We offered our first holidays over 60 years ago. Find out more about how we got to where we are today.We've included a potted history below, but always love to hear more from those who know Long Beach - whether local or a regular visitor, so do get in touch and send in your pictures, which we'd be happy to include in our photo archive. Through the years Take a trip down memory lane with these photographs capturing your moments which make it all so special, time and again! A timeline through the generationsThe history of our business began when Ralph Groat, after serving on the western front and in Burma in the second world war, came back to his native Grimsby, and then moved to Lowestoft with his young family. He and his wife Joan spotted an opportunity in 1962 to acquire Long Beach Estate with its simple caravan park, holiday bungalows, valley, dunes and beach, which had come up for sale. He and Joan bought it with the help of a £15,000 bank loan and so our 60+ years of involvement began.Long Beach had seen its own wartime service – it was requisitioned by the War Department and the army moved in. Huge anti-tank concrete blocks were laid on the beach, and there are still traces on the caravan park of the concrete bases laid for army buildings and for an anti-aircraft gun emplacement. And of course visitors drive in past our very own war-time pillbox on Kings Loke. 1960s This was a time of steady improvement of facilities on the caravan park and estate. Ralph led the building of the Dolphin Bar on Plot 60 – his original drawings are on display in the bar – and it soon became a popular venue with its Television Room and DJ booth & dancefloor, jukebox and dartboard.Long Beach Stores, where boxes of groceries could be pre-ordered by families arriving for their holidays by train and taxi or bus, was built, together with a busy café where the reception office now stands. It became a very hands-on business for Ralph and Joan, with help from their children John & Barbara at weekends and in their school or college holidays. 1970s and 80s John had always taken an active interest in the business, fitting in time there around law school in London and then work as a solicitor in Norwich and he used his experience from Hemsby to good effect when he bought Azure Seas Caravan Park in Corton near Lowestoft in 1975, eventually selling it to a national operator in the early 2000s. He joined the business at Long Beach full-time in the late 70s, where he was equally at home behind the bar or at his state-of-the-art computer in his office at home!The Grange Hotel and Touring Park at Ormesby were added to the business portfolio at around this time, and the ‘New Camping Field’ at Hemsby (now Hemsby Tents & Touring) arrived on the scene just in time to accommodate the camping activities that needed a new home after the use of the Winterton valley for camping came to an end in 1982.Beach Estate Caravan Park in the centre of Hemsby was acquired in 1988, and together with Sandsgate Caravan Park, now makes up Sandsgate Caravans.This was an important time on a personal front too - John & his wife Gillian were married in 1978 and the first half of the 1980s saw the arrival of their four children. It was also the beginning of Gillian’s involvement in the business as she was soon drafted in to help on the admin side. 1990s and 2000s Ralph sadly passed away in 1994 and Joan in 2000. They are still dearly missed, not just by the family and our staff, but by a number of today's customers who still recall the early days and have happy tales to tell.John took the opportunity to buy the Seadell Club in 1999, with Joan’s approval, and extended it in 2000 - its central glass roof becoming his own version of the ‘millennium dome’! The Seadell Club now trades as The Sandsgate.During the 90s and 00s, John & Gillian’s children all did their bit in the business – working behind the bars, in the office or on cleaning duties, during their summer breaks or during breaks in their other careers. 2010s and 2020s The established business continued under John’s stewardship and with Gillian’s support until John died suddenly in late 2022, but not before he and Gillian had welcomed the news that their son Andrew planned to make a career change in 2023 and come to work full time in the business. Andrew has been at the helm since then, with the backing and encouragement of John’s other children.In early 2025 the family business was reorganised, following a rebranding in 2024, and is now owned by Fourpenny Limited, which is wholly owned by John & Gillian’s four children and continues to trade as a family business.