The Struggle to Build Southend’s First Pier
By Marion Pearce
There have been many books written about Southend Pier and its ups and downs during its history but this one is hopefully different as it outlines in detail the struggles to get the pier built in the first place.
In 1828 advertisements appeared in the local newspapers announcing that a local consortium intended to apply to Parliament to pass a bill to authorise the building of a pier in Southend. A year later, on March 13th 1829, an article appeared in the Essex Chronicle supporting the building of the pier in Southend. The paper added that, “Along the hundred miles of the Essex coast, there was not a single harbour or landing place at which it was practicable to land passengers or goods with safety and convenience at low water”.
The Struggle to Build Southend’s First Pier covers the first 40 years of a remarkable story. The pier is now nearly 200 years old and is recorded as the longest pleasure pier in the world. Over its life span the pier has suffered several fires, severe damage from ships crashing into it and come close to being scrapped, on grounds of cost by the local authority on more than one occasion.
From the early 1800s Southend was developing as a ‘resort’ town. Its fortunes were boosted first in 1801 when Princess Charlotte of Wales, who was then five years old, was sent to Southend on the recommendation of her doctors for sea bathing. The trip had huge significance for Southend as Charotte was the heir-apparent to George IV and on his passing, she would become queen. Three years after Charlotte’s visit her mother, Caroline Princess of Wales and the wife of the Prince Regent, visited Southend to take the waters. She stayed for six weeks. The visit in turn attracted what might be called the ‘fashionable’ society to visit the town.
Yet, difficult access from London both by road and river hindered development. In the early 1800’s the railways were yet to come. The journey overland was difficult. The roads were poor. There was no street lighting and it could take a horse drawn coach all day to travel from London to Southend. It could be also dangerous as highwaymen lurked in the countryside to prey on the unsuspecting.
Travelling on the new River Thames steamers had its challenges too. There was nowhere onshore for visitors to disembark when the tide retreated. Southend bound passengers had to be transferred from larger ships onto smaller vessels, rowed closer to shore and depending on the state of the tide, walk or be carried (with their baggage) the rest of the way across the mud in all weathers. Thus, the solution for Southend was to build a pier of its own out into deep water to accommodate the growing number of larger ships plying the river. The plan to build the pier gained Royal Assent on the 14th May 1829. A week later the foundation stone was laid. However, with the Parliamentary Bill came sweeping powers that sowed much discord.
From the very outset the prospect of a pier being built in Southend was mired in argument. Powerful businessmen and landowners had different views as to where the pier should be built and who should pay for it. Some in ‘fashionable’ society, who held property in Southend, opposed the pier altogether as they believed it would spoil their sea view and that increasing numbers of visitors would be a nuisance. Fishermen and oystermen were alarmed at the prospect of their fishing grounds being irreparably damaged. The watermen who ferried goods and passengers from large ships to shore also feared for their survival. There were multiple legal disputes between the parties which continued for a decade. The possibility, let alone the imposition, of tolls for using the pier itself and subsequent tolling of the roads approaching the pier led to violence and riot.
The location of the pier was challenged. The Vandervords a powerful shipping family were particularly aggrieved at the levels and scope of the tolls envisaged and consequently instructed their agents and barge captains to refuse to pay them. They later sponsored a petition to parliament opposing the financing and extension of the pier to deep water. The pier toll house and gates were vandalised on more than one occasion and pier company toll collectors were assaulted. Bizarrely the local magistrates seemed powerless and were unable, or unwilling, to punish the offenders.
Another key Pier Company board member was General William Goodday Strutt. He was born in 1762, the second son of John Strutt of Terling Place, Essex, now the home of successive Lords of Rayleigh. Aged 16, Strutt joined the army. He soon saw active service in the War of American Independence and later was present at the 1782 siege of Gibraltar. He subsequently fought with distinction in the French Revolutionary War in Flanders and later in the West Indies. In 1795, having been promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General, he was sent to the West Indies for the third time and to the island of St Vincent during the second Carib war where he was seriously injured and lost a leg.
Goodday returned to England in May 1796 and was received by King George III. In 1824 he built a house called Rayleigh House in Southend on what is today Marine Parade. He joined the Pier Consortium in 1829, but he was not a well man. He was sixty-seven years of age, afflicted with gout, minus a leg, without most of his teeth and had a bullet in his body which doctors had been unable to extract. Amongst his responsibilities when the Pier Company was formed was getting plans and drawings agreed, organising consultations and supervising the erection of the pier. Despite severe rheumatism in both hands, he was a prolific letter writer and the contents of his letter-books provide much insight into the early pier history over a period of nearly 10 years. It is fortunate that most of these letter-books have survived for without them much of the early pier history would be unknown. At times during the 1830s it seemed amazing the Pier ever got built!
So, step back in time and enjoy the remarkable story of the pier’s early days. Based on a wealth of material taken from contemporary newspapers and court reports together with extracts of the minutes of key meetings and years of research by the author Marion Pearce, The Struggle to Build Southend’s First Pier comes to life.
The book, with over 40 illustrations and maps, also contains a detailed appendix that lists the original shareholders, a list of the Vandevord barges, the pier specification and extracts of the transcript of the principal court cases connected with enforcing tolls.
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