Grand Pier Latest News
From Piers to eternity!
14th June 2009
Saltburn
Up early for the long drive further north to Saltburn, the furthest north of the UK piers, and 2009’s Pier of the Year. The weather was again superb, and so sunny I now have ‘driver’s arm’, one much browner than the other! Saltburn is really beautiful and the seafront is delightfully old-fashioned and yet up-to-date. Take the time to go on the cliff railway too! The pier and pavilion are very attractive and, as with all piers we have been to, well visited. We met two reporters on the end of the pier, who took our picture for an article in the Middlesborough Gazette. Another pier to add to our list of favourites!
June 13th –
Skegness and Cleethorpes
We picked another roasting weekend to visit 3 more piers on our list. Skegness looked picture-postcard perfect and was extremely warm, although it was reassuringly bracing once at the end of the pier! The pier here is much shorter than originally but is very neat and tidy and is a pleasant short walk to the end to overlook the wide sands and wind farms.
We arrived at Cleethorpes at 3pm, still under a scorching sun, fanned by a gentle sea breeze. Cleethorpes and its pier looked very picturesque from a distance but sadly, up close, the pier is in an awful state. It’s quite disconcerting to walk along pier decking that bounces and has umpteen broken planks to avoid! The best pier in Cleethorpes is the one on the Crazy Golf course opposite the main pier entrance…!
27th May 2009
Romantic Weston-super-Mare couple Hazel Costin and Jay Peller intend to get married on the Grand Pier once the new pavilion is completed but they have set themselves an exciting task first.
They are kissing on every pier in the British Isles to celebrate the fact that their first kiss was on the pier at Weston.
Hazel, 39, a teacher and Jay, 51, a decorator made friends on the internet and met for the first time for a coffee on the Grand Pier in July 2007. The Grand Pier fire prompted them to have the idea to visit and have a kiss on every pier they could find.
So now they are travelling from their home in Weston-super-Mare most weekends to visit piers and Hazel is writing a book about the experience.
She said: “When the fire happened we thought about all the fires there had been on piers and realised that they are special places – not just for us but for everyone. We hope our efforts raise the profile of piers.
“The biggest debates we have are over what constitutes a pier and what doesn’t! We believe we have identified them all and it is amazing what we have found when we have got to them. Some are beautiful structures while others are much less attractive and some are in very poor states of repair.”
The couple visited 10 piers along the East coast in one weekend and recently visited five in North Wales in one trip.
They hit the headlines in the Isle of Man after they had to get special permission from the Manx Parliament for the gates of the Queen’s Pier in Ramsey to be opened so that they could kiss on the pier. The pier is in a poor state of repair and their visit prompted discussions on its future.
Nearer to home they are still hoping to get on to Birnbeck Pier and the owners of Clevedon Pier gave them a plaque on the structure after hearing they had secretly visited one afternoon.
Hazel said: “It is turning into an amazing adventure and we will have lots of tales to tell in the book. Getting married at the Grand Pier will be the culmination of over a year of travelling and meeting people for us.”
So far the couple have visited 39 piers and their schedule has been:
Mumbles and Penarth, Wales 14.9.08
Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset 28.9.08 (Hazel’s favourite)
Herne Bay and Deal, Kent 11.10.08
Gravesend and Southend-on-Sea 12.10.08
Southport and St. Annes, Lancashire 25.10.08
Fleetwood (site of), Blackpool Central, North and South, Lancashire 26.10.08
Clevedon, North Somerset 23.11.08 (Jay’s favourite)
Paignton, Torquay and Teignmouth, Devon 7.12.08
Bournemouth, Boscombe, Swanage and Weymouth Bandstand and Commercial, Dorset 21.12.08
Seaquarium (Weston’s 3rd Pier) North Somerset 25.1.09
Cromer, Britannia Pier and Wellington Pier (Great Yarmouth) 7.3.09
Lowestoft South, Lowestoft Claremont, Southwold (our overall favourite pier so far!), Felixstowe, Harwich Ha’penny Pier, Walton-on-the-Naze, Clacton-on-Sea 8.3.09
Queen’s Pier, Ramsey Isle of Man 3.5.09
Colwyn Bay, Llandudno, Beaumaris, Bangor Garth, North Wales 16.5.09
Aberystwyth, West Wales 17.5.09
They still have to visit:
Saltburn, Cleethorpes, Skegness, Hythe (Hampshire), Southampton, the Isle of Wight (4), Southsea x 2, Bognor Regis, Brighton, Eastbourne, Hastings, Worthing, Weston-super-Mare (Birnbeck) and a return to the Grand Pier!
If this doesn’t appear to add up, it’s because they have included a visit to the site of Fleetwood pier, not realising it had been completely demolished so quickly. Nothing remained except the smell of burnt wood which was terribly sad.
Although the piers listed are standing structures, not every one of them is open to the public or safe to walk along (such as Brighton West pier), but Hazel and Jay are still taking the trouble to visit them before they are lost completely.
Travel update! 16th May 2009
Says Hazel: “Our last visit to North Wales meant we took in some beautiful scenery, some horrific rain storms and breezes worthy of a wind-tunnel! Strangely, at every pier we visited the clouds parted and the sun shone brilliantly… Colwyn Bay pier is truly beautiful but sadly derelict, with owner Steve Hunt battling to be allowed to start work on renovation.
Llandudno is just a short ride over the hill and is an impressive sight. It has numerous themed kiosks selling just about everything, just the place to visit if you want a frog with your name on it!
We drove to Anglesey next, the Menai Straits looking extremely beautiful backlit by storm clouds, to see the pier at Beaumaris. A conservative but interesting little pier, it was sunlit in choppy waters, but the shelter on the end meant our kiss wasn’t quite as windswept as it would have been! We went back over to mainland Wales to end our day at Bangor Garth, a pier with it’s own dedicated car-park and where the wind was even stronger than before, threatening to blow two small toddlers on their bikes from one end to the other!”
17th May 2009
“Woke up to torrential downpours that ran one into the other, but we carried on over Snowdonia towards Aberystwyth. On the approach to the town, the clouds disappeared and the sun came out again! Talk about lucky! It isn’t possible to walk on the outside of the pier but we sneaked to the back of the amusement arcade for a kiss and then a couple of games of air hockey….”
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Pictures, stories, memorabilia, ideas?
A huge collection of the Grand Pier's history was lost in the Pavilion fire and we would like replace as much as we can. If you have any pictures, stories or memorabilia regarding the Grand Pier, old or new we would be extremely grateful if you could get in touch. Please call or email us via the contact page.