Meet the Team

Samantha is Director of the National Coastal Tourism Academy, the only organisation in the UK that focuses on coastal tourism. She has directed the research, visitor experience, training and communications programmes of the Academy since its launch in summer 2013, including Coastal Communities Fund, UKCES and Discover England Fund projects. Sam has a postgraduate degree in Tourism Management and over 20 years’ experience in the industry including previous roles at Carnival UK, Salisbury Cathedral, the British Tourist Authority (in Chicago) and Thomas Cook.

Sam’s work focuses on national engagement and partnerships that will help boost tourism and the economies of coastal communities, with a particular emphasis on addressing seasonality.  Sam works closely with a wide range of stakeholders including central government, VisitBritain, coastal businesses, destinations, national organisations and LEPs. She frequently presents to Government inquiries, MPs and the media to raise awareness of key issues impacting coastal tourism in England. 

Samantha also oversees the ongoing development of the “England’s Coast” project, originally funded by the Discover England Fund, it brings together all the component parts of the visitor economy to attract international visitors to our stunning coastline year-round.  Since Covid-19 it has adapted to attract new domestic audiences to our coast to boost recovery. 

Kathryn Ferry is a historian, author and broadcaster. She has a PhD in Architectural History from the University of Cambridge and worked as Senior Architectural Advisor for The Victorian Society before going freelance in 2007. She has published ten books and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a former Conference Secretary for the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain and Media Relations Officer for the National Piers Society.

Kathryn grew up near the coast in North Devon but dates her enthusiasm for the seaside to a 1998 visit to Herne Bay when she literally fell in love with beach huts. She undertook a two-month tour of England’s huts in 2002 subsequently writing a long and a short book on their history and current popularity. Her other books include the official history of Butlin’s and ‘Seaside 100: A History of the British Seaside in 100 Objects’. Her next book will be about 20^th century seaside architecture. She is a well-respected lecturer and regularly contributes to radio and television, most recently Villages by the Sea on BBC2, Britain by Beach and Britian’s Best Beach Huts for Channel 4 and Secrets of the London Underground on Yesterday.

‘I’m really looking forward to helping give seaside heritage a new and collective voice. Our resorts have unique and special claims to importance but there has been a real reticence to include them as part of our national cultural heritage. Through the Seaside Heritage Network we hope to change that and restore a sense of pride to places that have been marginalised for too long.’ 

Throughout my life I’ve visited the seaside regularly.  Many of my childhood holidays were spent at Frinton-on-Sea (with regular trips to Walton-on-the-Naze pier) and Weymouth.  In recent years, I’ve returned to taking regular holidays in seaside towns around the country, collecting piers, and enjoying the challenge of trying to defeat 2p pushers.  

 As an academic I’ve long been interested in heritage tourism and over the years I’ve been particularly drawn to unusual or overlooked heritages. In the past I’ve looked at the unwanted heritage of communism in East-Central Europe, and the problematic literary heritage of Dracula in Romania. It was this interest in off-beat heritages led me to the British seaside.  My many years of taking students on fieldtrips to Barmouth and New Brighton made me realise just how distinctive and unusual seaside towns are. Each time I visit Blackpool I’m hit by just what an astonishing place it is.  And a visit to Great Yarmouth’s Hippodrome (and my first-ever visit to a circus) confirmed for me that there’s a quite unique heritage in seaside towns that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. 

As such, my hope is that the Seaside Heritage Network can raise the profile of both the tangible and intangible heritage of the seaside and the seaside holiday.  It’s time to look beyond the stereotypes and value and celebrate the heritage of the seaside.  

"What I’d really like to see is a British seaside town being nominated as a World Heritage Site.  Why not?  These are places that represent a unique stage in the history of humankind: the first settlements dedicated entirely to pleasure and distraction."

Allan is a historian and architectural historian who worked for Historic England (and its predecessors) from 1986 to 2022; he is now a Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University. Originally a medievalist, an interest he still pursues actively, he has researched everything from a Roman fort to a 20th century airport.

For the past 20 years he has been studying the history of tourism and has written a number of monographs on the subject. His books include England's Seaside Resorts(2007), Travel and Tourism in Britain, 1700-1914 (2014), The Seafront (2018), Tourism and the Changing Face of the British Isles (2019) and England's Seaside Heritage from the Air (2021). He has also written studies of individual resorts, including Margate, Weymouth, Blackpool and Weston-super-Mare. In addition, Allan has written many articles, including a number exploring the origins of the seaside resort.

Allan is also the co-author of Behind Bars: The Hidden Architecture of English Prisons and English Prisons: an architectural history.  He has also written a number of papers on prisons, including on their locations in towns, a history of their closures and the future of prison tourism.

Allan is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Historical Society.

"I hope that the Seaside Heritage Network will get our remarkable seaside heritage the attention it deserves from a wider public. One day I would like to see the British Seaside inscribed as part a World Heritage Site so that the world might admire and enjoy Brighton Pavilion and Blackpool Tower like I do."

Anya Chapman is a Principal Academic in Tourism Management at Bournemouth University, researching mature coastal destinations and traditional visitor attractions such as funfairs, amusement arcades, and seaside piers. Prior to joining academia, Anya worked as a visitor attractions manager, spending a significant part of her career managing amusement arcades for Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Anya grew up in Southport, on the northwest coast, at a time when the resort was experiencing significant decline. Anya witnessed the demolition of iconic seaside heritage within Southport including the Sea Bathing Lake and the Cyclone roller coaster. During her undergraduate and postgraduate degree studies, Anya specialised in seaside tourism and recognised similar stories of decay and decline at other resorts. Having afternoon tea in the (what was then) crumbling Midland Hotel in Morecambe, or reading the information boards at the sites of the former Tower, Pier, and the Open Air Baths in New Brighton galvanised Anya to raise awareness of Britain’s glorious and unique seaside heritage. Anya spent 10 years as a trustee and director of the National Piers Society, raising awareness of Britain’s seaside piers, and as an academic panel member for 'Showtown', Blackpool’s museum of fun and entertainment.

Anya is a founding member of the Seaside Heritage Network and is committed to sharing her passion for our quirky, brash, fun and frivolous seaside heritage.

“British seaside resorts are the first sites of mass tourism in the world and should be recognised for their unique and enduring contribution to national identity. They are an important part of British culture and heritage and we need to celebrate and cherish them.”