Storm Destroys Skegness Pier
Storm fury
SKEGNESS Pier Theatre was marooned when two huge sections of the walkway leading to it were swept away by the high tide and gales on a Wednesday night in January 1978.
And on Thursday morning the remaining sections faced similar weather conditions and another exceptionally high tide.
Wind peeled off sheets of glass from the pier arcade and the path underneath by the waterway was flooded.
The police said the most serious incident of damage was to the pier. The new sea defences north of the pier had been damaged but before the high tide on Thursday morning had not been breached. Two sections of the pier decking each about 50 yard long had been torn away by the sea leaving the shelters on the middle section which is still standing.
Waves soared to the top of the sea wall by the Sea View Road car park with spray being caught in the wind and blowing over the wall.
Sightseers in their hundreds turned out on foot, and in carloads all along the sea front and the police received about 50 calls from the public following the siren at 7 pm.
And there were many people on the beach early on Thursday morning looking at the damage and waiting for the high tide.
Grotesquely twisted try the savage fury of the gale-driven seas, the girders in the foreground are all that remains of the landward link with the central section of Skegness’ once-proud plot —and beyond that — nothing.
There should be several hundred yards more plot leading out to the massive 1,000-seat theatre, now marooned like a washed-up gas rig platform, but the sea took it all. The storm’s toll on the east coast included four major piers, and with many others already fallen into disuse, It could mean the sea Is achieving the and of an era for these massive monuments to Victorians. For Skegness it is a shattering blow to their entertainment facilities and some very costly decisions will have to be made very quickly If the town is to remain in the forefront of the holiday resorts.
Following the flood warning on the Wednesday night, kiosk owners on Tower Esplanade tried desperately to remove stored goods.
Some sea water reached almost as far as the Clock Tower although the adjoining putting green and gardens were unaffected.
When the tide ebbed the road was covered in sand, seaweed, mud and wooden posts.
The whole of the car park at the end of Princess, Parade was covered by the tide and the chalets were flooded but left standing. Chief Supt Edward Beverley said there had been no danger to people’s lives in Skegness.
Skegness lifeboat had to wait five hours until the tide had gone down before it could come ashore after being called out earlier in the evening.
It had answered a distress call from a 750 ton Greek cargo vessel which was drifting out of control six or seven miles from Skegness.
RECALLED
A pilot boat from King’s Lynn escorted the vessel into its harbour and the lifeboat was recalled halfway on its journey beaching at 11 am.
Sea defences at Chapel St Leonards near the boating lake were damaged but there were no. reports of them being breached. The wind smashed and overturned. a number of caravans along the coast.
The summer shows at the Pier Theatre will have to be cancelled. Mr R. G. Mitchell, managing director of the Pier Company Ltd, said on Thursday: “About half the decking has gone. There is no way it can be repaired in time for the summer.
“The whole thing has got to be looked into very carefully. We had no fears about its safety. It’s not covered by insurance for this kind of damage. The premium would be unreasonably high.
“No one was on the pier at the time. I was probably one of the first to see the damage.”
Asked if the Pier Theatre might have to be abandoned altogether, he said it was very difficult to make any statement at this time.
The first part of the decking to go was the same part which was broken in two by the Europa in 1919. It was 20 years before that was completely repaired.
Alan Gartshore said:
I was a traffic cop in skeg the night the pier went, and what Andy Martin says is correct about the seaweed being swept up to the clock tower,part of skeg traffic division duties was to ‘warn’ the villages up the coast of the risk of flooding,as we knew that the high tide due around 6pm that night was likely to breach the sea defences,the tide never really went out during the afternoon, and as i had been on dayshift, i finished about 5pm, and went home to Albany close, just had my tea, and told the wife i was having ‘forty winks’ and to wake me if the sirens went…. less than 5 mins later i was back at the nick, and dispatched in a Land rover equipped with a Siren to ingoldmells, Trunch Lane, Chapel st leonards, Anderby, Sutton on Sea and Mablethorpe, reporting back to skeggy nick after observing the sea state at each place, Ingoldmells was already being battered, at the point the sea was breaking high above Greens amusements, the family were advise of the need to move but decided to stay put,by the time we got to Sutton on Sea, it was already too late the sea wall had been breached, and the wooden chalets had been washed away, i remember a certain Inspector tasked to check on the damage, nearly became a casualty as he got a bit too close to the breach!
we were called back to skeg as the lifeboat had been launched to a yacht in distress, and had returned to skeg, but had to be ‘beached’ as conditions were far too bad for it to be safely put back on its launching trolleys to get it off the beach, the pier had gone then, and all the debris was scattered on the central beach and down to lagoon walk, we had to stay in the area until relieved early the next morning, when the true extent of the damage was seen,
i believe that the resident coastguard guy (i can’t remember his name) was actually on the pier end(at the coastguard station) when he decided he wasn’t going to be a hero any more, and legged it just shortly before the centre section went, and carried on his duties from the reasonable security of his astra van !
the old system of sounding the siren, and at times broadcasting by the Patrol car Tannoy system probably wasn’t the best way of getting over to the residents of the imminent danger…. it was far too slow, and it was soon changed.
i have photos somewhere of some of the damage, and the beached lifeboat the ‘Charles Fred Grantham,’ and i think at the time the Cox’n was the Late great Ken Holland but i’m not sure there.
My father, Robert Hardy, and, I think, two other men, were on the pier the day of the storm. They were at the end of the pier doing some renovation, when my father noticed it was starting to sway and knew something was very wrong, so he and the other men ran for their lives and just managed to get to safety in time. It was a sad day for Skegness, and the end of an era. Many people loved fishing off the end of the pier and when I was a child I remember going to shows too! My friends and I often walked right to the end. I loved the wind blowing through my hair, it made me feel alive, and when the tide was in, it always seemed more exciting to look down and see the waves rippling beneath us, it made you feel as though you were walking on water! At that time, Sunday was the day when you dressed up and went for a walk – often along the pier. I think it was on the pier one day when I saw an old man with his very, old dog slowly walking along. I think the dog collapsed with a heart attack and I remember being amazed to see a local doctor (can’t remember who) rush up and give the dog ‘mouth to mouth resuscitation’. The old man looked as though he was about to have a heart attack too, but luckily, the doctor revived the dog and all was well. I heard later that the doctor knew how precious the dog was to the old man and knew he had to try and save it!