Things to do in North Somerset

The site dates back as far as the Iron Age with Walton Castle set upon a hill fort. Reference to it is also made in the Doomsday Book as belonging to “Gunni The Dane”. However the construction as we now see it took place, according to Pevsner Encyclopedia, between 1615 and 1620. It was designed as a Hunting Lodge for Lord John Poulett, a wealthy and renowned Somerset land owner and Member of Parliament. The land surrounding Walton Castle had been acquired by marriage. The English Civil War marked a decline in such enormous and valuable holdings by absentee landlords and then by 1791, Walton Castle lay abandoned and derelict. The roof and floors then fell in and parts of the building became a convenient home for dairy cattle. Despite its exposed position,the structure remained meriting Pevsner`s description in 1957 as “remarkable as a piece of ornamental planning”. Restoration by the largest landowners in the area was abandoned and taken up by a city financier who returned Walton Castle to its former glory.

Clevedon Pier on the Somerset coast of the Bristol Channel is the finest Victorian seaside pier in Britain, an elegant iron structure extending 312 metres into the Bristol Channel on slender octagonal cast iron columns that was completed in 1869 and has been restored following partial collapse in 1970 to serve as an outstanding example of Victorian engineering and seaside culture. The pier received Grade I listed building status, one of the few piers in England to be so designated, reflecting its exceptional architectural and engineering quality. The pier was built in 1869 to allow paddle steamers to dock at Clevedon, the shallow tidal waters of the Bristol Channel and the enormous tidal range making conventional harbours impractical along much of this coast. The paddle steamers that called at Clevedon from Bristol and other Bristol Channel ports brought Victorian tourists in considerable numbers to the seaside town, and the pier served as the arrival and departure point for this traffic until the steamer services declined. The Waverley, the last seagoing paddle steamer in the world, still calls at Clevedon Pier on occasional special sailings. The pier provides excellent views of the Bristol Channel, the Welsh coast across the water and the Severn Estuary to the northeast, one of the most distinctive coastal panoramas in England. The Victorian toll houses, the landing stage and the Gothic pavilion at the pier head retain the character of the original structure and the experience of walking on this elegantly proportioned iron deck above the tidal waters provides a genuinely Victorian seaside experience.