Pleasure
piers are among the most distinctive and memorable creations of
Victorian Britain. These magnificent and evocative buildings
represent the exuberant, optimistic style of the British seaside
resort at the peak of its popularity, and the Yorkshire coast
possessed no less than six of these extraordinary structures. Today,
only the pier at Saltburn-by-the-Sea remains, and, as a whole, only
half of the numbers of piers built survive as fascinating relics of
a lost age.
In this meticulously researched and
highly illustrated account, Martin Easdown tells the story of the
rise and fall of Yorkshire's seaside piers. The piers he principally
describes in his lively narrative are the long-lost structures at
Coatham, Redcar, Scarborough, Hornsea and Withernsea, plus the
county's only surviving pleasure pier at Saltburn-by-the-Sea. He
looks how they were designed and constructed, at the men who built
and financed them, and at the hazards that beset them - fire, storm,
ship collision, war damage and ever-threat of insolvency, that
heralded their demise.
The author, who is an acknowledged
expert on the history of piers, gives a vivid insight into the deep
impact of these structures on the social life, the economy and the
character of the Yorkshire towns in which they were built. His
entertaining book reveals - and records - a neglected aspect of
Yorkshire's history.
Also available...
Lancashire's Seaside Piers
by Martin Easdown
£11.99 |
