Island Piers Page 3 - Alum Bay to Cowes

Old postcards are sometimes poorly produced and grainy, I've done my best to scan them. Please click thumbnails for full size picture. Dates are from the card or my estimate (where possible). The manufacturer of the card is shown in brackets (where available)

Alum Bay Pier

Alum Bay is famous for its coloured sands. The pier opened in 1887 and was basically a long landing stage, about 370 feet long, there was a cafe at its entrance and a gift shop on the shore. It was a landing point for pleasure steamers both from the mainland and the Island. It declined after the first world war and was declared unfit and closed in 1924. It was damaged by a storm in 1927, but the remnants were visible well into the 1960's.

More pictures of Alum Bay and the Pier

Totland Pier

Totland pier was built  in 1880 by the Totland Hotel and Pier Company and its fortunes were very much connected with theirs. It was originally intended to be 550 feet long, but was only built to 450 feet. It was described as:

"a small landing pier of a light girder framework on cast iron columns and carried a minimum of appointments. There is only a small shelter on the head and a tiny amusement pavilion at its shore end."

Its main use was for pleasure steamers (one can be seen in the picture above) and this continued well into the 1960's. A bigger shelter was built at the head during refurbishment in the 50's With the decline of the traditional holiday trade, the steamers no longer called and the associated hotel was demolished. The pier was sold, but none of the owners kept it in a usable state and it is now derelict. It was sold for £19,500 in October 1997, the new owner is hoping to restore it.

Fort Victoria Pier

This was built in the 1850's to service various military installations in the West Wight and was used as such until 1962. It had a small tramway on it and a crane at its head. Attempts to demolish it have been made, but for legal reasons this has not been done. It remains derelict, and will probably suffer its fate at the hands of the sea in due course. Unfortunately, being a military facility I do not have a card showing it, but this is a picture of it rusting away in September 2002.

Yarmouth Pier

Unfortunately, despite being a well photographed town there are few good postcards of the pier.

Yarmouth pier was opened in 1876 and is 685 feet long and was a long wooden structure, looking much the same now as it did then except that a pavilion was added in 1927. It was used for steamers, including the ferry service from Lymington until the car ferry was introduced. It is now used by a variety of smaller pleasure craft. The pier became a listed building in 1975 and as the result permission to demolish it applied for by its owners, Yarmouth Harbour Commissioners, was rejected. It has subsequently been restored at a cost of more than £600,000.

Cowes Pier

There have been 3 piers at  Cowes. Fountain pier was built around 1840 and removed about 1893, it was replaced by the pontoon which is still used for the high speed service to Southampton. Royal Pier was built in the late 1860's as washed away in 1876.

The Victoria Pier, pictured above, was opened in 1902. It was basically a landing stage, with a pavilion at its head. It was 170 feet long. As with other Island piers it became derelict, the pavilion was demolished in 1951 and the remainder in 1961/2. A pontoon landing stage has now been built at the same point.

Other Piers

There have been a number of other structures on the Island which could be described as piers, such as those Bouldnor and Bembridge Harbour. There is a lifeboat house at Bembridge which was built in 1922 which is accessed by a 250 foot long structure which is effectively a pier.

Reference

Information about the piers on these pages has been obtained from a number of sources, the pictures are from my own collection.

The authoritative work on Island Piers is:

Piers of the Isle of Wight by Marion Lane published by the Isle of Wight County Council in 1996

Piers page 1  (Ryde and Seaview)

Piers page 2  (Sandown to Ventnor)

Freshwater  | Totland  |  Alum Bay and the Needles  |  Yarmouth  |   Shalfleet  |  Newtown  |  Calbourne  |  Carisbrooke Castle  |  Newport and Carisbrooke  |  Cowes and Gurnard  | Osborne House  | Wootton, Fishbourne and Quarr  | Ryde  |  Seaview  |  Bembridge  |  Brading  |  Sandown  |  Shanklin  |  Godshill  | Arreton Valley   | Ventnor  |  St Lawrence and the Undercliff  |  St Catherine's Lighthouse's  | Niton   |  Blackgang Chine  |  Blackgang and Chale   |  Brighstone and Shorwell   |  Mottistone to Compton

Round the Island Page

6 May 2007