for a fee.

Candyfloss baby,

Or a knobbly knee contest maybe?

Oh yeah.

Grandparents, mums, dads and their babies.

Everyone has fun by the ocean.

Break by the ocean.

It's cool to be by the sea,

now it's cool to be by the sea.

Yeah, yeah when we came along,

it became a cool place to be.

It's cool to be by the sea.

And it's all thanks to him and me.

Break by the ocean,

break by the ocean.

Shall we all go and get fish and chips?

Yeah!

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