Trifter

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This week I have walked along three seaside piers – two at Blackpool and one at Colwyn Bay. If I’m honest, I can’t really claim to have walked along the latter – it is somewhat neglected and now “open everyday” – only to anglers. Except – it wasn’t open even to them last Sunday. You can’t actually walk more than a few metres on to it and you’re barely over the sand then let alone the sea.

Colwyn Bay was the first place I went on holiday and I’ve measured holiday places by it ever since. It had many attributes of the 1950s’ holiday resort – ponies (not donkeys note) on the beach, funfair, miniature railway, deckchairs wave, flat sands – ideal for making sandcastles –  plenty of ice cream booths, shelters and naturally a sparkling Victorian pier. Some of that remains – the sand and the sea, naturally. Even the wind turbines out at sea don’t really spoil the beauty of the big bay and the sands which are also ideal for walking on at low tides. The deckchairs and the ponies are gone along with the miniature railway. The resort is on the up again, having gone though a period as a haven for drug addicts and it’s good to see a well maintained cycle-track being actively used. The kiosks now sell teas and coffees, junk food and healthy sandwiches, along with the ice cream, reflecting, perhaps the higher average age of the visitors. The shelters are still there but it’s a shame they replaced the old Victorian ones with sixties’ concrete, though they may be more effective, I suppose. But the pier is such a sorry sight. And there is nothing quite like walking out on a pier at high tide and feeling as if you are out on a boat ore even walking on water. It’s such a thrill peering at the gaps between the boards and seeing the sea swirl beneath your feet.

Yesterday at Blackpool was wild. A strong west wind – the remains, we believe of a hurricane – created a false high tide which lasted for hours. What a taste of sea air that gave! Good to see, too, that they were renovating the pier there. In fact, they’re renovating the whole of Blackpool. The new sea wall looks attractive and dramatic, but I’m rather afraid that the new lighting system  is totally out of sync with the flavour of the resort. You just wish the National Trust or English Heritage would take on the whole town as a project and restore it rather than renovate. Despite the renovations, and despite the fact that Blackpool seems almost as popular as ever, there is a certain sadness about its piers. 

Blackpool is as bad as it ever was, though less crowded. It is so bad it is good. The Kiss-Me-Quick hats, the fish and chip shops, the amusement arcades, the fairground rides and  the fortune-tellers are still there, though it is perhaps the twilight generation who now visit them – those whose childhoods were in the last decade, the 1950s, of the Great British Seaside resort. It’s now like going back in history. Echoes too, of other ages – Victorian, Edwardian and Art Deco.

Bangor, Gwynedd has a lovely pier. It is small but quite long and stretches out towards Beaumaris  on the Island of Anglesey. It is like the Central Pier at Blackpool but in miniature. The same little kiosks clinging to the sides and it has the same seating along the inside of the rails. It has a delightful tea-shop at the end. I reckon they make the best scones in the whole of the UK there. Bangor pier has been restored recently and gleams. However, as you’re walking out across the Menai Straits and not towards open sea you don’t get quite such a feeling of walking on top of the water – especially not at low tide when it looks as if you could actually walk across the sands to the island.

There are simple piers which do their original intended job: take you out to where the water is deep enough for you to step into a moored boat. Some piers give you a glimpse of holidays in times gone by. Some now lie in disrepair and many that are still used lack their former glory. They’re all still fun to walk along, though.

Fire can be a hazard – several piers have been burnt over the years  – Weston-Super-Mare, Southsea, Southend and just last week Blackpool. In some cases the damage has been repaired, in other cases sadly not. Perhaps they are considered too much of a risk.  

Piers are wonderful things, one of the better human inventions. We’re not really doing an awful lot to preserve them. What a pity!