Walk Out Over the Severn Estuary on a Victorian Iron Pier
You reach the entrance by dropping down Hill Road toward the coast, where the Toll House stands beside the Royal Pier Hotel — both designed by the local architect Hans Price — and beyond it the pier runs out into the Severn Estuary, which separates South West England from South Wales. Eight spans of steel rails and wooden decking carry you out over the water to a pavilion at the pier head. The ironwork has a history of its own: the legs were built from Barlow rail previously used on Isambard Kingdom Brunel's South Wales Railway. Sir John Betjeman called it "the most beautiful pier in England," and it is a Grade I listed building — the only pier in the country with that status.
Read the Pier's Story in Its Planks and Its Gaps
The pier opened in 1869, with a parade, bands and a cannon volley, and for almost a century it was an embarkation point for paddle steamer excursions around the Bristol Channel — the Waverley first called in 1886, and steamers of P and A Campbell's White Funnel Fleet were regular visitors. In 1970 two of the end spans collapsed into the sea during stress testing, and demolition was proposed. What you walk on now is the result of a long local campaign: the pier was dismantled, restored at Portishead dock and reassembled, reopening in stages. Some of the money came from "sponsored planks" — brass plaques bearing names and messages are inlaid in the decking and benches, so keep an eye downward as you go. The pier was named Pier of the Year by the National Piers Society and has since served as a backdrop for television and film, including a scene from the 2010 adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go.
What You Do Once You're Out There
- Walk to the pier head. The full length takes you past the restored spans to the pavilion, with the estuary opening around you.
- Look back at the shore. Clevedon's seafront is a mix of pebbled beaches and low rocky cliffs; from the pier you see the town from the water side.
- Hunt the plaques. The sponsored planks and benches record the donations that saved the structure.
- Visit the Toll House. A souvenir shop sits at the entrance, and the upper floor is an art gallery with a different exhibition each month.
- Stop at the pier head cafe for something warm while the water moves beneath the decking.
- Watch the steamers in summer. From June to September the landing stage at the end is used by the Waverley and her sister ship, the Balmoral. Anglers fish from the pier too.
Timing Your Visit
The pier is open every day of the year except Christmas Day, so you have room to choose. Come in the summer season if you want to see the paddle steamers come alongside; come in quieter months if you'd rather have the decking and the estuary views more to yourself. Allow an unhurried hour or two — long enough to walk out, read the plaques, take in the gallery and sit at the pier head — and treat the walk out to the pavilion as the thing not to rush. The pier is exposed to the weather of the Bristol Channel, so dress for wind off the water whatever the season.
Beyond the Pier: Seafront, Geology and Poets' Walk
The seafront runs about half a mile from the pier to Salthouse Field, passing ornamental gardens, a Victorian bandstand, a bowling green, tennis courts and crazy golf; Marine Lake, once a Victorian swimming pool, is now used for boating, and Salthouse Field has a light railway round its perimeter and summer donkey rides. The rocky beach beside the pier is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest — the side of a mineralised fault in dolomitic conglomerate, with cream to pink baryte and a long list of sulphide minerals for anyone who likes their scenery with a side of geology. Inland, Clevedon Court is nearby, and to the south-west of the seafront "Poets' Walk" loops round Wain's Hill and Church Hill through a local nature reserve of calcareous grassland, coastal scrub and woodland — its name recalls poets who visited the town, among them Coleridge in 1795 and Tennyson in 1834.
Start with a map of the seafront and a look at the tide tables, then plan a day that takes in the pier at its most atmospheric, the gallery in the Toll House, and a walk along the shore or up onto Poets' Walk. Clevedon rewards the traveller who arrives without hurry — and the pier, still standing after collapse, demolition votes and decades of fundraising, is the reason to come.