Piers of Sussex

Remembering the glory days of Sussex piers including Hastings and Brighton.

Sussex has a good claim to be the birthplace of the seaside pleasure pier, for although Ryde Pier on the Isle of Wight has the earliest origins as a pier, the famous Chain Pier at Brighton was the first to be used as a fashionable promenade. There followed a rich succession of piers, as from the 1860s until around 1910 as they were constructed in Brighton West, Worthing, Bognor, Hastings and Eastbourne. In their heyday they were the place to be seen. Brighton even boasted a ''moving pier'', the extraordinary Electric Railway, affectionately known as the ''Daddy-long-legs''. One of the country''s finest piers, Brighton Pier suffered a decline in popularity in the 1950s and ''60s, enduring a high-profile demise after dereliction from fire and storm damage. Nonetheless there is hope for it yet and the county of Sussex should be proud to have retained six of its piers including three of Britain''s finest.