People had been visiting Weston-Super-Mare since the eighteenth century when sea bathing first became fashionabale, thanks to the King’s love of it. He went to brighon, the gentry and upper classes of the west country came to Weston. It was famed for its sands, its air and its pretty location… It was just a small village then, barely more than a collection of fishermen’s cottages, and a few other buildings including the parish church, the rectory, and the summer house of the Piggott family. The first hotel which still stands today, teh Royal, was built in 1812.
The advent of travel by rail was the start of Weston as a popular holiday destination for ordinary folk when the railway arrived in 1841. It was Ismabard Kingdom Brunel’s company, the Bristol & Exeter Railway rwhich brought the first trains here. The first station was at the end of a single branch line, and the trains were tehn drawn by horses as the residents were didn’t like the noisy and smelly steam engines !
Weston is still a pretty station and when we were there the other day we were most impressed by how clean it was, and by all the lovely tubs of flowers!
Lois Elsden 