Clacton Pier During the 70s and 80s

The Great British Seaside Resort: sun, sand, piers, funfairs and donkey rides. But that is only part of the attraction. If you love being beside the seaside, talk about it here!

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Skyliner

Postby Chief Engineer » 21 Nov 2009, 00:09

Hi Guys,

Sorry that it has been a while since I last posted. Most people think that the summer time is the busiest for work on the Pier, but the Winter is far more demanding . The amount of maintenance and testing means far less time to sit in front of the PC.

Of course with new owners in the driving seat for the first time this winter there is a big push to make sure the Xmas wonderland on the Pier is the best, which of course adds to the workload.

Thanks for the praise on the past postings, having worked on the Pier for four owners, it always seemed a shame that so many smaller moments of its history will be lost if not shared on the net for others to enjoy. The Pier itself has very little in the way of any past records or documents, but snippets of information do pop up and when chased usually there is something to be found and shared.

Hi Troy, loved your comments on the ‘Skyliner’ and the picture sure clocks up an horrendous amount of negative health and safety points , It is strange how time has changed our views on H&S, or perhaps it was the start of the blame and sue culture that has made every one more aware of the risks and quite rightly so made the world a safer place, trouble is it is now going past the balance of sensibility and if we are not careful a lot more attractions will be forced to close because there is a chance someone might break a fingernail. Please lets not lose everything , there is no fun in being wrapped up in cotton wool.

Some parts of the skyline escaped the scrap heap and live on under the Pier. On extreme low tides a few tower sections and coil of wire rope are uncovered, I am guessing these were lost over the side during the big storms that hit the coast in 1979 and never recovered.


Hi Fatboy, yes the flag poles are back again, these are the third set to crown the Pier on the turrets and they went up towards the end of the summer. The previous set that the Harrison’s had made and installed, were cut down after a few years as a result of Diana’s death. When Diana tragically died in the car crash, the coast suffered a week of very poor and windy weather. Health and Safety struck again and made it impossible to climb up to lower the flags to half mast as a sign of respect. The amount of abusive telephone calls and messages the Pier received caused the decision to be made for the removal of the poles.

More to follow soon
CE
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Postby FATBOY » 23 Nov 2009, 18:26

how did ya get that picture??? and how far out is that? must be lethal under and around the pier beneath the waves! also it must be a rumour but one of my friends told me years ago that there was some old dodgem cars under the pier where the jolly roger is. he reckons he saw one there years ago when we get them very low tides when you can virtually walk to the end of the pier,and the water is only about knee high.
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New Photos

Postby DolphinBoy » 29 Nov 2009, 09:53

Hi
I have just updated my site with 30+ new photos, no new ride photos but some good shots of the whales and dolphins with good views of the dolphinarium that was on Clacton Pier.
My first proper photos of Nemo.......at last!
http://www.clactondolphins.co.uk/index.html
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Postby Chief Engineer » 09 Dec 2009, 19:04

Hi everyone,

Its been a very busy few weeks, not only setting up the Christmas Wonderland with Santa’s Grotto but also it has been the first round of NDT inspections on some of the dismantled rides , so not had much of a chance to get in front of the PC.

In answer to Fatboy’s last post, yes it is very lethal not only under but all around the Pier, I wish I kept a pocket full of pictures to show the kids who think it is funny to storm the Pier and jump off side in the hot summer months.

The picture above was taken just passed the end of the swimming pool down the neck of the Pier, the furthest I have managed to walk on sand was almost to the end of the Jolly Roger theatre on the western side, the sand on the eastern side (lifeboat) was a little lower so partially covered by water. Unfortunately no vintage dodgem cars that I saw, just the remains of what looked like a heavily built vending machine slowly disintegrating.

Todays picture was lucky snap of the last remaining spaceman from possibly the Starfighters ride before he joined the rest of some remaining painted flats that had already gone up in smoke.

Regards CE
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Postby Chief Engineer » 03 Jan 2010, 19:46

Happy New Year to Everyone,

A bit of Pier nostalgia 1985, shot as the introduction to a video of a Clacton’s showman’s guild golf dinner hosted at the Royal Hotel, this snippet of tape gives a good view of the Piers rides including of course the ’Whirlwind’ in action. For the eagle eyed spotters, amongst all the familiar rides such as the Paratrooper, Big Wheel there is also the towers to the ’Sky Liner’ the ‘Caterpillar’ the ‘Astro Glide’ that disappeared in the gales, also a sign on the Jolly Roger that reads ‘Jungle Safari’ which was an old track ride, the Roger roof still coloured red and white from when the building was transformed into a big top for the Circus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvZVrKQ-9-s

CE
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Postby dirkthedaring71 » 17 Jan 2010, 19:51

Some great posts on here since may last visit :) There is a ' did you grow up in clacton in the 70's and 80's' group on facebook which has some fantastic stuff that you will all be interested in.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2 ... 341&ref=mf

Here is a link to an episode of the tomorrow people filmed in 1973 on clacton pier: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8yv78 ... shortfilms
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Postby FATBOY » 29 Jan 2010, 21:28

found this picture of the water slide that was on the pier during the early 90's i believe??? what ever happened to it mr engineer?

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Postby Chief Engineer » 29 Jan 2010, 23:34

Hi Fatboy,

Nice find, I will have to do some searching to see if I can pinpoint the exact date of the picture to the nearest year. Like the Whirlwind ride the water chutes did not last long before going out of use, they were never a great success from the beginning. If I remember correctly they only ran for a few seasons before closing, a lot of the steel supports were reused in other projects, if you look at the steel uprights in the Seaquarium building you will find some of the medium sized circular vertical chute supports, even some of the fibreglass chutes survive as salt water reservoir tanks for the aquarium upon the roof.

I can see in the Pier entrance that anyone who regularly used the London underground would feel at home paying their entrance Toll. During London undergrounds upgrade on their ticket machines and barriers the Pier purchased some of the redundant ticket machinery and for a few years these are where you would pay your 50p entrance fee then feed your ticket into the automatic barrier. I do recall that the ticket equipment was brought after the tragic 1987 King’s Cross under ground fire and that the barrier equipment was removed by the Harrison’s in 1994, the year they took over the Pier.

The Harrison’s although they took over ownership of the Pier in 1994, the small arcade to the left of the entrance ‘Slots of Fun’ was already being leased by the Harrison family.

CE
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Postby FATBOY » 30 Jan 2010, 23:29

cheers for the info mate!!! always a pleasure to hear your stories! another thing i remembered the other day, was the bungee jump that was situated from a crane down the side by the cockney. it was deffo in the 90's. i remember being ill one summer and having the day of school and going to the big cafe that overlooked west beach and watching all these different people do the jump. anyone have any pictures of the crane or anyone in mid flight? it didnt last long did it?not sure if ive covered this before but does anyone remember the helicopter rides from the end of the pier? my sisters best mate used to collect the money from the fare paying customers....
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Postby dirkthedaring71 » 31 Jan 2010, 13:12

I remember the Bungee jump. I think it was only there for one season. As for the helicopters, do you mean the ones where you pulled the metal bar towards you to make them rise and away to go back to earth? If you do, then they also had aeroplanes that were virtually the same. Can't remember them ever being on the end of the pier though.
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Postby FATBOY » 31 Jan 2010, 14:33

no mate. there was a proper helicopter that would take you out to sea for a trip and then come back and land on the pier. all i can remember was that you had to put a life jacket on when boarding. i also remember them speedboat rides they used to do of the jaywick side of the pier from them steps(which on my last look had rotted and corroded away entirely..
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Postby Chief Engineer » 31 Jan 2010, 22:38

Hi Guys,

I certainly remember the Bungee Jump and I think it only came for two visits in the one season . The cranes were just rented by the firm who supplied the cage and of course the bungee rope and ran the actual jumps, it was sign away your life on the bottom of a page of legal disclaimers, get manacled by your ankles, lifted up then jump out of a perfectly good cage and nope it was not my idea of entertainment to have a go, so just enjoyed the shrieks as more courageous people had a go.

Fatboy wins the helicopter memory. Another concession that ran for a couple of seasons from the end of the Pier were helicopter sightseeing flights, they did prove very popular till the CAA introduced more tighter safety rules, these were not aimed purely at the Pier but at all sea type structures that had helicopter landing or taking off. If I recall correctly only helicopters with twin engines could be used at sea, this would have made the flights too expensive.


CE
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Postby Chief Engineer » 31 Jan 2010, 22:46

Another picture featuring the entrance to the Pier, I am guessing c1992 but it might even be a few years earlier. The Skating Rink is part of the attractions advertised over the ‘Slot of Fun’ entrance along with ‘The Living Ocean’ on the main L/H bill board.

The water chutes have gone, but some of the steel work was used in the construction of the Living Ocean building, now know as the Seaquarium.

CE
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Postby Chief Engineer » 01 Feb 2010, 21:52

Posting up that last picture of the Pier entrance reminded me of all the fantastic art work that was created by the very talented artist David Leeming for the Cockney Pride Pub, here is a photograph of the main outside sign nearing completion. There were also some wonderful murals painted on the inside walls, but progress and time have seen them all gone.

Here is David’s web page if you fancy seeing some more of his art:-

http://davidleeming-fineartist.com/index.htm

CE
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Postby FATBOY » 03 Feb 2010, 20:42

what happened to the cockney sign???? and i remember the flicks roller rink! the tubular light up flicks sign still hangs above the entrance on the far left hand side of the front of the pier (last time i looked) does any of the cafe area still exist behind there? obviously the roller rink area was given up and went back to the funfair.
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