grocklen.

1964 Films & Filming Oct. 31 It concerns life's drifters who wend their way down to these resorts to make an easy living off the ‘grockles’ (holidaymakers) during the four months of the summer season.

1968 A. Diment Great Spy Race viii. 124 He hasn't had a bit since last summer's crop of grockle chicks.

1975 Sunday Express 15 June 6/3 A Devon lady mentioned in passing that emmets and grockles were about to come her way... ‘Grockles’ is favoured particularly in Devon's Torbay area, while ‘Emmets’ is the tag for tourists in Cornwall.

1977 J. Fowles Daniel Martin (1978) 405 He was townee, he..looked like one of the countless Midland and Northcountry grockles that invade the West every summer.

1978 ‘J. Gash’ Gold from Gemini vi. 52 A few people.., mostly grockles ([antique] dealers' slang: tourists, not necessarily foreign, derogatory).

1982 M. Hinxman Telephone never Tells xx. 146 The Isle of Wight ferry from Portsmouth to Ryde was packed..with..holiday people known locally as grockles.

1984 Listener 20 Sept. 23/1 With the memory of my month in Devon receding, the grockles remain vivid, and the term grows more and more repellent to me.

1986 Daily Tel. 25 Aug. 12/2 The term ‘Grockle’ now commonly used in the South West to mean holidaymaker, has also given rise to the following descriptive expressions Grockle fodder (fish and chips), Grockle bait (the merchandise sold in gift and souvenir shops), and Grockle nests (camp sites).