Weston-super-Mare ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary district, in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. At the 2021 census, the parish had a population of 82,225 and the built-up area had a population of 84,605.
The area around the town has been occupied since the Iron Age. It was still a small village until the 19th century when it developed as a seaside resort. A railway station and two piers were built. In the second half of the 20th century it was connected to the M5 motorway but the number of people holidaying in the town declined and some local industries closed, although the number of day visitors has risen.
Attractions include the Grand Pier, Weston Museum and The Helicopter Museum. Cultural venues include The Playhouse, the Winter Gardens and the Blakehay Theatre.
The Bristol Channel has the second largest tidal range in the world; the low tide mark in Weston Bay is about from the seafront. The beach is sandy but low tide reveals areas of thick mud which are dangerous to walk on. The mouth of the River Axe is at the south end of the beach. To the north of the town is Sand Point, which marks the upper limit of the Bristol Channel and the lower limit of the Severn Estuary. In the centre of the town is Ellenborough Park, which is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) due to the range of plant species found there.
Toponymy Weston comes from the Old English word for west, and tūn, a word with several different meanings. Although it is most likely to have an original meaning of enclosure, it could also mean settlement, farmstead or estate. Super-mare is Latin for "upon the sea" and was added to distinguish it from other settlements named Weston in the Diocese of Bath and Wells.
Other 'tuns' nearby are Norton (the 'north tun'), which was in existence by the early 13th century and is probably of at least late Anglo-Saxon foundation. Milton (from Old English middel tūn) on Worlebury Hill is mentioned in Domesday Book of 1086 and is so likely to be of at least late Anglo-Saxon origin. Taking the three places together – the west, the middle, and the north tuns – their directions might relate to Worle, which was already a substantial estate by the time of the Domesday survey. Weston itself is not identified by name in Domesday, although Ashcombe is and the valued property in Weston is most likely to have been included with that for Ashcombe. Evidence of pre-Norman agriculture in Weston can be derived from modern locations such as Worthy Place and Blakehay (worth and hay being Old English words relating to farming enclosures).
The town was known as Weston-juxta-Mare ('beside the sea') prior to 1348; the name seems to have been changed to this during the time when Ralph of Shrewsbury was Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1329 to 1363. Between the 14th and 17th centuries the juxta-mare part of the name disappeared and it was known as just Weston. In 1610 it was recorded as 'Weston on the More', with 'more' in this context most likely to be in the Somerset sense of 'moor' as low lying, damp, semi-marshland.
History
Early history
Weston's oldest structure is Worlebury Camp on Worlebury Hill which dates from the Iron Age.
Outside the hillfort are many rock-cut burials and fragmentary remains which have been discovered during the course of progressive development on the southern slope of the hill. Two particular clusters of these burials have been identified: one in the Montpelier area, and the other to the north-east of Knightstone Road. Recent researchers suggest that there may have been a major Iron Age cemetery related to the hillfort, in the area near Knightstone Road, the site later chosen for the parish church, suggesting a link to the Iron Age burials. Many of these remains were chance finds during building work in the 19th and early 20th century and were poorly recorded. During archaeological evaluation work in 2005, prior to the construction of a new parish room on the north-western side of St John's church, a crouched inhumation burial, with pottery indicating a mid- to late-Iron Age date, was discovered within the churchyard, below a series of unmarked post-medieval burials.
An occupation site of Romano-British date was investigated in 2008–2009 as part of a planning application by Weston College immediately to the west of their School of Science and Art, on the south side of South Terrace. This built on investigations that had already been carried out on the site in the late 1950s which strongly suggested the presence of Romano-British occupation. It is the only site known of this date in central Weston and was probably a small farmstead or hamlet. Finds included a burial of a male individual who had clearly led a very hard life, and had suffered multiple medical conditions which were expressed on his skeletal remains. It is possible that he had been a slave.
Defences were built after the Norman Conquest near the settlements on Worlebury Hill at Worle (today's Castle Batch) and Ashcombe.{ The parish was part of the Hundred of Winterstoke. The medieval church of St John was demolished in 1824 and rebuilt on the same site. The former rectory, now known as Glebe House, is a largely 19th-century structure remodelled from a much older building. Seventeenth-century timbers survive in what was originally the entrance hall. It is Weston-super-Mare's oldest surviving building.
The Pigott family of Brockley were the lord of the manor of Weston-super-Mare and Ashcombe from 1695. They built a summer residence at Grove House near the church two years later.
The Old Thatched Cottage restaurant on the seafront is listed Grade II. Its official Historic England list entry states that it is 'late 18th century, certainly before 1804'. The building carries the date 1774 but the date of its construction is unknown. Evidence exists that it was definitely built by June 1804.
19th century
Weston was a small village of about 30 houses in the early part of the 19th century. They were some from Uphill, the moors between the two villages having some protection from the sea by a line of sand dunes which had grown after the Bristol Channel floods of 1607. Sea bathing became fashionable in England in the second half of the 18th century and people started to visit to Uphill and Weston for the sea. The town's growth during the 19th century was largely due to its development as a seaside resort. The first hotel was built in 1807–1810. At first it was just 'The Hotel' but later became 'Reeve's Hotel' and is now part of the Royal Hotel. It opened in 1810 but closed from time to time until opening permanently in 1814. A bath house using sea water was opened on Knightstone Island in 1820 which was later linked to the mainland by a causeway. A walkway was built along the dunes in 1826 from Knightstone to the hotel and in 1829 an extension carried it to the end of Regent Street.
John Pigott sold off some land for development from 1807 but retained on the hill which was planted with trees in 1823, creating a game reserve and what became Weston Woods. An estate road was opened through the woods on the north side of the hill in 1848; it was open to the public and was a private toll road for many years.
The sale of the estate's land resulted in high-density housing being built south of Watersill Road (now Regent Street) and houses for the middle classes in the Whitecross area which extended to the town boundary at Moorland Road. Large detached villas were built on the southern slopes of Worlebury Hill. Many of the houses and public buildings erected from about 1870 were built from local grey limestone with details of soft yellow Bath Stone and slate roofs. These were designed by local architect Hans Price.
The Bristol and Exeter Railway opened the first part of its line on 14 June 1841. A station at gave a connection to a station in the town centre. The railway connected with the Great Western Railway at and made it easier for visitors from Bristol, the Midlands, London and further afield to travel to Weston for a day or longer holidays.
Birnbeck Pier was opened in 1867 at the end of Worlebury Hill. Visitors, including many Welsh mining families, came across the Bristol Channel by paddle steamer to the pier. In its heyday it offered amusement arcades, tea rooms, amusement rides and a photographic studio. Although listed Grade II* it is now in a derelict state and is classed as 'highly vulnerable' on Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register. It was designed by Eugenius Birch with ironwork by the Isca Foundry of Newport, Monmouthshire.
The Seafront Improvement Scheme started in 1883. This saw the construction of the sea wall and esplanade, starting from Glentworth Bay at Knightstone. As far south as Regent Street it replaced the walkway of 1826 and reclaimed up to from the beach. By 1886 it had been completed south to the town boundary at the sanatorium. This section saw the sand dunes replaced by lawns, although the dunes beyond the sanatorium remain to this day. A further section was built to take it around the end of Worlebury Hill to Anchor Head and Birnbeck Pier.
The first transatlantic telegraph cable of the Commercial Cable Company was brought ashore at Weston in 1885. Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of wireless telegraphy, successfully transmitted radio signals across the Bristol Channel in the spring of 1897, from Penarth (near Cardiff) to Brean Down, the promontory at the south end of Weston Bay.
A second railway, the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Light Railway, opened on 1 December 1897, connecting Weston to Clevedon, the Weston terminus being at Ashcombe Road. The railway was extended to Portishead on 7 August 1907 but was closed in 1940.
20th century
A proposal for the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Light Railway to run along the streets of the town to the sea front failed to materialise, but a gauge Weston-super-Mare Tramways network opened on 12 May 1902. The main route ran from Birnbeck Pier along the sea front to the Sanatorium (now Royal Sands); a branch line ran to the railway station and on to the tram depot in Locking Road. The fleet originally consisted of 12 double-deck cars and 4 open-sided 'toast rack' cars. The system was bought out by the competing bus company and closed on 18 April 1937, by which time the fleet comprised 8 double-deck and 6 'toast racks'.
Local traders, unhappy that visitors arriving at Birnbeck Pier were not coming into the centre of the town, built a new pier closer to the main streets. Opened in 1904, and known as the Grand Pier, it was designed to be long.
Several cinemas opened after 1911, the one near the Town Hall being rebuilt as the Odeon Cinema (now the Plaza) in 1935 using a distinctive moderne style. The Winter Gardens Pavilion opened between the High Street and sea front in 1927, and in 1929 work was completed on the Marine Lake. A causeway was built across Glentworth Bay and facilities provided on the shore to create an area where sea bathing would be available at all states of the tide. The Open Air Pool (now the Tropicana), with its arched concrete diving board, opened in 1937 midway between the Grand Pier and the Sanatorium.