Minehead harbour and pier

Today's photograph is a view of Minehead harbour from the pier. It shows its location below a wooded hill with the oldest houses squeezed into a strip below the trees and more recent Victorian and later buildings at the head of the pier. Among the latter is the lifeboat station of 1901 which is still in use, housing two inshore rescue craft.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Portable pier and St Catherine's Island, Tenby

When we visited Tenby in Wales we saw a few boats offering offshore trips. Embarking at low tide presented something of a problem but the owners of the "James Noel" had the problem beat. They were using this portable pier that was moved around by a tractor on Castle Beach. Behind the portable pier in this photograph is St Catherine's Island. It can be reached on foot at low tide but at high tide it is only accessible by swimming or by boat. The building on the island is a fort constructed in 1870, the only one of several that were conceived in 1859 and envisaged to oppose any threatened landing by French troops.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Pier pavilions, Clevedon

Piers offer something of the feeling of being at sea without the discomforts of wind, spray, and the rolling motion that brings on sea-sickness. In the UK the great era of pleasure piers was the Victorian period. Those that survive from that time help visitors to capture something of the simple pleasures that accompanied a nineteenth century day out at the seaside. The architecture of piers is designed to withstand wind and water whilst providing visitors with shelter on inclement days. The September day of a recent visit to Clevedon Pier on the Severn estuary near Weston-super-Mare, was everything a visitor could hope for and we lingered a while admiring the views and metalwork of the 1869 structure.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

View from Hull Pier

When, many years ago, I lived in the city of Hull, the pier was a busy place from where a ferry made regular journeys to and fro across the River Humber, between the waterfront and New Holland in Lincolnshire. The opening of the Humber Bridge in 1981 put an end to the ferry and made the pier more of an interesting destination for people than a vital transport location. It has remained so all these years. I have always enjoyed my photographic visits to the pier for the estuarial light, the buildings old and new, and the passing river traffic. This shot was taken on a winter afternoon when the light had begun to make silhouettes out of the wooden pier, the futuristic aquarium (The Deep) and the wind turbine components at the dock being loaded on to a vessel to take them into the North Sea.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10     2017

Clevedon Pier, Somerset

One of Britain's most attractive piers, and the only protected by Grade 1 Listing, is Clevedon Pier on the Severn Estuary in Somerset. It was opened in 1869 as both a tourist attraction and a point at which ferries could tie up to take on rail passengers going to South Wales. It is 312m (1024 feet) long and has eight elegant, arched spans, the feature that distinguishes it from more utilitarian structures. The tidal range of the estuary is the second highest in the world (15m, 48 feet), and consequently a number of platforms are available to ensure ease of embarking and disembarking boat passengers.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Grand Pier, Weston-super-Mare

The piers of the British Isles give visitors a feeling of being at sea without leaving dry land. They also offer a range of seaside entertainments. However, their location makes them subject to damage by stormy seas, and their lightweight structure means they are susceptible to fire. Many have been lost and seriously truncated by such events. Weston-super-Mare's Grand Pier was opened in 1904. In 1930 the seaward end, including the pavilion, suffered a major fire. It was restored at a cost of £60,000. Rebuilding took three years. In 2008 the seaward pavilion was again destroyed by fire, and once again it had to be rebuilt, this time after only two years, but at a cost of £39 million.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Where the Hull meets the Humber

Today's photograph was taken very near where the River Hull flows into the River Humber. The water on the left below the pointed building (The Deep aquarium) is the Hull, and the distant water on the right is the Humber. In the foreground is one of the ends of the pier where ferries tied up before the Humber Bridge made them redundant. In the middle distance is the Sea Challenger "jack-up" wind turbine installation vessel being loaded with columns, blades etc. In the far distance is one of the ferries that links Hull with continental Europe, and to its right the cooling towers and machinery of Saltend chemicals park.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10