Page 26 • The HERALD • 6th August 2026 v SAY YOU SAW IT IN THE HERALD v WILLIS DECORATING & JOINERY SERVICES Est Since 1986 Interior & Exterior Painting & Decorating Wallpaper Hanging Hand-painted Kitchens & Spray Finishes Wardrobes, Bookcases, Radiator Covers Call David on 023 8084 9800 or 07946 048261 E: david.willis24@btinternet.com Andy Morrison Builders FOR ALL YOUR BUILDING NEEDS • Renovations • Alterations • Cedral cladding • Fascias & Guttering • EPDM Rubber Roofs • Drives & Patios 07768 599704 adlmorrison@sky.com Free Estimates • Fully Insured • Based in Dibden Purlieu All joinery and carpentry requirements undertaken • Bespoke wooden windows, doors and staircases • PVCu windows and doors fitted • Decking, pergolas and out buildings • Custom made wardrobes and cupboards • Fencing and gates Contact us for advice and quotes Tel 023 8066 8021• Mobile 07467 594993 fillisjoinery@outlook.com Professional quality joinery for over 25 years THE DAY HYTHE PIER OPENED IN 1881 by Marc Heighway For most of the 1800s, arriving at Hythe by water was a decidedly damp a air. Ferry passengers were landed on a gravel hard that stretched out from in front of the Drummond Arms, and at low tide the walk ashore could leave travellers wet, muddy and thoroughly out of sorts. Small wonder that when a proper pier was nally opened on Saturday 1st January 1881, the village made a huge day of it. Getting there had taken considerable time. A pier company oated ten years earlier with a grand capital of £60,000 had, as one newspaper acidly observed, “never got further than a prospectus”. And of the £60,000, “scarcely so much was subscribed as paid for putting the corporate name in brazen letters on the door lintel of what was called the offices.” It fell to a solicitor, Mr W. Perkins, then living in Hythe to revive the scheme on more modest lines, and to the years vindicating – although they weren’t to know about the 700-tonne dredger that would smash into the side of Hythe Pier 122 years later in 2003, cutting a large section out. at’s a story for another time though. e opening itself was carried o with proper ceremony and a good deal of humour. At two o’clock the Mayor of Southampton, Mr J. H. Cooksey, le the Royal Pier in Southampton in one of the Union Company’s steam launches with the Admiralty ag hoisted, accompanied by the Sheri , the Town Clerk, and the town sergeants bearing the mace and silver oar. At the pier head he was received by Mr Drummond, Lord Henry Scott and other worthies of the district. e Mayor knew perfectly well what people were thinking about his appearance at the opening. He commented to the gathered crowd that some would ask, “What has the Mayor of Southampton to do with Hythe Pier?”, and the answer might fairly be “About as much to do with it as Tenterden Steeple has with the Goodwin Sands”. (A Victorian in-joke meaning “nothing whatsoever” - it would have generated some laughs.) But as Mayor he was Admiral of the Port, with jurisdiction stretching well beyond Calshot, and it was in that salty capacity that he attended. He predicted the pier would bring the two shores closer together, noted that many hundreds in Southampton would love “A ramble in the country” on our side of the water but had been put o by the di culty of landing, and ever the realist (perhaps part fortune teller), admitted the pier might not pay a dividend in its rst year or so. He then wished all present “A Happy New Year” and declared Hythe Pier open to rapturous applause. Mr Drummond, replying for the company, hoped the pier “Would prove to be a bond of closer union between London engineer James Wright to prove it could pay. Wright’s survey found that over one hundred thousand people were already passing annually between Hythe and Southampton. A new company was formed with capital of £11,000, with Mr E. A. Drummond of Cadland and Lord Henry Scott, MP, as directors, and the contract went to Messrs Bergheim and Company of London - the same firm that had built Bournemouth Pier - on a tender of £7,700. e result was a structure of wrought iron girders on cast-iron screw piles, 2,100 feet long and 16 feet wide, with seven landing stages along its length “So that everywhere passengers can land at all times of the tide.” e press judged it “Singularly light, but possessing strength and rigidity far beyond any strains ever likely to be applied to it” - a verdict the pier has spent 145 Marc is available as a guest speaker to deliver local history talks. Find out more at: marcheighway.co.uk Hythe Pier Continued on page 27
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTIyNzI=