The Pier, Including The Tollhouse

THE PIER, INCLUDING THE TOLLHOUSE, CLEVEDON

A pier with attached toll house, built 1867-69 with alterations made 1892-94, and extensively conserved between 1988-1999. The engineers were John William Grover and Richard Ward, with Hans Price as architect. The structure comprises wrought and cast iron, while the toll house is built of rough-faced sandstone with a parapet concealing the roof.

The pier consists of eight 100-foot arched spans leading to a landing stage. The exceptionally slender spans are constructed from riveted broad-gauge railway track as designed by W.H. Barlow for the Great Western Railway. Each span is arched with radiating struts, carried on a pair of arched stanchions that are tension-braced with diagonal tie-rods and cross-members. Ornamental lamps on tapering stems are placed over each support. Those on the south side bear the names of the engineers, the date 1868, and the foundry mark of 'Hamilton & Windsor Ironworks Liverpool Contractor'; those on the north side have been renewed. Wooden benches with backrests run the full length of the pier, now adorned with brass plaques from restoration contributors.

The pier head at the north-west end is substantially wider than the pier itself and is supported by cast iron columns, which replaced an earlier wooden structure. It comprises three cast iron and glass shelters. The central shelter is two storeys high, featuring a pagoda-roofed super-structure over the steps to the landing stage below. A cast iron stair leads to a first-floor room with an outer walkway carried on columns. The convex roof terminates in a weathervane. The ornamental cast iron structures incorporate anchor motifs to the cresting at eaves level and bear the foundry mark of McDowell Steven & Co, Glasgow.

The toll house is Scottish baronial in style, with a narrow rectangular plan featuring a tower and projecting spur to the south side, standing on a raised rock-faced foundation. It has mainly two-light windows with stone transoms. Entrances on the north side are set within moulded frames: the landward entrance has a pyramidal slate-tiled roof, while that nearest the pier sits beneath a corbelled stack. Roll-moulded strings mark the first-floor and eaves levels, with a castellated parapet completing the exterior. The interior has been much altered and is now used as a shop and gallery, though it was originally built as the toll keeper's house.

Ancillary features include wrought iron gates set between ornamental cast iron piers with globe lanterns and twisted bases, side gateways, and a run of railings on the north side on a stone kerb.

The pier was erected for the Clevedon Pier Company and opened on Easter Monday 1869, intended to serve steamers bound for South Wales. The opening of the Severn Tunnel in 1886 reduced this traffic, but the pier head was aggrandised nonetheless. The pier's outermost two spans collapsed during routine testing in 1970, leaving the pier head and structures stranded. After surviving demolition attempts, the pier was saved by a dedicated trust and, following near-total dismantling, was re-opened in 1999, when the project was awarded a Civic Trust award. Niall Phillips served as architect for the Clevedon Pier and Heritage Trust during this restoration.

The pier and toll house form a group with the Royal Pier Hotel, the Fountain, and Nos. 19 and 20 Alexandra Road, creating an exceptionally picturesque ensemble of outstanding importance for its delicate engineering and the relationship between the pier and landward buildings.