I was sad to see that Weston-super-Mare's Grand Pier had been devastated by fire earlier this week.
I spent many happy hours at Weston when I was little. My first visit was forty years ago this summer, when I was almost five years old. We had a family outing by Campbell's paddle steamer from Cardiff pier head across the Bristol Channel to Weston's Grand Pier. (In the days before the steamers transferred from Cardiff to Penarth.) That first visit was dramatic - I cut my foot on a piece of glass on the beach within minutes of getting off the steamer, and was rushed to the first aid stand.
A few years later, I discovered Weston's other pier, the Birnbeck Pier, which is the only one to connect the mainland to an island. This has far more character than the devastated Grand Pier, and is about to be restored. The Birnbeck lies on the lovely walk from Weston to Kewstoke.
My parents live on the seafront at Penarth, on the Welsh side of the Bristol Channel opposite Weston. The garish lights of the Grand Pier shone brightly across the water before this week's fire. I hope that one day we'll see both Weston's piers restored, although the lights won't be missed.
PS: BBC news editor Simon Waldman writes on the BBC Editors' blog about his discomfort at being scooped by Sky News for footage of the Weston inferno - and his relief when readers provided their own videos.
One comment on the blog takes Waldman to task for his glee at finally being able to show this user generated content. Another, amusingly, suggests that someone point a webcam at all Britain's remaining piers, given their vulnerability to fire and storm damage. One might add that it's worth keeping an eye on anything that is being restored - from Hampton Court to Windsor Castle to Weston's pier, restoration seems almost to guarantee destruction.
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