Southend Pier photos during great snow storm of 1905

They have been resurrected from our photo archives thanks to volunteers at the Rayleigh Town Museum, who are looking after our old negatives and re-printing them for us.

Arctic scene - the snow storm of 1905 was one of the worst in Southend’s history (Image: Newsquest)

Some of the photos show the pier during the great snow storm of 1905.

During that winter, the estuary froze a mile out to sea, with fishing boats unable to leave their mooring places. The scene was more like the Arctic than Essex and people were stranded in their homes as blizzards took hold.

Pier train- you can see plenty of visitors packing on to the pier train in this photo from the early 1900s. (Image: Newsquest)

That wasn’t the only time the estuary has frozen over. In 1927, there was a white Christmas and parts of the estuary started to freeze over. In some areas of the county, drifts of up to 14ft of snow heaped up.

In February 1929, the winter was also a biting one and the estuary froze over with “pancake ice”.

Frozen- the estuary froze over in January 1905. Here, you can see a youngster having fun on the ice underneath the pier (Image: Newsquest)

The slabs of frozen water with curled white edges caused a polar phenomenon in the estuary, and some 250,000 homes in Benfleet and Canvey were frozen out with burst pipes.

Other photos show the pier in its early years, when Southend was a fledgeling town – a far cry from the city it is today.

Bird’s eye view - we’re not sure of the date of this photo but it’s likely it was mid 20th century (Image: Newsquest)

Around the time these photos were taken, the pier was becoming so popular with visitors from east London that a new saying was doing the rounds: “When good West Ham councillors die, they go to Southend!”

The appeal of the pier became so great that one national newspaper printed an “interview with the Pier”. It took the form of a female visitor writing about her visit to Southend and asking the pier questions, to which it responded!

Scroll down to see more vintage images of the historic landmark

Ramshackle - we’re not sure when this photo was taken. Could it be from the old pier? It shows a ramshackle old shack on the pier, displaying the entrance tolls and also advertising the regatta.

Old view - this photo was captioned 'the old town, Southend-on-Sea'. It was most likely taken in the early 1900s.

Iced over - another shot of the frozen estuary in Southend from January 1905 (Image: Newsquest)Iced over - another shot of the frozen estuary in Southend from January 1905