At one time, many pleasure and working piers could be seen and visited around the coast of Britain. Most have been consigned to history, but in this book, Martin Easdown brings them to life.

Many pier railways and tramways were built to convey holidaymakers from ships to shore, while others connected to the mainline railway network and provided a link to ferries docking at sea.

Historic photographs illustrate those that have been lost, due to fires, storms, or even coastal erosion, and those that still stand today.

The book has two self-explanatory sections: Self-contained Pier Railways and Tramways, and Pier Railways connected to the National Network.

Although not listed in the Contents list, a third section describes pier stations that were not located on piers but were on the shore beside them.

There is no index, but in most cases, the book treats each entry in alphabetical order, with rare and fascinating photographs illustrating the vehicles used on the railways and tramways, and the pier stations that were not on the piers.

Published in September 2025 by Amberley Publishing and written by Martin Easdown, this soft-cover book measures around 23.4 cm x 16.5 cm, has 96 pages and 100 illustrations.

It has a published price of £15.99, but at the time of writing, can be purchased for £14.39 from Amberley Publishing and for £15.77 from Amazon.

It seems difficult to believe that the two photos on the left both illustrate the same pier, in this case at Herne Bay in Kent.

However, during World War II, two gaps were blown in the pier as a defence measure, which were filled in by wooden bridges after the war, but were unsuitable for running the original tramway.

Instead, the miniature railway at the bottom was laid between the tracks of the original tramway. Similar miniature railways were to be seen on other piers, such as at Hunstanton on the right below.

No book describing piers and pier railways would be complete without a description of the railway on Britain’s longest pier, the 1¼ miles long pier at Southend-on-Sea.

Over the years, the pier has suffered several disastrous fires that have destroyed the rolling stock, resulting in the three generations of stock illustrated below.

The two pages below illustrate contrasting uses for piers. On the left, Walton-on-the-Naze pier was a pleasure pier, with the pier railway only running from Easter to October.

That compares with Birnbeck pier at Weston-super-Mare, which is connected to a pier on a small island in the Bristol Channel. A tramway on the pier carried passengers’ luggage to the shore from ships docking at the island.

Far from being pleasure piers, the two shown on the left below were on opposite sides of the Bristol Channel and were effectively part of the railway between Bristol and South Wales.

Trains would run from Bristol to the pier at New Passage near Pilning in South Gloucestershire, seen in the upper illustration, then transfer to a boat to cross the Bristol Channel, before rejoining a train at Portskewett at the pier shown in the lower illustration.

The right-hand page illustrates the pier at Ryde in the Isle of Wight, which is still fully operational, although the historic vehicles have since been replaced by former London Underground trains.

With its many historical photographs, this book is a fine record of both the piers and their railways or tramways that used to grace Britain’s shores.

Although most entries follow in alphabetical order, some inexplicably do not, such as the Southsea Clarence pier falling between the entries for Douglas Victoria and Felixstowe (New)¸ and Schull pier, which is between the entries for Bantry and Barry.

In other cases, such as Hampton-on-Sea and Piel, the names of the locations will be unfamiliar to most readers. The book would have benefited if unfamiliar pier names had included a more familiar location, such as Herne Bay (Hampton-on-Sea) and Barrow-in-Furness (Piel), whilst the lack of an index is a serious omission.

An oddity that should have been included is Dartmouth railway station in Devon. This was on the quayside of Dartmouth and was a booking office for train tickets.

There has never been a railway line at the site, but it was possible to book through tickets to and from Dartmouth, travelling to and from the town via a ferry from Kingswear railway station on the opposite bank of the River Dart.

Despite these adverse comments, this is an excellent account of features that were once a familiar sight around Britain’s coast. The captions give a good historical background explaining the piers’ construction, purpose, and demise. Anyone who has ever visited Britain’s seaside piers will enjoy the memories this book brings, with its nostalgic look at British seaside holidays from years gone by, and it deserves a rating of 4.5/5.

The book is available to purchase from Amazon and from Amberley Publishing.

We would like to thank Amberley Publishing for providing us with a copy of the book for review.