Swanage Pier is a Victorian

pier Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century.">England.html" ;"title="Brighton, England">Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th ...

which extends into the southern end of Swanage Bay near the town of Swanage, in the south-east of

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

. It was built in 1895 for passenger ship services. It is situated on the eastern coast of the

Isle of Purbeck The Isle of Purbeck is a peninsula in Dorset, England. It is bordered by water on three sides: the English Channel to the south and east, where steep cliffs fall to the sea; and by the marshy lands of the River Frome and Poole Harbour to the no ...

, approximately south of

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

and east of Dorchester in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. An older pier, opened 1860, was used by local quarries to ship stone, but it fell into decline with only its timber piles remaining today.

History

The first Swanage Pier, which was 750 feet long, was built between 1859 and 1860 for use primarily by the local stone quarrying industry and included a tramway which ran the length of the pier and some way along the seafront. The old tracks can be seen to this day, inset into the seafront walkways. When local businessman George Burt introduced regular steamer services between Swanage and nearby towns Poole and Bournemouth in 1874, a need became apparent for a second pier to be built primarily for use by passenger steamers. Construction on the new pier began in 1895, and by 1896 was first used by a steamer. The pier was officially opened for traffic on 29 March 1897. While regular steamer services ran on the new pier up until 1966, the older original pier declined along with the stone industry it served some years earlier. Today all that remains of the old pier are some of the timber piles. After steamer services discontinued in 1966 the remaining pleasure pier also began to fall into disrepair. In 1976 Grade II

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

status was awarded to the pier. After a failed attempt to restore the pier by a development firm in 1986
Swanage Pier Trust
took over ownership of the pier in 1994. The Trust took on the task of raising over £1,000,000 needed to carry out major restoration work on the pier's piles, timbers and ironwork fittings. It was reopened in 1998.

The pier today

Today the pier is open to the public once again. Small scale ferry services run daily throughout the summer season, mainly to

Poole Quay Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurc ...

. The pier also hosts a successful diving school, the oldest in the UK, and is visited annually by historic steamers including the

Waverley Waverley may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Waverley'' (novel), by Sir Walter Scott ** ''Waverley'' Overture, a work by Hector Berlioz inspired by Scott's novel * Waverley Harrison, a character in the New Zealand soap opera ''Shortland Stree ...

paddle steamer. The pier is a popular training site for

scuba diving Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chris ...

because it is one of the few sheltered marine diving sites on the south coast, and it has depths of only . The Marine Conservation Society South East also use the pier as a location for its training dives during their Marine identification and underwater photography courses, due to the wide range of marine life found under the pier. The site has easy access from adjacent car parks, and it has a nearby dive shop. The Trust maintains
gift shop
a
exhibition
providing information for visitors. The exhibition houses a small aquarium, which showcases the species of marine life that can be found under the pier. These can be found in Marine Villas which at the shore-end of the pier. There is also th
1859 Pier Cafe & Bistro
for refreshments. The pier receives over 100,000 visitors a year. The restored pier was awarded the Pier of The Year award in the spring of 2012 by the

National Piers Society The National Piers Society (NPS) is a registered charity in the United Kingdom dedicated to promoting and sustaining interest in the preservation and continued enjoyment of seaside piers. It was founded in 1979, with Sir John Betjeman as the f ...

. It is a Grade II listed building. The BBC's adaptation of

EM Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly '' A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910), and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stor ...

's novel ''

Howards End ''Howards End'' is a novel by E. M. Forster, first published in 1910, about social conventions, codes of conduct and relationships in turn-of-the-century England. ''Howards End'' is considered by many to be Forster's masterpiece. The book was ...

'' (2017) used Swanage Pier as a location.

References

External links

History of Swanage PierSupporters of Swanage PierPictures of Swanage Pier
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Flickr Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and profession ...

Archive images of Swanage Pier
{{Recreational dive sites, trasit Swanage Piers in Dorset Underwater diving sites in England