I decided I would walk to the end of every pier around the coast. That idea was pretty quickly shot down when St Anne’s pier was closed, as were two of Blackpool’s. Apparently, there is a National Piers Society for people who are really into piers.
Click on the pictures of each one for more info. The number in the caption is the relevant blog entry.
Southport
Opened in August 1860, it is the oldest iron pier in the country. Its length of 1108m makes it the second-longest in Great Britain, after Southend. It was originally 1340m but a succession of storms and fires during the late 19th and early 20th centuries saw to that!
St Anne’s
St Anne’s pier was built in 1885. It was originally intended to be a sedate promenading venue for the resort’s visitors, but attractions were later added to compete with the tackiness of Blackpool presumably.
Changes made to the estuary channels to improve access to Preston Dock left the pier on dry land – does that still make it a pier? – and ended its steamer services to Blackpool and Liverpool.
Apparently it’s only open from 11am to 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays, which was annoying for me.
Blackpool south
The Blackpool South Shore Pier & Pavilion Co. Ltd. began to build the pier in 1892. It was constructed, at a total cost of £50,000. It opened, with a choir, two brass bands and an orchestra on Good Friday 1893, after which the entertainment rapidly went downhill to what we have today.
Blackpool Central
The Blackpool South Jetty Company started building the central pier in 1864. When the pier was opened in 1868 it was 503 yards in length, 131 yards of which was a landing jetty for use at low tide. From the start, the new pier’s emphasis was on fun rather than the genteel relaxation provided at North Pier.
In the early days fun was provided mainly by dancing facilities, then roller skating, fairground rides and amusement machines were introduced in the 20th Century to match the general decline of Blackpool.
It was closed when I visited. I wasn’t devastated.
Blackpool north
Built in the 1860s, it is also the oldest and longest of the three Blackpool piers. Although originally intended only as a promenade, competition forced the pier to widen its attractions to include theatres and bars.
Unlike Blackpool’s other piers, which attracted the working classes with open air dancing and amusements, North Pier catered for the “better-class” market, with orchestra concerts and respectable comedians, but has since reverted to type.
Appropriately, therefore, it was closed when I visited.
Morecambe south jetty
Just to the south of the town is a pointless pier. Nothing on it. What purpose this served I have no idea, but it is a pier of sorts, so deserves a place in this collection among its more illustrious counterparts.
It doesn’t appear on old maps up to 1950, so was built at some time after that. The old maps do show many groynes along this coast, so maybe this was just a stone replacement for them, and they decided to put a path on top. Why?… why not!
Morecambe
More a jetty than a pier really – what is the difference? This one doesn’t sit on stilts but is built up solidly, maybe that’s the difference. Anyway, it was built by the North Western Railway in 1853 as a wharf and rail terminal for both passenger and cargo transport on steamers to the Isle Of Man and Ireland. The former station building with adjoining lighthouse still stand on the jetty. I walked to the end of this one.
Statues of guillemots sit on several of the railings posts, which is quite cool.
Arnside
The building of the railway viaduct across the River Kent at Arnside meant that ships could no longer reach Milnthorpe – which until then had been known as Kendal’s port. Because of this, a pier was built at Arnside for ships to dock at. The wooden remains of this original pier can still be seen on the foreshore adjacent to the current pier.
I didn’t walk to the end of this one because I was busy chatting, and missed it.
Askam-in-Furness
OK, I’m really stretching the definition of a pier here, but what the hell. Askam jetty was made from the slag left over from the substantial ironworks in the area in the 19th century, which makes it so beautiful.
A satellite photo shows just how grim this one is. I certainly didn’t walk to the end of it.
Maryport
In 1833 an Act of Parliament granted permission for a dock to be built at Maryport together with a new pier and lighthouse, which were in place by 1846.
It’s a pretty shit pier really, and is a bit neglected, but nowhere near as bad as the jetty at Askam-in-Furness.
John Pier, Workington
Now old maps of the industrial area just north of Harrington show a “John Pier”, which sat at the end of a multitude of railway tracks. Today only a crumbling short stub remains, but I feel I have to show it so I can add it to my Best And Worst Awards page.
Workington Pier
Barely a mile further north from the remains of John Pier is this monstrosity. Like some concrete relic from the cold war, it welcomes me to the delights of Workington Town. What delights await me in this seaside Xanadu I wonder…..
Silloth
This pier was built around 1857 with a wooden lighthouse at the end. Unfortunately it had to be abandoned when the far end began to subside into the mud during the early 1900’s. A replacement light was erected near the end of the stable section of the pier, but as it gradually deteriorated, the light had to be moved nearer the land. And I thought Maryport’s pier was bad! It used to look quite nice though…
Apparently, there was another pier next to West Beach which stretched 1,000 feet into the Solway Firth. Steamboats carried passengers to Liverpool, Dublin, Whitehaven, and the Isle of Man. The pier was washed away in WWII and never replaced.
More old pictures of the pier can be found in the section on Silloth Pierhead Lighthouse here.
Rockcliffe Jetty
There doesn’t appear to be any interesting information about this other than “Curvilinear upstanding jetty. Lies in intertidal zone, under threat from accretion. Orientated E-W, 37m x 3m x 2m. Constructed with angular boulders and cement. Relatively fresh cement top. Wooden bollards.“, which isn’t very interesting at all.
However, its outstanding beauty has inspired at least one artist to paint it… I guess they must have run out of other things to paint.