Here’s a chance to shine in your pub trivia quiz: how many British seaside towns have 3 piers? The answer used to be just one (Blackpool) but, this year, Weston joined their exclusive club.
But wait…..how can that be? Surely no-one has built a new Pier since Queen Victoria was a lass?
Well, yes and no. The newcomer is what used to be Weston’s Seaquarium and has now become ‘Revo Kitchen’. It’s on stilts over the water and so, even though it’s a only baby next to the Grand Pier or Birnbeck, it’s just been accepted by the National Piers Society as the country’s newest pier.
So that’s the hat-trick. Stand aside Blackpool, you’re no longer the only three-pier place in Britain. And congratulations to Kerry & Michelle Michael for spotting the site’s potential and becoming a two-pier-owning family concern at the same time.
The next step has to be redeveloping Birnbeck. Built all the way back in 1867 to capitalise on the explosion of Victorian interest in seaside holidays, it’s one of only a handful of piers to make English Heritage’s Grade 2-star or 1 heritage list. So it ought to be a jewel in our town’s crown but, after years of neglect and damage caused by quite a few storms, it’s pretty faded and tumbledown now.
But now there’s hope because, after a huge community effort from everyone including myself, the Council, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), Historic England, and Birnbeck Regeneration Trust, there’s a chance to breathe fresh life into faded glory, anchored by the RNLI restarting life saving operations from their base on the island too. I can’t think of a better Christmas present for the entire town, one and all!