IT MUST have been uncomfortable, but it’s amusing to see – men dressed in suits and women in full-length dresses enjoying the sun, sea and sand on Bournemouth’s beaches.

These days most of us would opt for shorts, a t-shirt and sandals, but 100 years ago things were very different.

However, the over-dressed look wasn’t just for the sand. Most male and female bathing suits were all in ones that revealed very little flesh.

In fact, bathers in the 1920s were so concerned about others seeing them in a state of undress, they garbed themselves in their all-in-ones in wooden bathing machines.

Snap shots of the past. Snap 426 Beach outing august 1923 Sent in by Mrs Jill (gillian) Jones.

Beach outing August 1923. Sent in by Jill Jones.

These wooden huts were on wagons and were wheeled all the way down to the water so that fewer people would see the bather's shins and forearms on display.

Fashions and attitudes began to change in the second half of the 1920s as short sleeves and under-the-knee dresses came into fashion.

Bournemouth beach, circa 1920. Sent in by Mary Homes.

But, even still, they looked far too overdressed for the beach compared to nowadays.