I spent a day at a UK naturist camp the place the rule is ‘get bare’ – so I did
The Sun and Air naturist camp in Whiston, Merseyside, is one of the UK’s longest-established naturist societies and has been on the 10-acre site since 1993.
“The best way to get to know us is to throw yourself in at the deep end and strip naked.”
This was the advice given to Liverpool Echo community reporter Paul McAuley by a charming chap named Mike, within minutes of the pair meeting.
It’s not McAuley’s usual interviewing method, but it was one that certainly worked when he ventured to Liverpool’s Sun and Air naturist camp. Hidden behind dense hedges in Whiston is one of the UK’s longest-established societies that has been on the 10-acre site since 1993.
Despite its history, the club doesn’t dwell in the past, with members being more uninhibited than ever. One such member is vice-chairman Mike. The 65-year-old from Warrington has been part of the naturist camp for just shy of three decades. However, his interest in the lifestyle began when he was visiting Yugoslavia as a teenager.
When he visits the Fox’s Bank Lane site, the retired engineer stays in a wooden chalet he built for himself and his wife, Diane. She peeled potatoes for a salad as Mike ran through some of the club’s formalities – well, as formal as a club where clothes aren’t necessary can be.
“You can be naked anywhere except when you are in the main carpark. There are no exceptions to this,” he clarified. “This is because when the gate is open, people passing can see into the club. We also have a three-visit strip rule.
“If you have been and gone three times and haven’t taken off your clothes, you’re likely not a naturist, and we aren’t here for sexual gratification. That’s not what we are about at all.”
McAuley noted the irony in this however. He said: “Mike was chatting with me fully dressed as he listed off the rules and regulations. As anyone would, I quizzed him as to why this was. After all, I had been at the site for over half an hour and had yet to see anyone naked.”
Mike quickly corrected the misunderstanding, bluntly yet politely, informing McAuley: “We are naturists. Not idiots. We don’t just get everything out in the freezing cold. It’s more than that.”
McAuley was invited back later on in the year to get the “full experience” when the weather was on side. He wrote: “I was happy to stay and soon was tucking into a two-course meal of pie and chips smothered in gravy and a tasty sliver of cheesecake – in the clubhouse’s canteen with, of course, naked strangers.
“At this stage, I had just removed my T-shirt. But it wasn’t long before I was involved in the jokes and labelled a “cheat”. Accepting the challenge, I unfastened my work trousers and untied my black Converse.
“As I re-entered the hallway through a heavy grey curtain, with nothing but a Garmin watch and a silver ring on, I was met with some roars and cheers. It was an ego boost, if anything. As I sat down, another man, Dan, asked: “What happened there?”
“He was referring to the sunken scar on my left leg placed just above a questionable tattoo. At that moment, with a group gazing at a part of my body that’s not typically on show, I knew I had plunged into the “deep end” Mike had referred to earlier in the evening. And what a liberating moment it was.”
McAuley revealed the nature of the scar – a physical reminder of a nasty rugby tackle he was on the receiving end of a few years prior. This was just one of several stories Dan, a 43-year-old, and McAuley exchanged throughout the night.
The Mancunian was significantly younger than the other regulars; meanwhile, another member, 77-year-old Betty, said: “We’re all old and established. We have bus passes, let’s just say that.”
Dan, who has a career in forensics, has been attending the club for three years. He said: “My parents are naturists, so I’ve been around it since childhood. To me, it’s just normal, it’s just life.
“It’s such an amazing community here, and once those electric gates shut behind you, reality just switches off. You just escape from the outside world.
“It’s a lifestyle, and it’s about staying true to that, and that’s one of the major misconceptions about us. It’s not for sex. In other countries, none of this matters. Everyone has their tops off, or they go skinny dipping on holiday.
“But here, in the UK, there’s this built-up shame around it. It’s frowned upon because it’s misconceived and misunderstood. Being naked is taught as being wrong, but it’s not.
“There is nothing wrong with it, and that’s why I keep coming back here. I feel horrible when I’m not here because the real world soon kicks in again. It’s a double life you are living.”
Proudly, Dan owns chalet number three, having invested £1.5k into his little sanctuary. The club boasts 39 other chalets within its grounds.
Just a stone’s throw away from Dan, Chris and Betty relax on freshly mown grass by their static caravan. As a couple, they pay roughly £700 annually in fees. However, it is “money well spent” for the two, who live in an old mining village in Wrexham during the working week.
A 73-year-old retired electrician, Chris, said: “When we come, we never want to leave. It is over an hour’s journey for us, so we make the most of it and stay multiple nights at a time.
“I’ve been a naturist for over 50 years. I stumbled across a beach in North Wales, Morfa Dyffryn, in the early 70s. It was all very hush, hush in those days. Finding the beaches, clubs, and places where other like-minded people would be was difficult. It is nothing like it is today in terms of how open it is.
“Having said that, the community has actually shrunk, though. There were far more people around years ago than there are now. Back then, and even now, people don’t use surnames.
“It was just John and Steve, nothing more than that. It’s a way of protecting yourself. Some people here would be sacked instantly if their employers knew they came here.”
Being sacked isn’t a worry for fellow member Graham however. The 77-year-old, who lives in Blackpool but originally from Dorset, is a retired painter and decorator. Like many of the members, he puts his talent to good use around the site to keep down the ground rates.
Wearing a fluffy grey dressing gown and matching slippers, he told McAuley: “It wasn’t the same for me as it was with Chris and Betty. I was rejected from a lot of other clubs before I got into this one.
“When I told others I was a single male, they said there and then they wouldn’t accept me. I’ve always been a naturist at heart. I’ve done it all over the world: Sitges, Gran Canaria, Barcelona.
“But this one here in Liverpool is a club I wish I had found when I was much younger. You can come from a normal everyday life into this beautiful family that is filled with carefree people. It’s a magical place with even more magical people.
“My friends and family know this is where I disappear to most weekends. Not all agree with it, but that is expected. It’s freedom away from the rat race. The moment I leave is the moment I look forward to returning.”
Since joining the society, Graham’s relationship status has changed. He is now with his partner, 69-year-old Raymond from Warrington. The pair share chalet number 38, tastefully decorated in a deep blue hue.
It was the only shack McAuley was invited into, and it sat beyond a patch of grass where two other members were laid to rest. Mike said: “Some people never leave,” while gesturing towards the area.
He told me of their nicknames and added: “That’s how you know you’re one of us you, you have a nickname”.
Despite leaving without his own nickname, McAuley felt warmly accepted within Liverpool’s Sun and Air naturist camp.
