Town in Somerset, England
Weston-super-Mare
In 2015 Banksy turned Weston's derelict lido into Dismaland, a bleak 'bemusement park'. The town also has a sea that regularly retreats more than a mile.
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Key information
- County
- Somerset
- Nation
- England
- Known for
- Victorian seaside resort, the Grand Pier, huge tides and Banksy's Dismaland
- What locals are called
- Westonians
- Famous people
- John Cleese, Jill Dando
About Weston-super-Mare
The summer Banksy made Weston miserable on purpose
In August 2015, a crumbling 1930s lido called the Tropicana opened as Dismaland, a 'bemusement park' created by Banksy. It had a grim fairy-tale castle, a staff in mouse-ear hats who were deliberately unhelpful, and a pond of toy boats packed with refugees. Artists from around the world contributed. It ran for just five weeks, ending on 27 September. In that time it put a Somerset seaside town on the front pages worldwide. The site's seaside past was the point: a place built for cheerful days out made a perfect setting for a gloomy parody of one. Westonians took it in their stride, and the queues for tickets became part of local legend.
The sea that goes out for a mile
Weston sits on the Bristol Channel, which has one of the biggest tidal ranges anywhere in the world. At low tide the water can retreat far across the bay, leaving a vast expanse of glistening mud and sand. That is the origin of the town's affectionate, slightly rueful nickname, Weston-super-Mud. The brown water is silt churned up by those huge tides, not dirt. Come back a few hours later and the sea is slapping against the promenade wall. The tides also explain the town's unusual attractions. The Marine Lake, built so people could swim whatever the state of the tide, is a good example. Out in the channel you can see the islands of Steep Holm and Flat Holm, with the hills of Wales beyond.
From tiny village to the Bristol Channel's bucket-and-spade capital
The name means 'Weston above the sea', and the 'super-Mare' bit was added to tell it apart from other Westons. At the start of the nineteenth century it was a small fishing village with fewer than 200 residents. Then sea bathing became fashionable, and in 1841 a railway branch from Brunel's Bristol and Exeter line arrived. That changed everything. Trainloads of day-trippers from Bristol, the Midlands and South Wales poured in. Terraces, hotels, a promenade and bathing facilities went up along the bay, and Weston became one of the great Victorian resorts. Some of the earliest settlers have left their mark too. Worlebury Camp, an Iron Age hillfort on the hill above the town, has dozens of storage pits cut into the rock and views across the whole bay.
A tale of two piers
The Grand Pier opened in 1904 and has a habit of rising from the ashes. Fire destroyed it in 1930, and it was rebuilt and reopened in 1933. Another blaze in July 2008 wrecked it again, and it reopened in 2010 as a seafront amusement landmark once more. A little further north, Birnbeck Pier is the older and stranger sibling. It opened in 1867 and was designed by Eugenius Birch. It is the only pier in Britain that links the shore to an island, Birnbeck Island. It is Grade II* listed and has been closed to the public since 1994, but the lifeboat station on the island carried on for decades. Its long fight for restoration is a local cause. In between are the donkeys on the sands, a tradition that goes back to Victorian days and still gives children a bumpy ride along the beach.
Helicopters, Seagulls and famous Westonians
The Helicopter Museum, on the edge of town, holds one of the world's biggest collections of rotorcraft, with dozens of helicopters and autogyros, many of them rare. On the football pitch, Weston-super-Mare AFC are known as the Seagulls. They were founded in 1887 and play on the town's outskirts. The town is also the birthplace of John Cleese, co-founder of Monty Python and creator of Basil Fawlty, who was born here in 1939. Broadcaster Jill Dando, the BBC presenter of Crimewatch and the face of the nation's news for years, was born here in 1961. Locals are called Westonians.
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