Historic pier linked to Dambusters raid set to be saved by £10m lottery grant

A deteriorating pier significant to the Dambusters raid during the Second World War has received a £10 million lifeline from the National Lottery.

Birnbeck Pier will be “brought back from the brink of loss”, National Lottery Heritage Fund chief executive Eilish McGuinness announced on the 160th anniversary of its foundation stone being laid on 28 October 1864.

Pictures from 2015 showed a part of the pier partially collapsing into the sea after it was battered by a storm.

The restoration project, carried out by North Somerset Council and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), will make the Weston-super-Mare pier safe for use again and allow the development of a new lifeboat station.

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Heritage minister Sir Chris Bryant said: “It has felt for ages as if it was the end of the pier show for this end of the pier, but I applaud the ambitious work of The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the local council to restore this landmark to its former glory and I hope this funding brings the public one step closer to a stroll to the end of Birnbeck Pier.”

Birnbeck Pier was first opened in 1867 when it was a popular day trip destination from other ports along the Bristol Channel. It is the only pier in the UK which connects the mainland to an island, North Somerset Council said in a press release.

But 75 years later, the now Grade II*-listed pier played an important part in trials for Sir Barnes Wallis’s ‘bouncing bomb’, which was used in the famous Dambusters raid during the Second World War.

The Dambusters raid, otherwise known as Operation Chastise, breached two dams and destroyed two hydroelectric power stations in Germany, using newly invented bombs which skipped along the water after being dropped by RAF bombers before striking their targets.

Visitor numbers declined as the pier’s popularity decreased in the 1970s. While under private ownership, the pier was improperly maintained, and safety issues led to its closure to the public in 1994.

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RNLI continued to use the island on the end of the pier, having first built a lifeboat station there in 1882, but it had to relocate to a temporary base at Marine Lake in 2014 due to safety concerns.

The restoration project aims to reopen the pier for public use and allow the RNLI to return to the island, 142 years after it first arrived.

The pier was placed on Historic England’s Original Heritage at Risk Register in 1998 due to the pier’s deterioration. Since then, multiple local organisations have campaigned for the pier’s renovation, including the Birnbeck Regeneration Trust and Friends of the Old Pier Society.

Councillor Mike Bell, the leader of North Somerset council, said local legislators are “so grateful” to the National Lottery for its support for the project.

“This funding award demonstrates the continued recognition by key national organisations – including our multiple funding partners – in our renovation plans for Birnbeck, to not only restore public access to this Victorian treasure but to get the RNLI back on the island where they belong,” he added.

Ms McGuinness added: “We are proud to be part of this transformative project, which promises to enhance and regenerate the cultural and economic landscape of the area, provide local employment opportunities and be a source of pride and enjoyment for generations to come.”