Coordinates: 51°20′55″N 2°58′12″W / 51.3485°N 2.9700°W / 51.3485; -2.9700
Weston-super-Mare is a seaside resort town and civil parish in North Somerset, part of the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is located on the Bristol Channel coast, 18 miles (29 km) south west of Bristol, spanning the coast between the bounding high ground of Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. It includes the suburbs of Oldmixon , West Wick and Worle. Its population according to the 2001 census was 71,758. It is twinned with Hildesheim, Germany.
Toponymy
Weston comes from the Anglo-Saxon for the west tun or settlement. The descriptive part of its name, "super-Mare", is unusual because it is in medieval Latin and was first recorded by an unknown medieval church clerk, presumably to distinguish it from other settlements named Weston in the area. It is a popular myth that the description was a later Victorian invention. It means literally "upon sea". Often people will write the town's name as "Weston-Super-Mare"; this however is incorrect, as "super" should always be written in lower case.
History
Early history
Weston's oldest structure is Worlebury camp, on Worlebury Hill, dating from the Iron Age. The medieval church of St John has been rebuilt but its preaching cross survives. The former rectory is a 17th century structure with later additions. Though it remains adjacent to the church it has not been a parsonage house since the end of the 19th century. Today it is known as Glebe House and is divided into flats. The Old Thatched Cottage restaurant on the seafront carries the date 1774; it is the surviving portion of a summer cottage built by the Revd. William Leeves of Wrington.
19th century
Early in the 19th century, Weston was a small windswept village of about 30 houses, located behind a line of sand dunes fronting the sea, which had been created as an early sea wall after the Bristol Channel floods of 1607. The Pigott family of Brockley, who were the local Lords of the Manor, had a summer residence at Grove House. Weston owes its growth and prosperity to the Victorian era boom in seaside holidays. Construction of the first hotel in the village started in 1808; it was called "Reeves" (now the Royal Hotel). Along with nearby Burnham-on-Sea, Weston benefited from proximity to Bristol, Bath and South Wales. The first attempt at an artificial harbour was made in the late 1820s at the islet of Knightstone and a slipway built from Anchor Head towards Birnbeck Island.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his family lived in Weston, at Swiss Villa (eastern corner of Alexandra Parade and Swiss Road), whilst he was supervising the construction of the Bristol and Exeter Railway in the area. With the opening of the railway in 1841, thousands of visitors came to the town from Bristol, the Midlands and further afield, on works outings and Bank Holidays. Also, mining families came across the Bristol Channel from South Wales by paddle steamer. To cater for them, Birnbeck Pier was completed in 1867, offering in its heyday amusement arcades, tea rooms, funfair rides and a photographic studio. However, it now stands in a derelict state and has recently been added to English Heritage's list of endangered buildings, but is still possible for visitors to marvel at the structure from behind the barbed wire. It was designed by Eugenius Birch with ironwork by the Isia Foundry of Newport, Monmouthshire. It is a grade II* listed building.
Large areas of land were released for development from the 1850s onwards. Large detached villas, for the middle classes, were built on the southern slopes of Worlebury Hill. Semi-detached and terraced housing were built on the low 'moorland', behind the sea front in an area known as South Ward. Many of these houses have now been turned into bedsits by their owners. Most of the houses built in the Victorian era are built from stone and feature details made from local Bath Stone, influenced by local architect Hans Price.
In 1885, the first transatlantic telegraph cable of the Commercial Cable Company was brought ashore and the company started a long association with the town, ending in 1962.
Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of wireless telegraphy, successfully transmitted radio signals across the Bristol Channel in the spring of 1897, from Penarth (near Cardiff) to Brean Down (just south west of Weston, on the other side of the River Axe).
A second railway, the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway, opened on 1 December 1897, connecting Weston to Clevedon. The terminus station was at Ashcombe Road. The railway was extended to Portishead on 7 August 1907 but was closed on 18 May 1940.
20th century
Local traders, unhappy that visitors were not coming as far as the centre of the town, began the construction of a new pier closer to the main streets. Opened in 1904, and known as the Grand Pier, it was originally planned to be 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long. Further development occurred after World War I, with the Winter Gardens and Pavilion in 1927, the open air pool and an airfield dating from the inter-war period. Art Deco influences can be seen in much of the town's architecture from this period.
During World War II evacuees were accommodated in the town, however the area was also home to war industries, such as aircraft and pump manufacture, and an Royal Air Force station at Locking. The town was also on a return route from bombers targeting Bristol and was itself bombed by the Luftwaffe. The first bombs fell in June 1940, but the worst blitzes took place 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, 17,000 incendiary bombs fell on the town. The Ministry of Defence set up a "Q-station" decoy at Bleadon in an attempt to divert the bombers to an unpopulated area. In the later part of the war, US Army troops were billeted in the area, which quickly vanished in the run-up to D-Day.
Residential areas outside the town centre include the Oldmixon, Coronation, and Bournville housing estates, which exhibit examples of mid to late 20th century architecture. Newer housing has since been built towards the east of the town in North Worle and Locking Castle, locations nearer to the M5 motorway.
Weston-super-Mare has expanded to include the established villages of Milton, Worle, Uphill, Oldmixon, West Wick and Wick St. Lawrence, as well as new areas such as St. Georges and Locking Castle.
In 1986, Weston General Hospital was opened on the edge of Uphill village, replacing the Queen Alexandra Memorial Hospital on The Boulevard, which was opened in 1928.
21st century
A structure known as Silica was installed at Big Lamp Corner during 2006. It is a piece of public art, an advertising sign, a retail kiosk selling newspapers and hot food, as well as a bus shelter. It has been criticised by local residents who liken it to a carrot or a space ship, although it is meant to symbolise man's harmony with the sea. This was part of North Somerset Council's ongoing civic pride initiative that has sought to revitalise Weston-super-Mare's public spaces, which had suffered a period of decline. Other public space improvements have been made throughout the town such as improvements to the street scene in Grove Park Village.
On 28 July 2008, the pavilion at the end of the Grand Pier was completely destroyed by a fire. Eleven fire engines and 80 fire-fighters were unable to contain the blaze which is believed to have started in the north-east tower of the Pavilion. Work began in 2009 to rebuild and is planned for reopening prior to the summer 2010.
At the end of the 20th and start of the 21st centuries, the town saw a growth in residential rehabilitation treatment centres for people with drug and alcohol problems, with attendant crime and social problems. These problems were highlighted by Weston's MP, John Penrose during his maiden speech in the House of Commons in 2005. By 2009, it was home to around 11% of drug rehabilitation places in the UK and North Somerset council proposed an accreditation system examining the quality of counselling, staff training, transparency of referral arrangements, along with measures of the treatment's effectiveness and site inspections.
Governance
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