A grey morning in Llandudno

Our weekend away in Llandudno recently was marked largely by the persistent rain and strong winds. I did manage to venture out a little bit on both Saturday and Sunday. At least the hotel was warm, comfortable and had an excellent wifi connection.

This was the view from our bedroom window before breakfast on Monday morning.

A contribution to The Weekend in Black and White and Scenic Weekends.

Llandudno sea view

This was our view is from the third floor side room where we stayed last month at the Esplanade Hotel.

Past the side of the Merrion Hotel is a section of South Parade set aside for the parking of motorcycles.

Beyond the promenade lies the beach and the pier. The pier originally started beyond the Grand Hotel before a landward extension was built around the side the Grand.

The top half of a landing slip for small boats can be seen. A further landing slip nearer the pier is fully submerged.

I took so many photographs that week that it will take me months to sort through them all. We've already booked a return visit for September.

A contribution to
Water World Wednesday;
Wednesday Waters;
signs, signs.

Trains on Southport Pier

I took this photo of a train on Southport Pier in 2005.

A monochrome version has just appeared in a new book by Peter Kealey "The Charmer Ron Muddle". The biography tells how during WWII Ron Muddle worked for the Air Ministry and designed the fuel tank for the Spitfire. After the war he set up a coachbuilding firm in Dover and won the contract to supply railway coaches for the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway. He was then contracted to supply the train and coaches for the railway on Southport Pier. He spent three months in Southport as project manager and whilst there toured the local golf courses. His major sporting interest however was horse-racing and he went on to become the owner of Lingfield and Wolverhampton racecourses.

More information about Peter Kealey's book can be found on Amazon.co.uk.

Between 2005 and 2008 the old trains on Southport pier were replaced by these modern all-weather sleek beasts.

A contribution to Monday Mellow Yellows and Blue Monday.

The incoming sea

Between the North and Central piers at Blackpool.

A contribution to The Weekend in Black and White.

Signs on the North Pier, Blackpool

A notice on Blackpool's North Pier "prohibits the filming of this attraction for public broadcast without the prior written permission of the management. This also applies to the use of stills photography"

Beneath it is a blue plaque that says "On 19th July 1948 Sooty was discovered by Harry Corbett OBE near this spot."

A contribution to signs, signs.

The Weekend in Black and White:Sunset at St Anne's-on-the-Sea

(Click on image to view full-size version)
Taken in August after a day of heavy rain.

The structure in the centre is the remains of a jetty that use to be alongside the pier until 1982 when after a fire a third of the seaward end of the pier had to be demolished.

See a full colour version on sithenah.

For The Weekend in Black and White.

ABC Wednesday: H is for Hole in Southport Pier

On our recent visit to Southport we'd taken the ramp up from Ocean Plaza on to the pier and headed towards town.


When we got towards the Marine Lake we found that the top end of the pier had been closed off by the police.


We weren't sure why and I took a bit of a zoom shot and this was what I caught (only I couldn't actually see this until I'd got home and downloaded it on to the computer). We were diverted on to the footpath by the skateboard park to the new road and bridge over Marine Lake which opened a few years ago.


When we got round to the pierhead we found out the reason for the closure. As reported later in Southport Online News a Fosters Beer lorry making a delivery to Funland had driven on to the decking and became stuck. The pier planks broke under the vehicle's weight leaving the lorry resting on its axles.


I've no information about the current state of the pier.

For more H posts visit ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday: A is for Angling off Llandudno Pier

Access to the landing stage off the end of Llandudno Pier is restricted to anglers. A landing stage was added to the pier in 1891. At one time there was a regular ferry service to the Isle of Man. In 1969 it was totally rebuilt in concrete and steel, which enabled its use by the largest Isle of Man Steamers then in use. Now only the occasional boat such as the steamer MV Waverley call at the pier.


You can see all 41 photographs from my trip to Llandudno last Friday on the Geo-trip site which includes a slide show presentation.

For more A posts visit ABC Wednesday.

ABC WednesdayP is for Palechora

Paleochora is located in the Prefecture of Hania, on the south-west coast of Crete, on a small peninsula lying in between two picturesque gulfs. The waves of the Libyan Sea lap at it, and it has quite rightly been called the Bride of the Libyan Sea and the Land of the sun. It constitutes the most southerly point of Greece and the most south-easterly point of the European Union. This is where Europe ends.


We visited Crete in 2006 and took the opportunity to see the Southern Mediterranean. The busy streets of Palechora with steep pavement sides weren't designed for wheelchair users but at least no one was travelling very fast.


A poster by the pier was advertising a poetry reading in Greek and English. The white van parked on the pier was our accessible taxi.

For more about our visit to Crete see Crete 2006.

For more information on Palechora see Palechora holidays.

For more P posts visit ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday F is for Fairlie Old Pier

Glen Sannox at Fairlie Pier, Summer 1957.

Nigel Mykura writes

This is the Glen Sannox Clyde steamer docked at Fairlie pier south of Largs. The wooden pier is no longer there though its remains can be seen on satellite photos.

The Glen Sannox was the first ro-ro (roll-on, roll-off), ferry of the Caledonian Steam Packet Company and this was her first season on the Fairlie/Arran run. She also went to Millport on Cumbrae and lots of other Clyde routes. Before the Glen Sannox cars were run on to the ferry using two dodgy planks of wood. Trains ran from both Kilmarnock and Glasgow to connect up with each sailing of the Arran ferry. The number of passengers using this link often required two trains for each sailing on each route. The services from Glasgow also frequently split with one section going to Fairlie Pier Station and the other one to Largs.

I don't remember the size of the pier as the last time I was there was 1963, but I am guessing that this photo was taken from another ferry approaching or leaving the pier. All of the people on the pier are staring at something to the south of the pier, presumably the steamer the photographer was on. There appears to be propeller wash from the second ferry in the right foreground.

There is now a modern jetty just to the north of this position which is not extant. It is also interesting that despite it being high summer, two of the four men on the pier are wearing flat caps and long overcoats. The small green van on the pier appears to have the word SIMPLEX on the side. Already loaded onto the Glen Sannox (or just about to come off) is a red railway freight box car with British Railways in yellow lettering on the side. There is a set of chain slings attached to the box-car indicating trans-shipment by crane at some point. The only recognizable cargo is a load of gas canisters on the trailer on the pier.

Fairlie Brodick Pier 1967.

I travelled on the ferry between Fairlie and Brodick on Arran in 1967. On my page Fairlie not Arran I describe how I discovered that I'd taken a photograph of Fairlie rather than Brodick. The page carries that picture and other shots of the village by later photographers.

I thought this other of my 1967 photos (that had "Brodick" scribbled in pencil on the back) was taken from the ferry looking across the pier at Fairlie and away from the village.

I've just discovered that this one is actually of Brodick Pier. A fuel depot has been built where the cars are parked.

So the one I thought was right was wrong and the one I thought was wrong was right.


Remains of Fairlie Pier.

Thomas Nugent writes

Only one truncated wooden pile was visible at this fairly low state of the tide. There are more piles under the water, but these were not visible today (19th June 2010).

The building in the background is a sewage pumping station which was built in the 1990s in the style of a Victorian railway shed in order to blend-in with the surroundings.

Remains of Fairlie Pier.

The old MOD jetty is visible in the background.


Pier Road.

Virtually all trace of the pier is gone. It was located at the end of the railings.

Some reminiscences of Fairlie can be found on my earlier post Fairlie 1967.

More information on the village can be found on the Fairlie Parish Church website.

For more F posts visit ABC Wednesday.

The photographs by Nigel Mykura and Thomas Nugent are licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

ABC Wednesday:S is for St Anne's Pier

Some more photographs now from our recent visit to St Anne's on the Sea.

A conventional promenade pier constructed of iron columns with lattice girder work, St Anne's Pier was a relatively modest affair built to a length of 914ft (277m) at a cost of £18,000. Designed by A Mawson and commissioned by the Land and Building Company Ltd, St Anne's Pier was opened by Lord Stanley on June 15th 1885. In 1904 further, much more ornate, work was carried out with the construction of a fabulous 1000 seat 'Moorish' pavilion as well as various kiosks along the pier neck. This was complimented by a red brick mock-Tudor entrance building, complete with imitation wooden beams and gables, at the shoreward end. The whole complex was finally completed in 1910 with the construction at the pier-head of the 'Floral Hall', which provided facilities for concerts, opera's and vaudeville acts.

So let us take a walk on the sand.


Through the pier we can see the lifeboat station near Arnold's bench.

An amusement arcade was added to the entrance buildings in 1954 and in 1960 a restaurant was added along with the re-planking of the main deck. 1962 saw St Anne's Pier purchased by the Amalgamated Investment & Property Company for the sum of £240,000 and renovation of large areas of the pier commenced. The work included the entrance buildings, the Floral Hall, a landing Jetty and a children's area that had been damaged by fire in 1959.

We had better heed the warning and walk around the end of the pier - the tide is out and the sand not too soft.

In 1974 a serious fire completely destroyed the recently refurbished 'Moorish' Pavilion and a building of considerable architectural merit was sadly lost. The fire also damaged the Floral Hall, jetty and pier substructure but an application to demolish the damaged seaward section was refused by Flyde District Council in 1975. The pier owners subsequently went into liquidation.

Successive owners carried out further restoration works but the bulk of the seaward end structure was finally destroyed in another blaze in July 1982. The Floral Hall was burnt down and St Anne's Pier seaward end was so badly damaged that this time it had to be demolished, reducing the pier's length to a mere 600ft (182m). Further refurbishment was carried out on the shoreward end buildings during the 1990s

Thus remains this little stump from which we are being watched.


Looking back now under the pier.

As I turned towards the South side of the pier to head back to shore I cast a long shadow which can be seen on Shadow Shot Sunday.

The information on the pier is from The Heritage Trail website.

See more S posts at ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday - U is for Under the Pier

Walk to the end of the South Pier at Blackpool and look down. This is what you see. Here the boardwalk ends and only a metal mesh supports you. The gap is big enough for the end of my walking stick to poke through. One has to be quite careful, especially when the cold wind is blowing, which it quite frequently does with a vengeance.

Below is a longer shot that shows a larger area.


Note the lifebouy attached to the side of the "Crazy Mouse".

The Crazy Mouse is a roller-coaster ride. See my photograph on the Geograph website.

Just in case anyone is tempted please heed the warning sign:



More U posts can be seen on the ABC Wednesday Anthology blog.

Others can be found via the ABC Wednesday with Mister Linky which carries a registry of participants.

Southport Pier

Our contribution to Broer som Binder [Bridges between] this month takes us to the Lancashire resort of Southport.

[note - geographically, Southport is and always was in Lancashire; politically it is now part of the Sefton borough of Merseyside.]


"Low bridge 200 yds ahead" say the signs on Marine Drive. Actually, what crosses the carriageway is the UK's oldest surviving iron pier, opened in 1860.


Here is the underside of the pier as it crosses Marine Drive. On the left is a ramp that allows pedestrians to exit the pier at this point.


This shows the bridge section over Marine Drive from the pier itself, which stretches several hundred feet out over the beach.


The pier underwent a £7 million refurbishment in 2002. This picture was taken just before it re-opened for the 2003 season.


The whole pier is 3,600ft long (second longest in the UK) and before it reaches Marine Drive, let alone the sea, it first crosses the Marine Lake from the Promenade. This 2002 picture shows that section. Since then, on the other side of the pier and parallel to it, a new road and a new bridge, Marine Way, has been built.

More details of and links to other participants to Broer som Binder can be found on Visual Norway.