piers 3

Weston pier

My family story

It's also a christmas story, although not a ghost story.

On Boxing day 1897 members of my ancestral family burnt down the pier pavillion

at Weston Super Mare.

The story really begins when, due to the flow of visitors coming to Weston

to take the air, the council decided that a landing place for boats 

was needed.A plan was devised to link a rocky outcrop, called Berne Island

later Birnbeck Island, with the mainland. It was completed in 1866.

There was a pavilion on the pier, a promenade and a landing jetty.

Steamer traffic increased the pier's popularity.

Amusement stalls and fairground rides added to its popularity 

in 1890. Then my ancestral family, at least one branch,

arrived in Weston.

They were the Bennets, .... no, not Gordon Bennet, but Thomas,

and his wife Mary. She is the one, who carried my family blood,

A  cousin. My 3x gt grandfather, Lorenz Heinrich Opperman had several daughters,

Augusta Charlotte, my ancestor, and Mary, who married a man 

called Joseph Hinchcliffe. It was their daughter, who took her family 

to Weston Super Mare, and Thomas was the one who  then took over

Weston pier pavillion.

He was a publican, and must have been there for at least 4 years.

Putting the children to bed on boxing day in the pavilion

living quarters, one of the oil lamps was upset.

The fire which resulted caused then  £3000-3500. But 

insurance covered the damage, and it was rebuilt.

In the 1901 census the family were living in the new 

pavilion buildings on the pier.