The bus graveyard where families lived without running water or electricity in the Welsh wilderness

A lost "shanty town" became home to thousands of makeshift shacks, with entire families living in old buses without electricity or running water in the Welsh wilderness.

Once known as the "slum by the sea" Talacre Beach is today a stunning "paradise", home to wildlife and sprawling golden sands. popular with holidaymakers.

But the beach resort at the mouth of the Dee Estuary had very different beginnings.

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The first holiday chalets were built in an uncultivated area near the beach called The Warren in the early 1930s. When World War Two broke out, evacuees fleeing bombing raids on the Merseyside docks and shipyards filled these chalets on The Warren. As these attacks increased during The Blitz of 1941, more families arrived in the village.

Because there weren't enough chalets for everyone, residents assembled makeshift huts. Others made their homes in caravans, railway carriages and buses. Despite lacking fundamental facilities like electricity and running water, The Warren became a registered camp during wartime.

Many of its new inhabitants were lone mums and their kids, seeking to establish a life away from the target cities of Liverpool and Manchester, their partners either off fighting or remaining in the city for work. An evacuee family that spoke to the Flintshire, Mold and Buckley Chronicle in 2004 included Anita Marsden, 66, and her sister Cynthia Craig, 63.

The sisters spent their childhoods in Talacre after their dad instructed their mum to leave Liverpool out of fear they would be bombing raid victims, while he stayed behind to work at the docks. The sisters recollected growing up in the camp that lacked electricity, running water, or flushing toilets during the war years.

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Anita said: "'My main worry was that my dad was still in Liverpool during the raids. I remember at night that in Talacre it was completely black with no lights in the sky, but in Liverpool there was a great big glow from the bombs and the search lights."

However, even as they fled the bombing of their home city, the war was continually looming even in peaceful Talacre. During daylight, RAF pilots used the sand dunes as a shooting range, firing at wooden targets near the beach.

Post-war, some of the chalets turned into permanent family homes for those living in the camp. Holidaymakers also made their comeback to The Warren, transforming it into a magical playground retreat from the towns and cities for children from different generations.

By the late 1950s, the camp's lack of amenities and poor conditions became a joke among comedians and attracted negative media attention. In June 1959, the Daily Herald newspaper published an article warning holidaymakers about the North Wales "shanty town".

The reporter said that unsuspecting holidaymakers "won't know until they arrive that they've booked for a slum by the sea," describing The Warren as a "shanty town in which sheds, shacks and bus bodies predominate". The article also stated that the entire beach had been declared "unsafe for bathing" and lacked proper sanitation, electricity, or a sufficient water supply.

The repeated use of the term "shanty town" in the media to describe the location upset some people. In 1964, a councillor told Llanasa Parish Council that they should object to the use of the term, stating: "Talacre is now a modern village with lighting and running water."

"The shanty town The Warren belongs to a private owner." Talacre Beach Resort first opened in the 1960s, originally named Morfa Holiday Camp, with some of the first holiday home owners still using self-contained shacks along the beach.

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As the 1960s progressed, many of the makeshift chalets, including the old buses, were cleared as caravan parks were developed. By 1973, the last of the old chalets were removed from the dunes as the resort continued to grow in popularity.

These days, Talacre remains a popular destination for day trips and family holidays, with the dunes and coast now regarded as internationally important wildlife habitats and a Special Area of Scientific Interest, with a population of protected newts and natterjack toads living in the dunes.

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