Another listed loss...

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Another listed loss...

Postby EAS » 10 Apr 2008, 12:19

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/7339243.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/7318801.stm


Not good news.


Bognor Birdman contest cancelled

This year would have been the 30th anniversary of the contest's move to Bognor.
Organisers have cancelled this year's Bognor Birdman contest following the demolition of a 60ft (18m) section of Bognor Pier.

The trust that organises the event made the decision because the water at the end of the pier is now too shallow.

The pier's new position also meant spectators would not have a clear enough view of competitors.

In a statement, the trust said it was exploring the idea of hosting the event in another town.

But chairman of the trust Barry Jones said this was unlikely.

"In Bognor the contest takes us six months to organise, so to organise it somewhere else in two months would be a timescale that, short of someone coming in with a lot of money, would be impossible," he said.

The pier owners said the demolition in March was carried out on safety grounds.

Mr Jones said added that the water depth at the end of the pier was now less than 12ft.

"Unless we're prepared to accept that people might hit the bottom and sustain an injury, I don't see the Birdman contest ever being on in Bognor again," said Mr Jones.

The Bognor Birdman contest started as the International Birdman Rally in Selsey, West Sussex, in 1971. It moved to Bognor Regis in 1978.

The contest involves people running off the end of the pier in winged contraptions in an attempt to stay airborne for the longest distance.

This year would have been the 30th anniversary of the contest's move to Bognor.




Building Name: Bognor Regis Pier
Parish: Bognor Regis
District: Arun
County: West Sussex
Postcode:
LBS Number: 297658
Grade: II
Date Listed: 27 April 1989
Date of Last Amendment: 27 April 1989
Date Delisted:
National Grid Reference: SZ9343898792

Listing Text:

SI 9398 BOGNOR REGIS THE ESPLANADE

7/131 Bognor Regis Pier

27.4.89 II

Pleasure pier. 1865 for the Bognor Promenade Company Ltd; shore end enlarged and large pavilion housing theatre, arcade with shops, theatre and picture-house added 1912 for Bognor Pier Compan architect G C Smith; alterations mid- and late-C20. A former small pavilion at the sea-ward end collapsed into the sea 1965; former wooden stage tower dismantled 1972; foreshortened by storm damage 1999. Pier built of iron posts with wooden decking and cast-iron railings. Roughcast pavilions at shore end with roofs of slate, roofing felt, and felt tiles. Arcade facing promenade is of 2 storeys with hipped roof. Central round-headed pediment with round-headed window flanked by ornate pilasters with swags. On either side, two further 3-light mullioned and transomed casements and central on light windows with good Art Nouveau-style stained glass. Ground floor is supported on 5 piers with triglyph frieze above and modern shop fronts and doors below. Side elevations have blank round-headed pediments, pilasters, friezes and cornices. To the rear is the former theatre. This has 2 square towers on the landward side with flagpoles; keyed round-headed arches with bracketed hood moulds and former oculi replaced by door (left tower) and window (right tower); modillioned cornices. At centre, betwel towers, former entrance is masked by flat-roofed addition, and has keyed oculus in open segmen1 pediment on brackets. Side elevations have pedimented gables with oculi in bracketed architraves above mullioned and transomed windows. Former open-fronted arcade below 1st-floor balcony now walled but with original columns. Interior: theatre: two stairs, one with original handrail, the other with wall-panelling and ceiling cornice; late-C20 suspended floor inserted in former auditorium at circle balcony height, but decorative balcony front survives, with plaster cherubs, swags and cartouches. Decorative plaster work to auditorium walls, vaulted ceiling, dome and proscenium arch. Original1st-floor pa glazed double-doors in architraves. Projection box. Former picture-house/concert hall retains vault ceiling with some star-shaped light fittings, disc decoration to supporting column, curtain pelmet, a projection box.

Source: Eds I Mackintoch & M Sell, Curtains!!! or a new life for Old Theatres, 1982, p94. P Wells & S Endacott, Glimpses of Bognor Regis Pier, 1982 (Pier Heritage). P Wells and S Endacott, Bognor Regis Pier, 1997 (Heritage Open Day). G Young, History of Bognor Regis, 1983, p187.


Listing NGR: SZ9343898792
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