Weston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare is a seaside town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary district, in the county of Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. Its population at the 2021 census was 82,418.
The area around the town has been occupied since the Iron Age. It was still a small village until the 19th century when it developed as a seaside resort. A railway station and two piers were built. In the second half of the 20th century it was connected to the M5 motorway but the number of people holidaying in the town declined and some local industries closed, although the number of day visitors has risen.
Attractions include the Grand Pier, Weston Museum and The Helicopter Museum. Cultural venues include The Playhouse, the Winter Gardens and the Blakehay Theatre.
The Bristol Channel has the second largest tidal range in the world; the low tide mark in Weston Bay is about from the seafront. The beach is sandy but low tide reveals areas of thick mud which are dangerous to walk on. The mouth of the River Axe is at the south end of the beach. To the north of the town is Sand Point which marks the upper limit of the Bristol Channel and the lower limit of the Severn Estuary. In the centre of the town is Ellenborough Park, which is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest due to the range of plant species found there.
Toponymy
Weston comes from the Old English word for west, and 'tun', a word with several different meanings. Although it is most likely to have an original meaning of enclosure, it could also mean settlement, farmstead or estate. Super-mare is Latin for "upon the sea" and was added to distinguish it from other settlements named Weston in the Diocese of Bath and Wells.Other 'tuns' nearby are Norton, which was in existence by the early 13th century and is probably of at least late Anglo-Saxon foundation. Milton on Worlebury Hill is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 and is also of at least late Anglo-Saxon origin. Taking the three places together – the west, the middle, and the north tuns - their directions might relate to Worle which was already a substantial estate by the time of the census for the Domesday Book. Weston itself is not identified in the Domesday Book although Ashcombe is.
The town was known as Weston-juxta-Mare prior to 1348; the name seems to have been changed to this during the time when Ralph of Shrewsbury was Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1329 to 1363. Between the 14th and 17th centuries the juxta-mare part of the name disappeared and it was known as just Weston. In 1610 it was recorded as 'Weston on the More', with 'more' in this context most likely to be in the Somerset sense of 'moor' as low lying, damp, semi-marshland.
History
Early history
Weston's oldest structure is Worlebury Camp on Worlebury Hill which dates from the Iron Age. Outside of the hillfort are many rock-cut burials and fragmentary remains which have been discovered during the course of progressive development on the southern slope of the hill. Two particular clusters of these burials have been identified: one in the Montpelier area, and the other to the north-east of Knightstone Road. Recent researchers suggest that there may have been a major Iron Age cemetery related to the hillfort and remarks on the area near Knightstone Road was the site later chosen for the parish church, suggesting a link to the Iron Age burials. Many of these remains were chance finds during 19th or early 20th century building work and were poorly recorded. During archaeological evaluation work in 2005, prior to the construction of a new parish room on the north-western side of St John's church, a crouched inhumation burial, with pottery indicating a mid- to late-Iron Age date, was discovered within the churchyard, below a series of unmarked post-medieval burials.An occupation site of Romano-British date was investigated in 2008–2009 as part of a planning application by Weston College immediately to the west of their School of Science and Art, on the south side of South Terrace. This built on investigations that had already been carried out on the site in the late 1950s which strongly suggested the presence of Romano-British occupation. It is the only site known of this date in central Weston and was probably a small farmstead or hamlet. Finds included an extremely important burial of a male individual who had clearly led a very hard life, and had suffered multiple medical conditions which were expressed on his skeletal remains. It is possible that he had been a slave.
The parish was part of the Hundred of Winterstoke. The medieval church of St John was demolished in 1824 and rebuilt on the same site. The former rectory, now known as Glebe House,is a 19th-century structure but may have been remodelled from a 17th century building.
The Old Thatched Cottage restaurant on the seafront is listed Grade II. Its official Historic England list entry states that it is 'late 18th century, certainly before 1804' and that it is 'thought to be Weston-Super-Mare's oldest building'. Although the building carries the date 1774, the date of its construction is unknown. Evidence exists that it was definitely built by June 1804. A local tradition of an earlier building on the site, occupied by a man called Light, is without any clear historical evidence.
19th century
Early in the 19th century, Weston was a small village of about 30 houses. They were protected from the sea by a line of sand dunes which had been created as a sea defence after the Bristol Channel floods of 1607. A harbour was made in the late 1820s at Knightstone Island, and a slipway built from Anchor Head towards Birnbeck Island. A walkway was built along the dunes in 1826 from Knightstone to Leeves' Cottage and 1829 an extension carried it to the end of Regent Street.Weston's growth during the 19th century was largely due to its development as a seaside resort. The Pigott family of Brockley were the Lords of the Manor and had a summer residence at Grove House. Construction of the first hotel, 'Reeve's Hotel', started in 1808.
John Pigott sold off some land for development in 1807 and the Weston Act of 1810 allowed enclosure and road building. This resulted in some houses being built in the Whitecross area south of the town centre, and large detached villas for the middle classes were built on the southern slopes of Worlebury Hill. Many of the houses and public buildings erected from about 1870 were built from local grey limestone with details of soft yellow Bath Stone and slate roofs. These were designed in by local architect Hans Price.
The Bristol and Exeter Railway opened the first part of its line on 14 June 1841. A station at gave a connection to a station in the town centre. The railway connected with the Great Western Railway at and made it easier for visitors from Bristol, the Midlands, London and further afield to travel to Weston for a day or longer holidays.
Birnbeck Pier was opened in 1867 at the end of Worlebury Hill. Visitors, including many Welsh mining families, came across the Bristol Channel by paddle steamer to the pier. In its heyday it offered amusement arcades, tea rooms, amusement rides and a photographic studio. Although listed Grade II* it is now in a derelict state and is classed as 'highly vulnerable' on Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register. It was designed by Eugenius Birch with ironwork by the Isca Foundry of Newport, Monmouthshire.
The Seafront Improvement Scheme started in 1883. This saw the construction of the sea wall and esplanade, starting from Glentworth Bay at Knightstone. As far south as Regent Street it replaced the walkway of 1826 and reclaimed up to from the beach. By 1886 it had been completed south to the sanatorium and this section saw the sand dunes replaced by lawns, although the dunes beyond the sanatorium remain to this day. A further section was built to take it around the end of Worlebury Hill to Anchor Head and Birnbeck Pier.
The first transatlantic telegraph cable of the Commercial Cable Company was brought ashore at Weston in 1885 after which the company had an association until in 1962. Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of wireless telegraphy, successfully transmitted radio signals across the Bristol Channel in the spring of 1897, from Penarth to Brean Down, the promontory at the south end of Weston Bay.
A second railway, the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Light Railway, opened on 1 December 1897, connecting Weston to Clevedon, the Weston terminus being at Ashcombe Road. The railway was extended to Portishead on 7 August 1907 but was closed in 1940.
20th century
A proposal for the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Light Railway to run along the streets of the town to the sea front failed to materialise, but a gauge Weston-super-Mare Tramways network opened on 12 May 1902. The main route ran from Birnbeck Pier along the sea front to the Sanatorium ; a branch line ran to the railway station and on to the tram depot in Locking Road. The fleet originally consisted of 12 double deck cars and 4 open-sided 'toast rack' cars. The system was bought out by the competing bus company and closed on 18 April 1937, by which time the fleet comprised 8 double deck and 6 'toast racks'.Local traders, unhappy that visitors arriving at Birnbeck Pier were not coming into the centre of the town, built a new pier closer to the main streets. Opened in 1904, and known as the Grand Pier, it was designed to be long.
Several cinemas opened after 1911, the one near the Town Hall being rebuilt as the Odeon Cinema in 1935 using a distinctive moderne style. The Winter Gardens Pavilion opened between the High Street and sea front in 1927, and in 1929 work was completed on the Marine Lake. A causeway was built across Glentworth Bay and facilities provided on the shore to create an area where sea bathing would be available at all states of the tide. The Open Air Pool, with its arched concrete diving board, opened in 1937 midway between the Grand Pier and the Sanitorium.
Weston Airfield opened in 1936, just outside the town on Locking Moor. Commercial flights were operated by Western Airways until World War II, the most popular being to Cardiff which flew twice an hour at busy periods. The site was also operated as RAF Weston-super-Mare by No. 24 Group. It served as a flying candidates selection and initial training facility, and as a relief airport during the war, latterly as the Polish Air Force Staff College from April 1944 to April 1946. Several factories were set up near the airfield, both on the Winterstoke Road in Oldmixon and nearer Locking, which became the targets for air raids. The Bristol Aeroplane Company diversified production after the war and started to build helicopters in 1956. The factory was taken over by Westland Helicopters in 1960 and the company operated in Weston until 2002, although production finished in 1987. The airfield closed in 1978 but Westland's bought it for training pilots.
The factories around the airfield attracted air raids and the town was also on the return route of bombers targeting Bristol and was itself bombed by the Luftwaffe. The first bombs fell in June 1940, but the worst attacks were in January 1941 and in June 1942. Large areas of the town were destroyed, particularly Orchard Street and the Boulevard. On 3 and 4 January 1941, incendiary bombs fell on the town. The Air Ministry set up a "Q-station" decoy at Bleadon in an attempt to divert the bombers to an unpopulated area. In all 110 civilians lost their lives through enemy action in the borough. United States Army troops were billeted in the area in the later part of the war but were moved elsewhere in the run-up to D-Day. Birnbeck Pier was taken over for weapons development as 'HMS Birnbeck'. During the war II more than 10,000 evacuees were accommodated in the town, however only 130 spent four or more years in the town.
Milton was absorbed into the Weston-super-Mare Urban District in 1902 and residential areas expanded eastwards along the Locking Road and Milton Road. England's first council housing estate was built at Milton Green in the 1919. Further estates followed with Milton Brow on the hill and Bournville which started to be developed the south of the town before World War II. The town expanded again in 1932 when Worle and Uphill were absorbed. After the war Bournville was completed and other estates were built at Coronation in the 1950s and Oldmixon in the 1960s, the latter to support further industrial estates that were built off the Winterstoke Road. The opening of the M5 Motorway in the 1970s pulled development back to the east side of the town with new building around Worle and Locking Castle south of the railway line.
Victorian housing around Carlton Street was demolished in the 1960s and the area redeveloped as the Dolphin Square shopping precinct. The Sovereign shopping centre was opened in 1992. Unlike Dolphin Square, this was fully covered and visible from the High Street.
A new Weston General Hospital was opened at Uphill in 1986. This replaced several older hospitals and health facilities around the town including the Royal West of England Sanatorium on the seafront, and the original Weston Hospital which had opened on Alfred Street in 1865 and expanded as the Queen Alexandra Memorial Hospital onto The Boulevard in 1927.