PIER AMUSEMENTS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member & Peter Mason Awards Manager
I have had family involvement with the NPS since I was a small child. My father was chairman of NPS and a well know engineer, in fact President of the Institute of Structural Engineers - that is why the NPS has the Peter Mason award in his memory. My mother was NPS membership secretary for years.
I was born in Brighton - hence my attachment to the West Pier. Educated in London I have had a variety of careers - my last twenty years working for the NHS as an occupational therapist specialising in mental health and old age psychiatry. I love cats, boating , writing and travelling. I currently live in Oxford with my husband William and son James.
Job Titles:
- Honorary Secretary and Website Manager
My interest in piers really began when my wife and I moved in 2004 from central Cardiff to a flat on Penarth Esplanade immediately opposite Penarth Pier. The beautiful art deco pavilion on the pier was then a complete wreck and had been closed to the public for many years. The pier itself, however, was in excellent condition and my curiosity regarding seaside piers was aroused. I eventually joined NPS in February 2008 and, when the Society. held its AGM in Penarth in 2009, I foolishly asked if the Executive Committee contained any Welsh members, which resulted in a vacancy being filled by a new Welsh member, ie. me.
Cllr Abdul Khan, Conwy Council chairman, opened Colwyn Bay Pier to the public. He said: "It is with great pleasure that I open the pier today. Due to Covid restrictions we can't have the big community celebration we'd have liked, but it's still important that we mark this day and this connection to Colwyn Bay's seaside history." He added: "By constructing this pier we acknowledge the legacy of the Victorian engineers and also provides a focus for people to relive their many happy memories at this site."
Job Titles:
- General Enquiries Manager
My career has been entirely in the construction industry, the first part being with contractors, and latterly as a project manager. In 2013 I was very fortunate to be appointed to the position to manage the restoration of Hastings Pier. Three years on, the construction is complete and the Pier is now open.
Since childhood, I have always had a liking for piers; growing up in North East London, we spent many happy days visiting Southend and Clacton Piers; this interest has followed throughout my life and I joined the NPS many years ago.
I haven't yet visited all of the piers around our coast but I am gradually ticking them off. Living in Hastings, we have quite a few surviving examples of Victorian excellence.
Having now retired, I have the time and am very much looking forward to actively serving on the committee and contributing as much as I can to our great Society.
Job Titles:
- New Director of the Pier Pavilion
I was born in Bolton in 1946 and spent many family holidays on the Northwest coast with its abundance of piers - Blackpool, St. Anne's, Morecambe, Fleetwood, Southport. My husband, John, and I worked in Swansea for a few years enjoying visits to Mumbles pier and walking on the Gower peninsula. Later, after five years working abroad, we returned to the UK and owned a pharmacy business on the Wirral for 23 years, retiring to Farndon, just south of Chester.
An article in New Scientist in 1982 encouraged me to join the National Piers Society. In 1993, I was elected to the committee and took over as Treasurer a year later. After nine years I relinquished this post to concentrate on Book Sales - the Piers Kiosk feature in the "Piers" journal and the NPS Shop section of the website keep me busy.
I grew up near the North Devon coast but my closest resort of Westward Ho! had lost its pier well over a century before I moved there. It was a love of beach huts that got me hooked on the seaside and in 2002 I toured the English coast by public transport, from Seaton Carew near Hartlepool to Dunster Beach on the Bristol Channel. It took me two months and along with all the huts I saw, the trip also inspired my interest in piers.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Colwyn Bay Victoria Pier Trust
- New Chairman of the Colwyn Bay Victoria Pier Trust
Martin is recognized as one of the leading authorities on the history of the seaside pleasure Pier and has been a member of the National Piers Society since 1988, and its archivist since 1994.
He is also a prolific writer on piers as well as other seaside attractions and is a well-respected local historian who has been researching and Publishing books on Folkstone, Hythe, and other areas of Kent for nearly 30 years.
I was born and raised in a small town near Southend on Sea and I have always lived close to the coast.
As a child, I was often taken for walks along the piers and would often fish for crabs along the way. I was regularly taken to Southend, Clacton and Walton piers where we would spend many happy hours on the pier and also on the beach looking for fossils. I still regularly visit these local piers with my children, nieces and nephews.
Aside from piers, I am a practising chartered certified accountant and my main interest is playing and watching sport, especially football.
Having been born and raised in the Brighton area, it was always normal for me to be visiting the Piers. I am old enough to remember spending time on the much-missed West Pier when I was very small, though the Palace Pier always seemed the more exciting of them to me at that time. Daytrips
I was born and raised in Hertfordshire and family holidays were always taken to the East Anglian seaside towns of Great Yarmouth and Clacton-on-Sea, before later moving inland to the nearby Norfolk Broads. These holidays instilled a love of all things seaside in me, especially the Snails at Joyland in Great Yarmouth which I will always ride on any return visits many years later.
Living in what is argued to be the furthest place from the British coast, whilst deeply ironic and inconvenient for an NPS member, is likely what provoked my embrace of the seaside pier establishment initially. In no other place than these foreign aquatic lands would aerial iron platforms run, simply for the pleasure of visitors. The ornamental architecture, of Bangor Pier specifically, was sufficiently vivid to remain imprinted in the mind of a 6 year old, and naturally this impression became deeper the more piers I saw. I had become unconsciously obsessed with the subject by age 12; by age 16 I had learnt of the NPS' existence and became a member immediately; and now at age 22, after years of waiting for such obstructions as A-levels and University to end, I joined the Committee in 2022. As a committee member, I am hoping to assist in the construction of a digital online archive of pier-related material; my experience in the architecture/conservation workplace may also be applied in my tenure. Passions of photography, classical pipe organs, cartography and vintage electrical appliances run in parallel to that of Seaside Piers.
Job Titles:
- Vice - Chair of the Colwyn Victoria Pier Trust, Sai
Pat Owen, vice-chair of the Colwyn Victoria Pier Trust, said: "We were very honoured to be asked to take part. Carwyn Jones [series producer of Vanished Wales] contact us about doing a segment on the Pier, about the Pier and having people share their memories".
Peter Wheeler is a Royal Engineer and now lectures in Mechanical and Structural Engineering.
He has worldwide hands-on experience with marine structures, piers, bridges and pontoons.
He has supervised and undertaken engineering and consultancy for several UK Piers and hopes to swim
I suppose I am the "elder statesmen" of the NPS these days, having produced my first "Guide to British Piers" back in 1978 which led me to be involved in the setting up of our society a year later.
I have held various roles over the years, including being Chairman from 1995 to 2003. Highlights of this time include 1996's "Year of the Pier", speaking in front of 8000 people at the re-opening of Southwold Pier and writing books for both Ian Allan and Frances Frith.
Since then I've been the society's first Hon Vice President, and continue to represent us largely behind the scenes including providing a chapter for our "British Seaside Piers" volume and helping promote my local pier at Cleethorpes.
Incidentally I became interested in piers back in 1971, and took advantage of a student railcard while at College to visit most structures around our coast. My favourites are probably Southend (for sheer size!) and Llandudno (location), while I like pier history rather than shows. But each to his or her own!
I have always enjoyed mixing a career in the rail industry and freelance documentary producer at the BBC with my passion for entertainment and the seaside. Following ill health retirement I have been able to focus on my love of theatre, performing arts and the seaside for the past three decades. Serving nearly 20 years as Chairman of the London Branch of the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society, who own PS Waverley my interest naturally gravitated to seaside piers through the relationship with piers and steamers. After almost 30 years membership of the NPS I have held several officer positions and currently serve as Chairman, exploiting every opportunity to support and promote our seaside piers as a vital element of our coastal tourism economy and seaside heritage.
Job Titles:
- New Chairman of Penarth Arts & Crafts Ltd