Things to do in North Somerset

Weston-super-Mare Pier, more precisely known as the Grand Pier, sits on the seafront of the Somerset town of Weston-super-Mare on the Bristol Channel coast of England, extending out over the muddy tidal flats that characterise this stretch of coastline. It is one of the most beloved and visited seaside piers in England, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors each year who come for its combination of traditional seaside fairground rides, amusements, food outlets, and the simple pleasure of walking out over the water. The pier is a defining symbol of the town and has featured prominently in the cultural identity of this classic English resort for well over a century. Its towering pavilion at the seaward end, rebuilt after a dramatic fire in 2008, gives it a striking contemporary silhouette while still celebrating its Victorian and Edwardian resort heritage. The pier's origins date to 1904, when it was built to replace an earlier and shorter pier that had itself replaced the town's original Birnbeck Pier, which had opened in 1867. The Grand Pier was designed to offer visitors a grander, more commercially vibrant alternative to Birnbeck, which was located to the north of the main seafront. The new pier opened to great fanfare, and a large pavilion was constructed at its head to house entertainments, shows and amusements. Disaster struck in 1930 when a fire destroyed much of the original pavilion, and it was subsequently rebuilt and reopened, continuing to serve generations of families throughout the twentieth century. The most significant event in the pier's recent history came in July 2008, when a catastrophic fire broke out and destroyed the pavilion structure almost entirely, leaving only the iron framework standing. The fire was witnessed by thousands of onlookers and was a moment of profound grief for the local community and for many who had grown up visiting the pier. In a remarkable story of recovery and determination, the owners — the Brennan family — refused to abandon the pier and invested substantially in a complete reconstruction, reopening the new pavilion in 2010 to widespread celebration. In person, the Grand Pier is a sensory and atmospheric experience that captures much of what makes British seaside culture so distinctive and cherished. Walking from the seafront entrance, you pass through a traditional toll booth before stepping out onto the wooden-decked walkway, which stretches some 427 metres into the Bristol Channel. The pier sways ever so subtly underfoot, and the sound of the sea — or more precisely, the wide expanse of estuary — can be heard beneath the boards, mixing with the mechanical music and electronic chatter of the amusement machines in the pavilion behind you. Seagulls wheel overhead and the salt-tinged air carries the smell of fried food and candy floss from the various concessions. The pavilion itself is a large, modern steel and glass structure that feels simultaneously like a fairground and a family entertainment centre, housing traditional rides, ghost trains, dodgems, and prize-grabbing machines alongside cafés and a soft-play area for young children. The setting of the pier within its wider landscape is shaped by one of the most dramatic tidal ranges in the world. The Bristol Channel has the second largest tidal range on Earth, meaning that at low tide the sea retreats for a remarkable distance, exposing vast stretches of flat, grey-brown sand and mudflats. At high tide, the water reaches beneath the pier's boards and the whole structure takes on a more conventional maritime character, with the channel stretching away towards Wales on the far horizon. The seafront promenade that runs alongside the pier is long and wide, lined with hotels, fish and chip shops, arcades and ice cream parlours that give Weston-super-Mare its essential resort character. To the north, Birnbeck Pier — a listed structure — can be seen in a state of long-term dereliction, a ghostly counterpart to the Grand Pier's vitality. The town centre itself is only a short walk from the seafront and contains a variety of independent shops, a museum, and the internationally known Banksy-inspired Dismaland exhibition site, which famously occupied a nearby seafront building in 2015. It is worth noting a geographic point: the postcode BS23 1AL and coordinates given place the pier firmly within Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, in the South West of England rather than South East England or the London region. This is an important distinction, as Weston-super-Mare has its own strong civic identity as a Somerset resort town, a place with strong working-class holiday traditions and close ties to Bristol, which lies roughly 25 miles to the northeast across the Mendip Hills. The town was historically reached by Great Western Railway services from London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads, and rail access remains excellent today, with regular services from Bristol Temple Meads taking around 45 minutes. By road, the M5 motorway provides easy access from both the north and south, and the pier and seafront have plentiful parking nearby, though summer weekends can see significant congestion. Visiting the Grand Pier is best done between April and October, when the pavilion is fully operational and the seafront is at its liveliest. Entry to walk the pier and visit the pavilion carries a modest entrance fee, and individual rides and attractions are paid for separately or via wristband packages. Families with children are very well catered for, and the pier makes a strong effort to maintain traditional seaside pleasures alongside more modern entertainments. Checking tide times before visiting is worthwhile, since the visual experience of the pier changes dramatically between low and high water. There are accessibility ramps and the pier operators work to accommodate visitors with mobility difficulties, though the wooden decking and some ride access may present challenges for those using wheelchairs or pushchairs in some areas. A particularly interesting footnote to the pier's story concerns its community significance after the 2008 fire. The Brennan family's decision to rebuild — at a cost reportedly in excess of £39 million — was widely praised and the reopening in 2010 was treated as a moment of civic celebration. The pier has also appeared in various cultural contexts, including as a backdrop in television productions and as a location associated with Weston-super-Mare's complex and somewhat self-deprecating identity as a resort that has never quite lost its appeal despite changing fashions in holiday-making. The town's association with Banksy adds a further layer of artistic and counterculture interest to what might otherwise seem like a straightforwardly nostalgic destination, making the Grand Pier part of a richer and more surprising local cultural landscape than many first-time visitors might expect.

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.

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.