Hornsea is a small and genteel seaside town in East Yorkshire.
In the mid 1800's it had a resident population of just 1685 but a few of its wealthy occupants had great ambitions for the place in terms of promoting growth and prosperity.
An important starting point was a railway link to the City of Hull and this opened in 1864. Hornsea became the favourite watering hole for the urban masses who came to the coast for leisure and recreation.
Those holding tracts of land in and around Hornsea saw an opportunity to develop for housing and the amenities that an emerging resort would require to compete with towns further north such as Bridlington, Filey and Scarborough.
Often referred to as The King of Hornsea, Joseph Armytage Wade was a prominent advocate for change.
He had been the instigator of the rail link as well as bringing gas and civilised facilities to what was still little more than a small crab fishing town at that time.
In 1865 Wade had the idea of building a Pier or Pleasure Palace of 1200 feet length into the North Sea and at a provisional budgeted cost of £10000 which is in excess of £800000 in todays money. His vision did not however secure the imagination of the townspeople and it was not until eleven years later that a Pier was again on the horizon. This was through the Hornsea Pier Bill of 1876.
Unfortunately the hype and speculation was not that of Wade but a consortium of out of town developers and speculators headed by the rather grandly titled Pierre Henri Martin du Gillon. His background seems to have been in West Country Ship Building and Repairing but he apparently had a connection with Leeds. He had bought land at South Cliff in Hornsea and had plans drawn up for a large housing estate . Du Gillon and his fellow Promoters of the Hornsea Pier Bill proposed a mixed development including, as well as a pier, a new road and tramway from the railway station to an area of reclaimed land behind an embankment and sea wall. They claimed that the civil engineering works would solve the regular tidal surge flooding of the area and also give an opportunity for fishing boats to land their catches and then utilise the rail link to Hull. This would save sailing time from the fishing grounds to Hull as well as generate jobs and money for Hornsea. Local support came from the Coastguard Chief and fishing boat owners.
The scheme would be costly, the wall alone was estimated at £10000 to establish but the Promoters would cover the cost in return for the Compulsory Purchase of the land it required.
That is where Du Gillon became unstuck. The land was in the ownership of Joseph Wade and a Mr Botts who were naturally opposed to the plans and indeed Wade himself founded and fronted The Hornsea Pier Company in 1877.
This prompted Du Gillon to propose another scheme, the South Pier, and the small, sleepy town was faced with the prospect of having not just one, but two of these iconic structures on the seafront.
Wade's was the first of the projects to commence but only to the extent of sinking ten piles which the locals referred to as The Ten Virgins.
As for Du Gillon and his grand vision the burden of financing and legalities soon brought about bankruptcy and they were quickly out of the running.
Wade and The Hornsea Pier Company recommenced work in 1878 on a 2 year build on the 327 metre (1072 feet) structure but from the start they became bogged down in costly disputes. Actions were brought against Wade's Company by Engineers, Contractors and there is also reference to the Paris Skating Rink Company on the grounds of non-payment and with counter-suing for poor workmanship and performance of contracts.
These legal setbacks were settled or resolved but in the Great Storm in October 1880 a distressed sailing brig, Earl Derby, was thrown onto the Pier destroying some 91 metres (300 feet) of the newly built structure.
The Pier did open for the Hornsea Regatta in 1881 with pricing for public use at One Penny or for a Day Ticket at Tuppence. However, costs continued to rise and in 1882 strengthening and repairing works whittled away at any prospective income stream. The day trippers and holiday makers were not evidently prepared to fork out for what was a disappointing attempt at a Pier and debt began to mount up.
Advertisements and promotions tried to drum up business.
In 1892 Tenders were invited for renting and use of the pier. Concerts and Performances were held but again not to the level of public participation expected by the Pier Company. A report of 1896 described a scene of semi dereliction and abandonment with dangling gas lamps resembling the hat of a drunken man.
There was no option available to the Directors than to place the company into voluntary liquidation in 1897.
Although the failure had been anticipated after the long years of struggle it must have caused considerable stress and anxiety to Joseph Wade. It is not too much to speculate that the chain of events may have contributed to his death in 1896 albeit at the good age of 79 years old.
The appointed Official Receiver did offer to sell the pier to Hornsea Town Council for £300 but the holders of the public purse did not feel it appropriate to purchase.
The inevitable point was reached and the pier was broken up for scrap in the same year after only 16 fitful seasons. A building associated with the pier did survive in use as a cake shop until 1912 but otherwise only memories remained.
The idea of a pier seems to have been merely slumbering in Hornsea and in 2018 there was talk of a project featuring a wind turbine as the virtual "end of the pier" feature for the 21st Century.
