Birnbeck Pier

Birnbeck Pier, also known as the 'Old Pier', is a pier and island situated on the Bristol Channel in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, England, approximately 18 miles (29 km) south-west of Bristol. It is the only pier in the country which links the mainland to an island, linking to Birnbeck Island (previously Berne Island or Bairn Beck Island), a 1.2-hectare (3-acre) rocky island just to the west of Worlebury Hill. The grade II* listed pier was designed by Eugenius Birch and opened in 1867. Birnbeck Pier is one of only six Grade II* piers surviving in the country. The refreshment and waiting rooms of 1898 were designed by local architect Hans Price and the clocktower and the piermaster's house have been attributed to him. During the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries the pier was popular with locals and tourists. As a boarding point for steamers plying their trade in the Bristol Channel, it underwent various extensions and modifications over the years. During the Second World War the pier was commissioned as HMS Birnbeck by the Admiralty as part of the Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development (DMWD) for research into new weapons. Its work included conducting trials on the Barnes Wallis 'bouncing bomb'. The pier reopened after the war, but the number of visitors and steamer passengers declined. The final excursion visited the pier in 1979. The pier has been closed to the public since 1994 and is on the Buildings at Risk Register and part of it collapsed during storms in 2015. The pier was purchased by North Somerset Council in July 2023 with the aim of restoring it and reopening the lifeboat station which was moved off the pier in 2011.

The origin of the name Birnbeck is unknown but may take the 'beck' from the Scandinavian word 'bekk', a bench in literary Old Norse. Alternatively Birnbeck could be from the Old Irish 'berna bec', a 'little gap' because of the narrow channel separating the island from Worlebury Hill. Local people sometimes pronounced it as Be-arn Beck into the early years of the twentieth century. The rock of which the island is formed is limestone, giving rise to the geological term "Birnbeck Limestone Formation". It is ju

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