The Box is a major cultural and heritage attraction and archive, which opened in Plymouth’s city centre in September 2020. Its collection, formally the South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA), is the regional film archive for the South West of England, comprising the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and Television South West (TSW). It also includes a significant number of donated film collections dating back to the early 1890s.
This film is part of Free
Weston-super-Mare's Birnbeck Pier
Saving Birnbeck Pier
In partnership with:
Overview
Opened on 5 June 1867, Birnbeck Pier originally ‘Bearn Back’ was designed by Eugenius Birch, the buildings designed by architect Hans Price. The pier was commissioned by the Admiralty in 1949, renamed HMS Birnbeck, and used a weapons research centre. The pier links the mainland of Weston-super-Mare with Birnbeck Island. The National Piers Society states that the seaside piers around the UK stand as powerful reminders of Victorian engineering and entrepreneurialism.
In 1872 improvements included a 250-foot wooden jetty and in 1881 the addition of a lifeboat station and in 1889 the building of a boathouse with the construction of a pavilion added in 1884. The buildings were damaged by fire in 1902. P&A Campbell ran the pier from 1962 to 1972 selling it to John Critchley in 1989, ownership then passed to Phil Stubbs, who wanted to restore the pier. 1992 saw the work cease due to lack of funding and it closed to the public in 1994.
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