http://www.bn.org.uk/articles.php/_/information/about-naturism/history-of-naturism/ Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:18:23 +0000 43200 History of Naturism http://www.bn.org.uk/articles.php/_/information/about-naturism/history-of-naturism/a-history-of-naturism-timeline-r28 1891 The earliest known naturist club in the world exists in British India. Founded by Charles Edward Gordon Crawford, a widower, who is a District and Sessions Judge for the Bombay Civil Service at Thana. The club's constitution would be acceptable nowadays. His only fellow members are Andrew and Kellogg Calderwood, sons of a missionary. Crawford remarries in 1892 and dies two years later. The club ends about 1892. Its existence has no known influence on later events.

1893 Heinrich Pudor publishes Nackende Menschen: Jauchzen der Zukunst (Naked Mankind: a Leap into the Future), followed in 1906 by two books on Nackt-Kultur (naked culture).

1906 Richard Ungewitter publishes Die Nacktheit (Nakedness) which speedily becomes a best seller.

1912 Marguerite Le Fur publishes "Le Bonheur d'être Nu" in Mercure de France, describing naturism as practised in Germany. Reading about developments in Germany leads Harold Clare Booth to seek information from the German Freya Bund with thoughts of a similar organisation in Britain. Encouragement is given by an article by Bernarr Macfadden, an American, published two years later in Physical Culture, which advocates nudity for children as part of purity in the home.

1914 Booth has a long article on the nude culture movement published in the same magazine. Further letters and articles follow in 1914 and 1915, but the war prevents immediate result.

1921 Revival of public interest in the subject of naturism is slow after the war, but articles begin to appear, written by Dr. Caleb Williams Saleeby and others, in The New Statesman and Health and Efficiency.

1922 Harold Clare Booth, Mark Harold Sorensen and Rex Wellbye found the English Gymnosophist Society for those, mainly men, interested in nude life culture. It meets at the Minerva Cafe in High Holborn. Later renamed the New Gymnosophy Society. By 1926 it meets in Cheapside, London, circulating its own journal and arranging public lectures advocating nudism.

1924 May The Sunlight League, founded by Dr. Saleeby, with its own journal, Sunlight, advocates sunbathing. Saleeby has since 1921 been publishing articles in The New Statesman about the benefits of sunlight.

1924 The Moonella Group, formed from members of the New Gymnosophy Society, begins to use land, which they call The Camp, at Wickford, Essex. This is the first club to exist in Britain. They have strict rules and members have to use club names, Moonella being the club name of the landowner. The club closes in 1926 because of building on adjacent land.

1925 Captain Harold Hubert Vincent, cashiered from the army in 1918, founds the Sun Ray Club, publicly preaches nudism and proposes a march through Hyde Park by 200 naked men and women. He acquires several convictions for soliciting donations, using insulting words etc.

1926 At the end of 1926 a site, found by Booth, is, with the help of a Derbyshire benefactor, bought at Bricket Wood in Hertfordshire and opened for use in May 1927. There are nine original members drawn from the Moonella Group and the site is at first also called The Camp. By 1931 it has developed into a club, named Fouracres, with an elected committee.

1927 The Sun Bathing Society is founded by Barford, who also publishes Sun Bathing Review, to promote the practice of active sun and air bathing among families and young children, using the new scanty bathing costumes. The summer heatwave in 1928 encourages public tolerance. He wins influential support and organises regular meetings at Sun Lodge in Upper Norwood, South London. The five annual conferences of the Society receive favourable publicity. For several years the Sun Bathing Society organises successful lectures and meetings in London in the winter, Barford gives opportunities for those who wish to progress from bathing costumes to nudity and many do so.

1927 An English translation of Suren's Man and Sunlight is published with the approval of Dean Inge, Dean of St. Paul's, who declares that "The new freedom of the body which is sweeping Europe is a splendid omen of increasing health".

1928 Charles & Dorothy Macaskie purchase 12 acres of land in Bricket Wood, which they call Spielplatz, They go to live there the next year and by 1930 are inviting friends to join them.

1930 The owner of land at a reservoir near the Welsh Harp in Hendon, Middlesex, where there has since 1921 been limited sunbathing, modelled on practice in Germany and Switzerland, allows young unemployed people to use shacks on his property for sunbathing. Press publicity attracts others to join them but also stirs up public opposition. In June about 250 sunbathers, some of them nude, are mobbed by a crowd of 200 people who invade the private land. Some at least of the 250 are members of Vincent's Sun Ray Club. Both police and press give some support to the sunbathers, and more people join the group as a result.

1930 Sep The Sun Ray Club and New Health Society is formed, becoming in 1931 the National Sun and Air Association. It immediately begins a national advertising campaign, as well as running a popular gymnasium at Westbourne Grove, and later an indoor club at Cricklewood, both in London. It ceases to meet about 1940.

1930 Booth finds a site at Sunhill near Sidcup in Kent, and this becomes the Arcadians Club which continues until at least 1945.

1931 Among the Nudists by an American couple, Frances & Mason Merrill published in London. It gives a full and fair account of nudism at that time, though England naturally receives little attention. It is the first of several books of varying worth on nudism, published in the 1930s.

1931 The Yew Tree Club is opened, under the auspices of the Sunbathing Society, at Croydon, Surrey. Mornings are at first devoted to physical culture and nudity is allowed on part of the site in the afternoon, but the club gradually becomes completely nudist.

1931-32 Health & Efficiency, originally a health and fitness magazine, becomes entirely nudist.

1932 Mar A letter is published in The Times, in support of Barford's Sun Bathing Society, demanding facilities for air bathing on decent and wholesome lines. Signatories include C.E.M.Joad, George Bernard Shaw, Laurence Housman, Julian Huxley, Vera Britain and Beverley Nichols amongst other well-known names of the period.

1933 Woodside in the Isle of Wight opens as a naturist holiday resort. Barford founds Sun Bathing Review, which he edits until 1938, It continues publication until 1959.

1934 The Lotus League owned by Mrs. Denise Bedingfield, operates in Finchley until 1939. Before moving to Finchley it was called the League of Light.

1936 The Sun Bathing Society is so successful that, when 21 clubs exist, Barford disbands it, believing that it has to a great extent fulfilled its purpose. If the Society had continued its propaganda would public attitudes have been more favourable than they have been and would naturism in Britain have won a standing similar to that enjoyed in France and Germany?

1937 Membership of the National Sun & Air Association is 2,350, and it has an office in London with a secretary and a typist. Many clubs founded under its inspiration show their origin by the words "Sun and Air" in their names.

1943 Feb The British Sun Bathing Society is formed, on the initiative of the Arcadians Club (of Sunhill), with both club and individual (associate) members. The first AGM is held that October, when 23 clubs are members. By the next AGM there are 615 associate members.

1949 Sheplegh Court in Devon opens as a naturist hotel. It finally closes about 1987.

1951 Festival of Naturism held at North Kent Sun Club, coinciding with the Festival of Britain

1951 Sep BSBA organise an international conference in London, attended by worldwide naturist leaders. A further conference agreed to be held in Switzerland in 1952, so leading to the formation of the International Naturist Federation.

1953 Oct Ten clubs not affiliated to BSBA hold a Conference of Sun Clubs at the Cora Hotel in London.

1954 Apr The Federation of British Sun Clubs is inaugurated by thirteen clubs at a meeting at the Kenilworth Hotel.

1957 Garden of Eden, a film made in association with the American Sunbathing Association in 1955, released in Britain. According to the National Film Bulletin it shows disarming incompetence, astonishing amateurishness and oozes sweetness and light.

1958 Aug The sixth INF Congress held in the grounds of Woburn Abbey, the Duke of Bedford's house.

1958 Nudist Paradise is the first British film to be generally released. Filmed at Spielplatz and Woburn, the Duke of Bedford provides the prologue. The National Film Bulletin says it is inept, the editing incompetent and its motives rather suspect.

1960 Travelling Light, the first genuine British naturist film, is released. It is produced by Michael Keatering [pseudonym of Craven Walker].

1961 BSBA Annual Conference agrees that the term nudist is inappropriate and should be discarded in favour of naturist.

1962 Feb BSBA and FBSC each agree to make arrangements for the union of their organisations as a club controlled organisation, to take effect in 1964.

1964 May Member clubs of both organisations, meeting at the Royal Hotel, London, agree to their union on 1st July under the name of Central Council for British Naturism. 72 clubs are members by the time of the AGM in September.

1965 Adventurers Sun Club is the first to obtain permission from a local authority to hire a public bath, at Maidstone, Kent, for naturist use.

1970 Aug The 12th INF Congress held at North Kent Sun Club

1978 Hastings Borough Council approve the first naturist beach in Britain, at Fairlight Cove. The 16th INF Congress held at South Hants Sun Club

1979 Jan "Let's Go Naked" an unbiased and well researched programme about naturism at home and abroad shown on BBC1 Irvine (soon lost) and Stevenston in Ayrshire, Cleat's Shore on the Isle of Arran, Corton Beach near Lowestoft, Swalecliffe near Whitstable and Leysdown in the Isle of Sheppey are also approved as naturist beaches.

1980 Apr A beach on Brighton front opened for naturist use without ceremony, having been approved by Brighton Council the year before. On the same day Fraisthorpe near Bridlington is opened for naturists.

1982 Adam Clapham and Robin Constable write As Nature Intended, following an unbiased programme on naturism on BBC TV.

1995 CCBN employs a Parliamentary lobbyist.

1998 The AGM of CCBN agrees by a large majority that national officers are to be elected by popular vote of all members. Extended in 1999 to election of Regional Councillors.

1999 Naturist relay team swims the Channel. Similar events in later years around the Isle of Wight and along Loch Ness.

2000 Morfa Dyffryn near Barmouth approved as a naturist beach - the first in Wales.

2002 Persil request CCBN sponsorship for their product

2003 Apr Chairman of CCBN gives evidence to the Home Affairs Committee of the House of Commons in connection with the Sexual Offences Bill.

2004 CCBN employs a Commercial Manager, and then an Advertising Manager.

2005 Bare Britain, describing beaches, clubs and venues, published by Lifestyle Press Ltd..in association with CCBN. Open naturist day held at Abbey House Gardens, Malmesbury (since repeated more than once each year). A national charity is recommended for support by members (since repeated each year)

2006 Naturist evening at York Maize Maze and garden party at Castle Howard. Alton Towers organises a naturist weekend. (These events are repeated in subsequent years.)

2007 Eden Project in Cornwall hosts a naturist evening, organised by Red Letter Days, a commercial company. CCBN organises an accompanying "Nudefest" weekend at a nearby campsite. (Nudefest is repeated in following years.)

2008 Naturist story lines appear in some TV series and some TV presenters show support for naturism.

2009 Central Council for British Naturism (CCBN) changes its name to British Naturism (BN).

2010 British Naturism is formed as a company limited by guarantee to take the place of the association founded in 1964. It remains a members' organisation.

With apologies for the inevitable errors and omissions.]]> Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:50:44 +0000 76dc611d6ebaafc66cc0879c71b5db5c http://www.bn.org.uk/articles.php/_/information/about-naturism/history-of-naturism/a-history-of-naturism-r27 The Moonella Group

The first club with any kind of established home was founded near Wickford in Essex in the late summer of 1924. The club adopted the name of the Moonella Group from the club name of the owner of the ground, and called its site The Camp. Moonella, who was still living in 1965 but whose identity remains to be discovered, had inherited a house and land, heavily mortgaged, and in 1923 made it available to certain members of the New Gymnosophy Society.

The Society had been founded a few years before by H.C. Booth, M.H. Sorensen and Rex Wellbye under the name of the English Gymnosophical Society. It met for discussions at the Minerva Cafe at 144 High Holborn in London, the headquarters of the Women's Freedom League.

Those who were permitted to join the Moonella Group were carefully selected, and the club was run by an "aristocracy" of the original members, all of whom had club names, Chong and Lorelli (Mark Harold Sorensen and his wife Helen Morley Sorensen), Flang or fflang (Harold Clare Booth), Gart, Moonella, Thwang (Roland Berrill), Tob (Mr. L.B.) and Zex (Rex Wellbye).

Some of the group's rules are familiar in later naturist clubs, for example that the identity of members must not be revealed to others, that photographs and sketches must not be made without the approval of the committee and the subject, and that the location of the club site must not be revealed to others. In other ways the example of this club has not been so closely followed. The Committee had virtually all power in its hands and was self perpetuating. A member was known, for example, as The Noble Flang or the Gracious Moonella. They were even instructed how to write to one another, beginning "To the Noble Chong, greeting" and ending with a wish without verb or subject, for example "Blue Sky", followed by the signature. The wearing of sandals and headbands of brilliant colours was encouraged, provided that were in Greek rather than oriental style. Jewellery was discouraged. Care had to be taken to avoid complimenting visitors and members upon their beauty. The club kept an attendance book, which in 1965 was still in the possession of Mark Sorensen. He died in 1974 - where is it now?

Before the end of the 1925 season the Moonella Group had to close. There is mention of building on adjacent land making it impossible to use the grounds. The members were without a site until in May 1927 Fouracres at Bricket Wood near St. Albans, which was at first also called "The Camp", was acquired in its place, with the help of a Derbyshire benefactor - but that is another story.

Harold Booth died in 1943, Rex Wellbye in 1963. Could any members of the Moonella Group still be living?

How the split came to pass

The British Sun Bathing Society had been formed in February 1943, a surprising initiative in the dark days of the war. It took the place of the National Sun and Air Society, founded in 1930, which had been highly successful in the 1930s, but ceased to meet or exist about 1940. BSBA was a club organisation, but from the beginning it also enrolled associate members, soon renamed subscribers and then registered subscribers. Naturists are individualistic people and, as every other naturist organisation, BSBA suffered internal dissension. Problems came to a head in 1953. The previous AGM had agreed to employ Arthur Hodgson as full-time paid General Secretary at ?300 p.a. At the September 1953 AGM it was agreed to reorganise the registered subscriber section with limited voting rights and to appoint a small committee to revise the constitution, which was long out of date. An additional factor was that Frank Mitchell of Sheplegh Court condemned BSBA as a nudist organisation, demanding that the nudist President be dismissed and that it should in future use only the term "naturist".

Against this background, in January 1953 a meeting of clubs that were not members of BSBA was called by the North Kent Sun Club at the Bonnington Hotel. Fifteen clubs attended, but the meeting was generally inconclusive. In October 1953, under the sponsorship of David Johnson, Editor of H.& E., an informal meeting of non-affiliated clubs, under the title Conference of Sun Clubs, was called at the Cora Hotel in London. The meeting was convened by Jim Butterfield of Diogenes, Andy Jepsen of the Kent Regional Sunbathing Association and Rod Martin of Sunfolk, and was chaired by Wallace Arter. Ten clubs attended. This led the following March to the formulation of a new constitution, which the BSBA committee revising the constitution refused to adopt. BSBA then, in its turn, invited discussion of their draft revised constitution, which was also refused. The emotions of the time are well represented in a report published in The Grove, the North Kent Sun Club newsletter in April 1953, which stated that "certain BSBA officers are so far out of sympathy with the aims and object and constitution of the Association ... that they are actively working to somersault BSBA into an organisation of individuals." The same article objected that BSBA had a full-time paid Secretary. North Kent also asked the Administration Committee of BSBA to call a special general meeting "with an open agenda", a motion that was rejected.

The Federation of British Sun Clubs was accordingly inaugurated at a meeting at the Kenilworth Hotel on 25th April 1954, again under the chairmanship of Wallace Arter. After much discussion a constitution was adopted. Rod Martin was reluctantly elected as Chairman, Dave Jenkinson of North Kent as Secretary and John Sherwood of Nottingham as Treasurer. Initial membership was the thirteen clubs which attended the meeting. Three others sent apologies and another four attended as observers.

The Path to Unity

It was not long before the two organisations realised that they were duplicating some of one another's work and voices were raised urging cooperation. At the 1959 AGM of FBSC Surrey Downs urged better relations with BSBA and the Secretary was instructed to make enquiries from BSBA. The Vice-Chairman, Frank Mitchell, queried the possibility of amalgamation, but his seemed to be a lone voice. In January 1960 a slight improvement in relations was reported, but the Chairman advised that it must not be rushed. By the 1960 AGM a meeting had been held between representatives of the two organisations, but this was only an exploratory meeting to discover what differences existed and to put them forward for further consideration. No positive result was forthcoming. Kent Region protested against any negotiation with the BSBA if Hugh Shayler was representing them. The Secretary agreed to suggest that BSBA should make changes in their delegation. Springwood advised that negotiations should be only with the Clubs Section of BSBA. At the same time BSBA agreed to endorse the action of its officers in opening discussions with FBSC and hoped that further discussions would take place. The BSBA General Secretary, Arthur Hodgson, reported to the annual conference that BSBA had been prepared to meet the Federation, but it was the latter who had not yet been able to offer a date to meet their own convenience. He regretted that FBSC had broken away and would welcome any move that would bring them back within BSBA ranks.

In 1961 the BSBA annual conference unanimously approved a resolution, originated by the Sunlanders Youth Group, deploring the continued unsatisfactory relationship between BSBA and FBSC and instructing the Central Committee to pursue energetically all practicable steps to solve outstanding difficulties. At the AGM Arthur Hodgson regretted that negotiations with FBSC about closer cooperation had not yet made any progress, though there had been some collaboration at both national and local levels.

So far thoughts on both sides had been simply to improve relations and to eliminate overlapping work. In 1961, however, the FBSC AGM resolved to invite the BSBA Clubs Section to merge with it under a mutually agreed constitution. Muriel Clark, President of BSBA, said at the 1961 AGM that she wished to see an understanding reached and intended to do her best to achieve it. Dorothy Thornton welcomed the change of climate at FBSC resulting from a change of officers, since there was now a basis for cooperation and officials on both sides were prepared to listen to each other. She referred presumably to the election in 1960 of Jack Watkins as Chairman of FBSC in place of Ted Coleman. Unfortunately Muriel Clark died in December, being succeeded by Dorothy Thornton. In February 1962 the BSBA Cental Committee were told that discussions had commenced between Headquarters representatives of FBSC and BSBA, that the position had been carefully examined and arrangements made for a further meeting. The Federation is recorded as complaining that Denys Rendell was a representative of BSBA in the discussions. As with Hugh Shayler no reason for the objection is stated. About the same time Jack Watkins told the FBSC Central Council that exploratory meetings had been held with BSBA officers and that some headway had been made. It was agreed to invite Dorothy Thornton, Arthur Hodgson and John Rowlinson, the Editor of Verity, to the FBSC AGM.

A breakthrough happened on 19 August 1962 at a meeting of the Negotiating Committee when Jack Watkins reported a proposal by an unnamed "staunch supporter of BSBA" that a recommendation should be made to the Annual Conferences of both organisations that arrangements should be undertaken for the union of the BSBA and the FBSC as a club controlled organisation, that the effective date of the union should be no later than 1964 when a meeting of club delegates of all known approved sun clubs should be held to determine its constitution and elect its first officers. Preliminary arrangements were to be discussed between the officers of the organisations during 1963. This resolution was unanimously approved at both the FBSC AGM and the BSBA AGM in September 1962.

The Unity Committee first met on 18th November. Initial membership of nine from each side was promptly reduced to four. By the fourth meeting in June 1963 a draft constitution had been produced. Two further meetings followed in 1964, followed by the formal unity meeting of all member clubs of both organisations, held at the Royal Hotel, Woburn Place, London, on Sunday May 10th. Erik Holm, President of the INF, attended as guest of honour. The constitution was accepted unanimously by both sets of member clubs and it was agreed that vesting day would be 1st July 1964, the first AGM being held on 13th September at East Midlands. The principal officers of each organisation were assigned places in the new CCBN, Frank Mitchell (FBSC) being President, Dorothy Thornton (BSBA) Vice-President, Jack Watkins (FBSC) Chairman, and Keith Pickering (BSBA) Vice-Chairman. Roy Lambert (FBSC) became General Secretary, George Hulm (BSBA) Treasurer and Peter Fallows (FBSC) Editor.

The Executive Council of the new organisation met prematurely at Diogenes on 14th June (since CCBN did not yet exist) and again on the eve of the AGM. Membership of the Supporters Section Committee was agreed. Roy Lambert as Secretary would move to a caravan in the grounds of North Kent and a portable office building would be bought for his use. Sport and Sunshine, the FBSC magazine, became the model for the new magazine, to be called British Naturism, a title in which BSBA representatives were not consulted. Neville Payne was coopted to the Central Council as News Secretary and George Carter as Assistant Secretary. Supporter Section fees were to be 25s a year for married couples, 20s for single persons. At the first AGM the remaining officers were elected - Ron Cox, Overseas, Bob Turnbull, PRO, and Douglas Gibson, Research & Liaison. Member clubs were to pay 1s 6d per head for adult membership.

At the time of unity there were 23 clubs members of BSBA, 25 members of FBSC and 15 members of both. In addition three "recognised" clubs and six others are listed. Fifty clubs were represented at the Unity meeting. By September the number had already risen to 72, plus two affiliated societies. New found unity was proving popular.

The Fellowship of the Naked Trust

What was probably the earliest naturist club existed in 1891, not in this country, France or Germany, but in British India. It is described in a series of letters sent by Charles Edward Gordon Crawford, a member of the Bombay Civil Service, working at Thana, to Edward Carpenter, a well-known writer on social subjects, who had rejected Victorian conventions.

The club required members to go stark naked wherever suitable and to encourage others to do the same. It also required them to be plainspoken when desirable on sexual and other subjects usually tabooed, and to discourage unnecessary reticence about such subjects in others. The motto of the club was Vincat Natura (Let Nature Win) and the club badge consisted of these words and the initials of the club. There were no officers, though there could be a Secretary and a Chairman for the day. Anyone could be admitted who was vouched for by two members and was willing to obey the rules. At meetings all must be stark naked except for rings, eyeglasses and false teeth! Women must wear their hair loose without ribbons, combs or hairpins and they must not wear rouge or powder. Sectarian and political discussion was forbidden. Anyone guilty of indecency was subject to suspension or expulsion. Acts of indecency were defined as wearing clothes at a meeting, gestures or acts of personal contact giving offence to the opposite sex, indecent assault at or following a meeting, even with the consent of the other party, and consenting to indecent assault. The mode of handshake on greeting was even prescribed. Women who did not feel able to attend meetings could be Outside Members, conforming to all the rules and wearing the badge. No man could be an Outside Member. Crawford asked for his name to be treated confidentially since "for personal reasons it would be inconvenient for it to be associated with these views - so easily misrepresented - by those who are opposed to them." (Have we ever heard similar fears expressed nowadays?)

Such a constitution would surely have qualified the club for election to CCBN provided the Overseas Region was prepared to recommend it! It is surprising, however, that this carefully organised club turns out to have consisted of only three persons, Crawford, a widower since November 1886, a District and Sessions Judge, and Andrew Calderwood and his brother, Kellogg Calderwood, sons of a missionary.

Apparently Carpenter expressed sympathy with their ideals, for two months later Crawford writes again, with a statement of motives, now added to the rules. The motives are in fact reasons for nakedness. Physically, given a suitable temperature, it is good for the body to be exposed to the air and no costume has been invented equal in comfort to perfect nakedness; morally, because false shame of our own bodies and morbid curiosity as to those of the opposite sex, which result from always wearing clothes, are the chief sources of impurity; and aesthetically, because the human body is God's noblest work, and it is good for everyone to gaze on such beauty freely.

Crawford had always had a passion for nakedness, but had found no one of similar mind until he met the Calderwood brothers in November 1890. His ideal was a state of society in which clothes would be worn or not as convenient "without reference to the conventionalities which at present rule the roost". They knew one young lady who was in sympathy, but was not prepared to be even an outside member on account of what people would think. He was writing an essay, which unfortunately does not survive, dealing pretty fully with F.N.T. ideals.

In a later letter he welcomed the suggestion that women should form branches of their own, a thing he had always wanted, though Calderwood did not want to encourage timidity too much. The last letter, in June 1892, reveals that Crawford was planning to marry again. He had not yet spoken of the F.N.T. to the lady, though she fully shared his "democratic impulses". Andrew Calderwood was planning to make his future in British Columbia. Carpenter had written to him about people in Vienna and Munich who in some way shared Crawford's ideas, and he enquires whether "they go as far as we do in our particular direction". (Nothing has so far been discovered about these people.

Crawford did indeed marry again, in August 1892, to Florence Ethel Willis, but died in May 1894. His son, by his first marriage, Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford, became a prominent archaeologist and author, but probably knew nothing of his father's club in India.]]> Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:46:02 +0000 ec5decca5ed3d6b8079e2e7e7bacc9f2