Sorry for the swearing but am so very very mad and saddened by the loss of the pier. Yesterday early morning at least two people decided the pier wasn’t needed anymore and they burnt it. The lovely ballroom is now a shell of twisted metal rising out of the sea. But sadly due to the controversy surrounding the pier I very much doubt that, phoenix style, any restorations will rise as well. It’s just far too much for them to do when they couldn’t even sort out the compulsory purchase order in the first place. So probably its either going to rot for many many years similar to the Brighton one along the coast or someone might actually get around to pulling it all down.
Think this poem I found on You-tube sums up the Towns feelings rather well. It’s by a lad called Christian Watson:
"They Burned it Down"
They burned it,
They burned it down.
One of the best things about this town.
They burned it with inaction and excuses,
Time, lack of money, lack of care.
Don’t it make you feel useless?
If they had given me a hammer and a couple of nails,
If they had given me some glue and a bucket of paint.
If they had given into the peoples demands,
If they had given me permission
If they had given me a hand.
They leave this town rotting,
Observer building, The Ridge;
Moving the Soul of the College into an oversized fridge.
There’s no money in restoring.
It’s all in construction.
In whoring cheap materials cheap labour,
Under the table deals sold of Council favours.
Then give it a few years its up and its “Bye see you later”.
But we have to live here,
While you burn it down.
One building at a time,
Don’t it make you feel proud?
They burned it,
They burned it down.
Two teenagers bored and un-amused
A claim to fame,
Exploding into flames.
And come the morning the gray light smoke fades,
As the soot washes down the drain.
Those boys in a cell they’re just products, two sad little names.
That we can put on the rock that sees this town wither and wane.
Well I’m fed up the uming, the ahing, the handwriting, the handwringing, the sighing.
The filling out forms creating the contracts.
Watch the rats as they feed at the supports.
I’m fed up of waiting.
And when I can see what needs doing.
So grab a hammer, grab a box of nails.
Get some wood from Stamco, get some paint.
And what else?
We just need some people, each with a pair of hands.
Because if we move as one, we can make them give into our demands.
We need to reclaim our seafront, Our beaches, Our castle, Our bricks and mortar.
The town we call home.
Because we knew what needs doing, Where to put the love and care.
It’s time to claim what we own,
Before it’s burnt up and burnt away.
Like the Pier.
That we lost today.
So what to do, for ages a lot of infighting no doubt. Indifference even maybe? I hope not. I really do. This town is slowly suffering and we need our history to move forward. I hope that it gets rebuilt or a brand new one in its place.
Grr, rant over.
Grr, rant over.
Made of dry stone walls, there are 2 types of roofs capping the walls, megalithic capstones or corbelled domes. The two types of rock used were a local dolerite and a light coloured granite, not a surprise the second as the region is covered in the beautiful rose granite (many a good sunrise & sunset spent watching the reflections on these stones). The clever mathematic boffins have worked out that the monument is made up of 12000-14000 tonnes and the number of hours it is estimated to make would have been about 600,000, approx 300 builders for 10 months! Some of the treasures and history had given up in the excavations included tools of flint, pottery, polished axes, a copper dagger and an arrowhead with fins and barbs. Carvings have also been found, symbols showing and idol with hair spreading out, horned shaped markings and depictions of bows and axes. 
