Historic ship set to make calls to Birnbeck Pier
The iconic Waverley paddle steamer could stop at Weston-super-Mare once restoration is complete
The iconic Waverley paddle steamer could make daily calls at Weston-super-Mare once Birnbeck Pier is reopened.
A major restoration project is underway to bring the dilapidated historic pier back to life. Now plans to restore its north jetty could see thousands of tourists from Wales and along the Bristol Channel brought to the seaside town by paddle steamer once again.
P.S. Waverley general manager Paul Semple told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “If the north jetty is recommissioned for ships to call then it will be like turning back the hands of time when paddle steamers called in the past.”
Tim Wardley, who chairs the National Piers Society alongside being Waverley’s piers liaison officer, said: “A re-opened landing stage at Birnbeck Pier will allow daily calls by Waverley during the Bristol Channel season. This would remove the need for coach returns from Clevedon Pier.
“Currently, we can only call at Weston-super-Mare once or twice a year when the state of the tide allows sufficient water at Knightstone Island, and we cannot return passengers by ship due to the tide. We look forward to bringing thousands of passengers from Wales and the upper channel to Weston when the landing stage is re-opened.”
Visits by the paddle steamer would be expected to bring an economic boost to the town. The North Somerset Council cabinet member responsible for the project, Mark Canniford, said: “It would be great if the Waverley could start calling at Birnbeck again. Every passenger that gets off the Waverley spends about £35 in the town so that would be absolutely fantastic for Weston.”
He was speaking aboard the paddle steamer as it made a special journey past Birnbeck to view the ongoing work on Sunday May 31. Specialist contractors Mackley have removed the main pier walkway out to Birnbeck Island, leaving just the legs of the structure, ahead of a restored walkway being reinstalled.
But the north jetty, which partially collapsed during stories in 2015, will need to be completely rebuilt. Restoring the jetty — which is the pier’s landing stage — is not part of the works which have currently been commissioned, but an extra £19m in funding for the pier, secured from the government’s “growth mission fund” by Weston-super-Mare MP Dan Aldridge in March, could pay for its rebuilding.
The announcement of that funding in March brought the total amount of funding secured for the Birnbeck project to over £44m — coming from sources such as the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the RNLI, the previous government’s Levelling Up Fund, the National Heritage Memorial Fund and Historic England.
The pier, which is unique in being the only one in the country to connect to an island, was designed by master pier builder Eugenius Birch and opened in 1867. During the Second World War, it was taken over by the Admiralty for scientific research and renamed HMS Birnbeck. But in the decades after the war, visitors declined as cheap international travel became popular and steamers stopped calling at the pier.
The original 1899 P.S. Waverley was also drafted into the war by the Admiralty and was sunk while taking part in the Dunkirk evacuation. The current vessel was built as a replacement and was later restored in 2000. Today, as Britain’s last seagoing paddle steamer, Waverley draws huge crowds onto seaside towns’ piers when she arrives on her journeys.
Mr Semple said that both restoration projects, of Birnbeck Pier and of Waverley, would support each other. He said: “We need passengers. We also want people to experience the pier, walk down the pier, board a ship like you would have years ago, so I think both end up benefitting if the pier is able to take Waverley.”