Herne Bay Pier

First pier , 1850 According to The Illustrated London News of 1850, Herne Bay had fewer than a dozen inhabitants at the beginning of the 19th century. With the arrival of a military encampment the population of the area quickly grew into a small, developed community. This small development in turn attracted visitors from passing London-Margate steamers, who made shore excursions into the bay area aboard small ships known as hoys. Enjoying the small village as a relaxing get away, but not enjoying the bumpy rides in hoys, visitors decided they needed a pier upon which their steamers could moor and accommodation to make the trip to Herne Bay an extended stay, and so the first Herne Bay Pier was built. A group of investors led by Surrey building contractor George Burge who had worked for Thomas Telford at St Katharine Docks, a long and wide pier was designed and built by Telford's assistant Thomas Rhodes. Telford was building Whitstable harbour at the time. The pier was authorised by the '''' (1 Will. 4. c. xxv), and the first wooden pile was driven on 4 July 1831, and the structure was completed on 12 May 1832 at a cost of £50,000 (equivalent to £4.6 million in 2023). The steamer Venus'' was the first to bring passengers to Herne Bay using the newly built pier. That same decade the Telford Terrace, the Pier Hotel and the promenade were also opened as the bustling vacation town continued to attract vacationers. '' on first pier, picture 1855 The original pier was built all of timber, with the piles being driven straight into the sea bed; it was "considered at the time the best specimen of pile-driving", and described as a "pier and breakwater". The pier's length was defined by the one-fathom draught of the paddle steamers and the shallow two-fathom depth of the sea even three quarters of a mile offshore at high tide. It was followed in 1861 by the railway station, and thus began the town's growth into a holiday resort. However, because the wooden piles were never protected by copper sheathing they suffered from shipworm. By 1850, many piles had been replaced with iron ones, or with wooden ones "prepared by Mr Payne's process" against shipworm, In the first year the tram fares made £488. The pier was used by paddle steamers until the last visit by PS Medway Queen in 1963. The new 1899 restaurant at the pierhead later became a ticket office and cafe, and still stands today: wooden, octagonal and domed. It had a promenade deck on the roof, The Grand Pavilion survived on 9 September 1928 when the theatre, shops and Mazzoleni's cafe at the entrance were destroyed by fire. In 1924 the pier received a new electric tramcar built by Strode Engineering Works at Herne, and in 1932 the Pier Approach was redeveloped to replace the fire-damaged site. World War II During World War II, the pier was encased in barbed wire and the army took it over, camouflage netting was manufactured in the pavilion by local women and the tram was last used in June 1939 to carry army stores. Steamers were requisitioned for war work, including the PS Medway Queen which became a minesweeper and Little Ship. In June 1940 the army blew up two sections of the pier between the pavilion and pier head to prevent enemy landing, then crossed the gaps with Bailey bridges in the 1940s. It has been suggested that the gaps and Bailey bridges weakened the pier structure and permitted the storm damage of 11 January 1978. In 1947, war-damage compensation of £21,924.15s.1d was received by the council, but this was not enough for full repair, and priority was given to the Grand Pavilion, substructure and decking. Bailey bridges had to be used to span the gaps so that by 1947 the pleasure steamers were calling at the pier again. As a result, in 1953 the stone balustrade from London Bridge, set at the entrance in 1833, was taken down and replaced with railings. The present whereabouts of the balustrade is unknown. In January 1963 the surface of the sea froze for weeks in the curved shapes of sea spray as far as a mile offshore. The tide continued to go in and out under its white crust, leaving the pier surrounded by ice. Rapid thaw then caused stress to the piles, exacerbated by previous storm damage and neglect. Meanwhile, ownership of the pier was transferred to Canterbury City Council on 1 April 1974 merger. A redevelopment plan for the pier was suggested by Cooperman Vision in 2004 and a feasibility study was carried out by the Council, but it came to nothing. In 2008 MP Roger Gale suggested that if Canterbury City Council had not refused permission for a casino in Herne Bay, that casino may have helped fund reconstruction of the pier. At the same time, Canterbury City Council was setting up the Herne Bay Pier Trust as a charitable trust to raise £12.5 million to rebuild the pier. As of February 2010, the sports centre was due to be closed in 2011, and on 22 February 2010 the £10,000 Herne Bay Pier Report was published by Canterbury City Council in association with Humberts Leisure, with the suggestion that the Herne Bay Museum and King's Hall sites be sold for redevelopment, to pay for a new build on top of the remaining pier stub. The time limit for public objections was 19 April 2010. The National Piers Society suggested in 2009 that the remaining stub of the pier was at serious risk of demolition or collapse. The sports pavilion was demolished in 2012. In 2015 drone footage revealed the crumbling condition of the isolated pier head. In September 2019 there were fears that the pier head is precariously propped up by a piece of plywood and is at risk of collapse. ==Social history==

speed record between pier and Reculver In January and April 1899, two old pier signal cannon, used to identify the pier to shipping in fog, were recovered from near the end of the pier by divers. These were eventually installed on the steps of Herne Bay Clock Tower sometime after 1900. The Duke of Cambridge arrived at the pier in Herne Bay Steam Boat Company's PS City of Canterbury under the Royal Standard in 1837. There were two serious accidents on the first pier: in 1840 a woman with a wooden leg was knocked down and killed by the trolley which again in 1844 hit a porter who lost his arm. In that year, possibly in response to the second accident, Captain Charles Cornelius Gardiner was appointed pier master. On 16 July 1901 the electric tram went through the railings of the third pier, dragging a tram car with it and killing a woman. On 27 Nov 1941 a Wellington bomber crashed into the sea to the east of the pier. Cricketer Godfrey Evans used to box on the pier: "he would take on all comers at £2 a bout until his county Kent, fearing for his eyesight, told him to stop". From 1910 to the end of the 1960s the Grand Pavilion housed summer shows, winter pantomimes, exhibitions and the Remembrance Day and Commonwealth Day services. Since the pier was built, youths have worried local people by tombstoning off the pier. There is an annual crab-catching competition on the pier stub. The pier tends to be used as a marker for races. ==Future redevelopments==

Regeneration of the pier began in 2008, when Canterbury City Council set up a registered charity, Herne Bay Pier Trust, responsible for the task of bringing the pier to life for the benefit of the community; the trust has been described by the Piers Society as one of the most active pier trusts in the country. A Herne Bay projects exhibition was arranged on 24 March 2010, at the Kings Hall, Herne Bay. This was organised by Canterbury City Council and Humberts Leisure, who wrote the Herne Bay Pier report. With a loan of £25,000 in 2012, the trust prepared for the construction of 12 retail kiosks along the promenade, opened by the celebrity, Sandi Toksvig and rented out at £60 per week to local start-up businesses. After initial success in the first year, the trust has used the £50,000 Peoples Millions Lottery win to commission a canopy, glass windbreaks and a stage on the large platform which it is leasing for 20 years at £20,000 annually. During future summer months, the trust plans to make the pier available for entertainers, musicians and dance troupes. A long-term ambition of local people is for the long pier to be rebuilt, estimated as a £12.5 million project in March 2008. Considering funding requirements, the trust is investigating the possibility an energy company might create a lagoon in the bay, with turbines under a newly built pier walkway to generate energy from the tides; an EU directive exists stating a third of electrical power must come from renewable sources by 2020. It is a priority for local people of Herne Bay to reinstate their pier to its former status as a seafront focal point. ==Cultural references==

Punch and Judy shows have always taken place during summer right next to the pier on the beach to the west of it, and this tradition is continued in the annual Herne Bay Festival. Pierrots used to perform in the open air at the end of the pier until 1914, and in 2009 a recreation of such a show at the Herne Bay Bandstand was specially commissioned by the Council for Herne Bay Festival. Ken Russell chose Herne Bay Pier as the backdrop to the opening sequence of his first feature film, French Dressing (1963), and returned to Herne Bay in 2008 to bemoan the missing pier. It also featured in Hugues Burin des Roziers' film Blue jeans - Du beurre aux Allemands, filmed in 1976. In 2008 Canterbury art students designed a virtual pier as part of the Cultural Trail. ==Gallery==

File:3rd Herne Bay Pier 1909 008.jpg|Tinted photograph of Herne Bay Pier, taken from the top of the clock tower, 1909 File:3rd Herne Bay Pier 1910-14 004.jpg|3rd pier 1910-1914 File:Herne Bay Pier 032.jpg|View of Cowshed, 2007 File:Herne Bay Pier 031.jpg|View from pierhead, 2009 File:Herne Bay Pier 009.jpg|View of pier stub and pierhead from Hampton, 2009 File:3rd Herne Bay Pier ticket 1921 010.jpg|1921 ticket File:Herne Bay Pier 2018.jpg|alt=Herne Bay Pier July 2018 Looking from east of the pier towards end of pier, with the old pier in the distance|Herne Bay Pier July 2018 File:Herne_bay_pier_head_2018.jpeg|herne bay pier head 2018 ==References==