Fleetwood, The Pier From The Mount c.1950

Photo ref: F33002

More about this scene

Since 1838 Fleetwood had had a theatrical pavilion in Dock Street, and a daily conveyance at Poulton met the Fylde Union coach to and from Fleetwood's new bathing station, but it did not have a pier. Richard Edmondson made an application under the General Pier and Harbour Act; his plan was to have a pier 307 yards long, with a grand pavilion, a conservatory or winter gardens, a theatre, a concert room, a ballroom and a swimming bath, one of the largest in England! Fleetwood Victoria Ltd was registered on 11 January 1899 but the pier was not built until 1910. As a crowd-puller it coincided with the sight of a lifetime - the last of the convict ships raised from Sydney Harbour (The old convict ships were scuttled, but one, renamed 'Success', was raised from the harbour bed and taken to Fleetwood as an attraction for visitors. From here it went off to America.) On 25 August 1952 the pier went up in flames. It was the biggest fire in the town's history: the flames could be seen 20 miles away, and so fierce was the heat that coins from machines on the pier melted and fused together.