town of Skegness. Here he established an amusement park with hoopla stalls, a tower slide, a haunted house, and a scenic railway. In 1928, Butlin secured an exclusive licence to sell dodgem cars in Europe. The first dodgems in Britain were available in his park at Skegness. Other showmen bought dodgems from Butlin. His activities in Skegness continued to expand, and by 1930 included a zoo featuring lions, zebras and an African village. Butlin opened a similar fairground in 1932, in Bognor Regis, on the corner of the Esplanade, named the Recreation Shelter. In 1933 he opened a zoo nearby, which featured polar bears, kangaroos and monkeys. Around the same time he opened an amusement park in Bognor's neighbouring village of Littlehampton, known as Butlin's Park. In the 1930s Butlin had amusement parks in Mablethorpe (opened 1928), Hayling Island (1931), Felixstowe (1931), Southsea (1931) and on the Isle of Man. He continued to operate his winter fair at Olympia and soon added the winter fairs at Waverley Hall in Edinburgh and at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. By 1935 most of his existing parks had zoos attached to them, providing another source of revenue. Butlin's funfair and amusement park business expanded in the post-war period. In 1938 he gained the sole contract to supply amusements to the Empire Exhibition in Glasgow and after the war, he continued to open amusement parks such as the one at Sheerness. First holiday camps Butlin had nurtured the idea of a holiday camp. He had seen the way landladies in seaside resorts would, sometimes literally, push families out of the lodgings between meals, regardless of the weather. Butlin toyed with the idea of providing holiday accommodation that encouraged holiday-makers to stay on the site and provided entertainment for them between meals. He opened his first Butlin's camp at Ingoldmells, near Skegness, on 11 April 1936 (Easter eve). It was officially opened by Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. An advertisement costing £500 (2011:£) was placed in the Daily Express, announced the opening of the camp, inviting the public to book for a week's holiday. The advertisement offered holidays with three meals a day and free entertainment with a week's full board cost anything from 35 shillings to £3 (2011:£), according to the time of year. When the camp opened, Butlin realised that his guests were not engaging with