The Grand Pier

The Grand Pier at Weston-super-Mare

What a very sad day yesterday – the early morning news showed pictures of the blazing 1,000 feet long Grand Pier at Weston-super-Mare.  The latest news on this suggests that the fire could have been started in one of the cafe kitchens.  Nothing has been mentioned about casualties so hopefully no-one was injured.  What a shock to the relatively new owners who, only a few months back, had spent about £1 million on restoration. 

Construction was started in November 1903 and it was opened just eight months later in June 1904. Not bad for the erection of 4,000 tons of steel and iron and 600 iron piles driven into the sand/clay. A theatre was erected with seating for 2,000 people, a similar capacity to the Bristol Hippodrome.

It was the intention to build a low water jetty to rival the nearby Birnbeck Pier and have a share in the steamer trade. A low water extension was finished three years later from the back of the theatre that made the structure 6,600 feet long. An electric train was planned to carry boat passengers to the end of this jetty, but because of the large rise and fall of the tide, the second greatest in the world, the jetty still did not reach the sea at low water and the strong currents made landing by the steamers a very tricky operation. The owner of the White funnel fleet stated it was dangerous to use.  The low water extension costing £20,000 was only used on two days in September 1907 raising only £117 in fees.  This was dismantled between 1916 and 1918.

The theatre was destroyed by fire on the 13 January 1930. The first fire engine had to send for more hosepipes. Crowds gathered to watch and in the nearby Odeon cinema a hand-written slide interrupted the performance with the news that the pier was on fire and most of the cinema-goers rushed out to watch. 

The loss of the pier as an attraction was a blow to the rest of the town’s trade and apparently visitor numbers in 1930 were down by 500,000.

As the theatre had been running at a loss it was decided that a funfair should be the nature of the replacement pavilion. Due to it being under-insured immediate replacement was not possible. The pier stood unused for two seasons until a new company provided the extra capital and rebuilding work was started. It was reopened for the 1932 season with fun fair equipment and travelling acts – one being One legged Peggy the high diver. During the following winter the present pavilion was erected. 

High quality cast-iron was used and most of the 1904 piles are still in place.  The cast iron piles were dug into the beach and back filled but this was unstable because of the disturbance of the sand or clay. An engineer named Mitchell invented the screw pile, with two blades about four feet across at the bottom similar to a boat propellor. These were screwed into the beach by hand, horse or steam power and are extremely stable, being able to carry a load of about 40 tons each.