Clacton Pier (The history)

[Alan]

Hi CE,
Yes I did take photo's and a bit of video from my phone, but the sun was too bright so not good.

nice meeting you and hope all goes well.


Alan

[Chief Engineer]

Hi everyone,

Here are a few photographs of the scenic Peter Pan railway with a very new looking Stella in the background.

I cam across these negatives at one of our local boot markets, although there was a few addressed envelopes in a shoe box full of negatives they do not seem to belong to the original owner of the shoe box who might have been from the Southend area He or she appears to have been a keen photographer with their own developing equipment as a lot of the negatives appear to have been sent for printing and possible never returned, does any one recognise the young ladys or gent?

CE

[Chief Engineer]

Hi everyone,

Finding those family seaside snapshots enjoying some of their day out at Clacton Pier on the Peter Pan Railway had me looking through the old brochures for some more pictures and information on the miniature railway. I came across one advert featuring the railway but was also interested to see the mention of 'The Kiddies Rides' in the Crystal Casino.

Within the same film strip were three other photographs that I never recognised as being part of the Pier, however I now believe these were probably taken inside the Crystal Casino, which would make them the first time I have ever seen the inside of the building captured on film.

The ride cost 6d. and I can certainly recognise an old 'Waltonian' prize game in the background, hopefully someone might be able to confirm the location of these photographs and even who the family was?





CE

[Chief Engineer]

Hi everyone, especially Stella fans,

We finally managed to get Stella's Revenge opened today , its been a long while coming and although we are running a restrictive program the first public riders finally got to experience the ride.

We did offer the boss first go, but not sure why, but it fell to me to claim the title of first rider and the new Stella certainly packs a punch on that first drop.

CE

[Gary]

BRILLIANT!!

Congrats to you and your team.

..and thanks for your continued input with the Clacton Megathreads!

Gary

[Chief Engineer]

Thanks Gary,

Still a bit to do on Stella R, but it was certainly great to watch the faces or better still to hear the screams of the first riders who took the plunge on that first drop. For a relatively small coaster by today's park models, it still brought a lot of smiles to a lot of riders and proved to be a great success.

Now back to a time when the first Stella was also one of the Piers major attractions, even back then you still needed a ride that all the family could enjoy together and wrapped around the legs and in the shadow of Stella was of course the 'Peter Pan railway' . Here is another Ocean Theatre programme brochure (1961) photograph giving a more birds eye view of the track layout and gardens.

The Ocean Theatre in the background still has its stage which was removed later on when the curtain dropped for the last time.

CE

[porterm]

Hi all

Loved those old Peter Pan Railway photos: I'm quite sure Butlin's holiday centres also featured these, although I recall some with taller trains (maybe later models). I remember I used to love the hand rung bells, if they were working!

I may have said before, but I remember a children's TV show on ITV I'm quite sure in the early seventies called The Tomorrow People which featured an episode filmed on the pier. This was the first time I'd ever caught sight of the rather unusual (to me) Steel Stella and I seem to recall a dark walk-through type attraction that this episode also featured. I just wondered if anyone else recalled this old "jaunt belts" sci-fi style show, and particularly the aforementioned episode. The series was repeated some years ago on the Sci-Fi channel and I saw this episode once again for nostalgia.

I also remember my sister having a Clacton postcard with what I guess must have been the Steel Stella on the pier. I didn't know much about the pier then as I'd never visited it until the 80's and 90's.

Martin

[Alan]

Hi CE,
Thank you for letting me try the new ride (been busy at work before) last week, its going well ! will have to come back again nice view from the top !

Have you a up date to how the ride is going ?

Alan

[Chief Engineer]

Hi Martin,

Your memory servers you right, especially if it was the Clacton Butlins you visited. Their Peter Pan railway ran around the left of the amusement park, I am sure they had both versions of the trains, the earlier open toped ones like the Piers and the more safer and modern roofed and enclosed ones. In my teens I often popped into the camp as a paying day visitor, although a bit too old to go on the Peter Pan railway I would go on the much larger train that ran alongside the boating lake at the rear of the camp. I can’t remember if the engine was diesel or steam, but I am guessing a diesel dressed up as steam engine.

The Pier has in fact had two Peter Pan railways, the one featured above during the Kingsman era and an identical one that ran around the top of the Pier beside the Jolly Roger around the time of your visit and during my early working years at the Pier, although it was sold as scrap I do believe it managed to make its way to one of the vintage fairground parks.

I will try to find some time to post up some picture grabs from the TV show ‘The Tomorrow People‘ Dolphin Boy kindly gave me a copy as it featured quite a few shots on and around the Pier.

Best regards
CE

[Chief Engineer]

Hi Alan,

Glad you enjoyed your ride on Stella’s Revenge.

Last Saturday was the opening day for the press, Radio Essex, BBC Look East and Dream all gave some great coverage, but there is still a lot of finishing details to add to the ride, the bigger jobs are mainly art work and lighting.

Two more cars are in the process of being fully refurbished and once complete will join the others. The ride is still in the process of running and bedding in. The new paint on the tracks and new brake shoes all effect how the cars perform, but after the last two weekends use, the cars are now running nearer their full potential speed.

Regards
CE

[Chief Engineer]

Hi everyone,

The new ‘Stella’s Revenge’ received some regional radio and TV publicity over the weekend, to mark her opening date to the press, which of course not only is a great advert for the Pier, but was free as well.

But of course most of the time the Pier has to pay to advertise, be it on Radio in the press or on the TV.
In amongst the Kingsman collection of images I came across a couple of mock-up proofs which were either meant for newspaper advertising or a poster campaign. Peter Kingsman can certainly recall full page advertisements in the national newspapers and certainly the Local council heavily promoted the town and its amenities to entice the holiday makers to Sunny Clacton.



The first earlier proof making the most of the ‘Champagne’ quality of the air, where as the later proof concentrates more on the ’fun’ side of the Piers entertainment.

PS Any ideas who the chap is?

CE

[Paul281]

The chap in the second advert is Max Miller.

There's a statue of him in the grounds of the Royal Pavilion in his home town of Brighton.

[Chief Engineer]

Thanks Paul,

It is always great to put a name to these faces, I will have to try and find out if he was staring in one of the Pier theatres, I am guessing c1934.

Now I wonder if you can put a last name to Mum and Sue. It was boot market day today and I have certainly got the bug for looking through old postcards and photographs, so when I thumbed across this 1957 picture featuring some fairground rides in the background, I took a closer look, only to realise that it was Clacton Butlins amusement park in the background.

Although it is not clear and unfortunately I cant spot an engine, I am certain that the Peter Pan railway track features in the foreground up along the fence.

I hope you all don't mind this short walk down from the Pier as this is only the second photograph that I have ever seen of the first roller coaster that went into Butlins, plus what a strange set of lifting Big Jets.

I am not sure if the helter skelter together with the other joints on the left of the picture actually belonged to the Butlins site back in 1957, certainly in later years the Amusement Park along the sea wall was a separate concern owned by the Bailey family.

CE

[FATBOY]

finally got my hands on the whirlwind postcard on ebay, got another pier postcard to come which i will upload. chief engineer, if a history part of the pier does open up, i would like to donate both postcards to it.

[FATBOY]

i think the gazzette need to do more research on there stella article. it said the last coaster on the pier was the steel stella. they seem to be forgetting the whirlwind????