My first serious interest in postcard collecting was postcards of piers, memories of childhood holidays at the seaside. (For a while when I was a child we lived at Weston Super Mare, which has two piers. I survived this experience despite being dropped over the side of a boat out in the bay- at the age of two). Anyway the piers are slowly disappearing from round our coast so this page will feature piers from my postcard collection.
Here is the pavilion of Weston's Grand Pier. Built in 1903/4, the Grand Pier is 1000 ft long and the engineer was P. Munroe.
Weston also has an Old Pier which is unique, the pier head was built on an island with an amusement arcade and a jetty for the Britol Channel paddle steamers. Another stopping point for these was Penarth, just outside Cardiff.
Two of the oldest piers were the Old Chain Pier Brighton and Seaview Pier on the Isle of Wight. These were built as promenades out into the sea, the idea of having entertainment on the pier came later.
The West Pier Brighton has a large pavillion and the pier at Clacton is clearly an amusement arcade on sea.
Piers were susceptible to many disasters. Worthing pier was damaged by a storm in 1913 and a fire in 1933. Hastings pier was also damaged by fire.
The information on piers comes from Seaside Piers by Simon Adamson, published by Batsford in 1977, rep. 1983. Two other useful books are Pavilions on the Sea by Cyril Bainbridge, Hale 1986, and British Piers, photographs by Richard Fischer, Thames and Hudson 1987.
This link takes you to Terry Cooper's pier page.
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