A weekend in Weston

Years ago, I lived in Yatton which is a large village more or less midway between Bristol and Weston-super-Mare (or just 'Weston' if you're local, or Weston-super-Mud if you visit when the tide's out).

Birnbeck Pier, Weston-super-Mare

Donna's brother moved there not so long ago and they've just bought a ground floor flat in the town. They invited us to visit for a weekend and last weekend was it. I hadn't been to Weston for perhaps fifteen years and it was fascinating to see what has gone, what is new, and what remains but looks different.

Some thirty years ago my Mum came down to visit us and we took a trip on the old paddle steamer, Waverly from Birnbeck Pier to Penarth in South Wales. But look at Birnbeck Pier now! Nobody is travelling that way today; it's a bit dilapidated to say the least.

Weston has two piers. Birnbeck was the business pier, supporting transport by sea to and from the town and run as a thriving business. The other pier, the 'Grand Pier', is an amusement arcade on stilts.

Walking in Weston

While we were in the town last weekend we visited the town quarry, walked the streets, and explored the local area.
The quarry stopped working in the 1950s and is now a nature reserve, a cafe/restaurant, and a museum. Because Weston is built partly on hilly ground there are some great views across the Severn Estuary to distant Wales (you can see the Welsh coast in the Birnbeck photo).

I found visiting Weston great fun and it stimulated many memories for me too. I found the same thing when I visited nearby Clevedon a couple of years ago.

Don't forget to click the photos for larger versions, and follow the links in the text if you want to learn more.