St Anne's Pier

St Annes-on-the-Sea is a planned seaside resort on the Fylde coast, at the mouth of the River Ribble, in Lancashire. It was developed in the 19th century, largely by the St Anne's on the Sea Land and Building Company. The company was formed in 1874 and leased land for the new town from the estate of the local Clifton family. Towards the end of the 19th century, pleasure piers became a common feature of English seaside resorts, and by the 1870s there were already two piers in nearby Blackpool (now called North and Central Piers), one in Southport and one 3.5 mi away in Lytham. The wording of the land company's original lease indicates that a pier was probably planned for St Annes from its…

There was some delay in building the new pier because of an economic downturn. Engineers inspected the site in 1879, and construction began in 1880. The architect was Alfred Dowson. The pier is constructed of cast iron columns and lattice girders with wooden decking and intricate decorative iron-work on the deck. The columns were sunk to a depth of 50 ft. The original structure was 914 ft long and 19 ft wide. It included a band kiosk built of glass and iron. Construction cost £18,000 and took more than five years. The pier was opened by Frederick Stanley on 15 June 1885, in a ceremony attended by local dignitaries, school children, the Preston Militia band, and the Order of Mechanics. The…

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the developers of St Annes were keen to attract a more refined market than Blackpool's working-class excursionists. The pier was originally intended to provide little more than a sedate promenading facility for the resort's visitors; initially the only other attractions were a band kiosk and a sweet shop. The pier's Floral Hall hosted concerts and music hall acts. Its first resident orchestra was Miss Kate Erl and Her Ladies Orchestra. Subsequent conductors of the pier's orchestra were Clarice Dunnington, William Rees, Lionel Johns and Norman George. Artists who have performed on the pier include Gracie Fields, Leslie Henson, Russ Conway and George…