This months in conversation with comes from Tim Watts, Chairman of Southend’s Pier Musuem. It was done last year when the museum was undergoing a few changes to its displays.
Welcome Tim Watts. Firstly, thank you for agreeing to take the time to feature in September’s In Conversation with…’
Southend Pier Museum opened in 1989 and is entirely volunteer-based. Can you tell us a bit more about what the Pier Museum is and what it offers?
The Southend Pier Museum was formed following the successful efforts of a protest group whose aim was to save the pier from closure in the late 1970s when it had gone out of favour and British tourists were starting to flock abroad for cheap foreign holidays. After the pier had been saved, the next task was to try and reclaim some of the key artefacts from the pier’s history, predominately train carriages which had been distributed across the country or were on their way to be scrapped. That formed the core of the museum and delights transport fans to this day. We are based in the old train workshop so the building itself has character as well as the contents. As well as displaying pier transport since 1890, we have in our collection many items associated with key individuals from the pier history and its long use by passenger ships. We also try to tell the story of its music hall history and how entertainment has changed over the decades.
Recently it has undergone some changes, can you tell me a bit more about these changes?
With a new board of trustees, we have tried to modernise our offering to the public, whilst keeping the original character of the museum. We now allow and encourage photography and have reintroduced a number of interactive display items popular with both young and old. The major change last winter was to take into the collection one of the 1986 diesel train carriages that are going out of service to be replaced by new battery powered models. With an already cramped museum, this meant knocking a wall down (no mean feat in a listed building) and removing two duplicate carriages to make space for the new diesel one.
Being local to Southend myself, I love exploring the area’s vast and amazing history, including Southend Pier. Why is it important to learn and understand our local history?
It is so easy to just accept where you are and only see history as occurring in other places. However, if you take a moment to be a tourist in your own town, there is a lot to be found, whether glimpses of previous use on sides of buildings or finding earlier versions of what you see around town. When you delve even a little deeper, you find stories you never knew existed and start to understand that it took generations to create the shape of the town you now see, and perhaps better understand why it is like it is. For some, Southend will always have a “kiss me quick” tourist resort reputation and, whilst that is nothing to be hidden, there is a lot more aside, including how the town started from very small beginnings only 250 years ago to becoming a major centre of settlement.
What drew you to becoming part of the board of trustees at the Pier Museum?
I was lucky enough to be able to take early retirement and felt I still had a lot to give back. My background was IT and project management and I hoped to offer these skills to local charities at board level. I selected one role in a social care charity and another in the Southend Pier Museum Foundation Trust – to satisfy my interest in history.
Are there any lesser-known events/history relating to the pier that not many people know that you find particularly fascinating?
Lots of people know about the pier’s disasters, the fires and ship collisions and some also may be aware of the major role the pier had during WW2 when it became a major naval base, HMS Leigh. I certainly learnt a lot more of that period during the 75th anniversary commemorations of the end of the war. What we are now bringing to light are some of the individual stories relating to the pier, for example, William Bradley who was an early pier master who lived in a cottage at the end of the pier. He had a very colourful career, saved many lives as an early lifeboatman and ended up as an esteemed alderman of the town.
What are the challenges the Pier Museum faces?
Like many museums, funding is a continual challenge. We receive no central funding and operate via a small admission fee, sales from our kiosk and from our membership scheme. Our biggest cost by far is heating and in the current world situation, rising fuel costs are an impending challenge we know we must face. Our other challenge is getting enough volunteers to open the museum to the public as much as we would like and tell the fascinating history of the pier, and in reflection of Southend, to visitors.
Is there any one person, period or event in history that if you could witness who or when would it be and why?
That’s a tough one. Perhaps seeing Rome at the peak of its empire, the battle of Waterloo (for its spectacle rather than the death toll) or hearing Queen Elizabeth I’s speech to her Army at Tilbury before the Armada. However, I will go for visiting the Great Exhibition in 1851 to see its Victorian splendour.
And finally, what does the future hold for the Pier Museum?
Notwithstanding the challenges I mentioned before, we are optimistic and are looking to integrate more closely with the pier itself and become the museum of the pier rather than just the museum on the pier. At times in the past, the relationship with the council has been strained but its clear they they are fully invested in the pier’s future and it’s key role in the offer the town (now city) has for future visitors.
I want to thank Tim Watts for taking part and giving his time to be featured on the blog. If you have not been to the pier museum you can find the entrance near the trains on the Pier. Why not tie it into your next visit along the Pier, there is something to interest all ages.
For more information you can head to:
The Local History Blogger 