Stephen Butt Weston-Super-Mare Through Time

Annotation

Until the railways arrived, Westonsuper- Mare was a town without a history. From a little fishing village with just a handful of houses, Weston grew into a major seaside resort, and this happened rapidly in just under one hundred years. After a period of decline, it has recreated itself, successfully, as a holiday destination for the twenty-first century and as one of Somerset's major towns. Romans and seventeenth-century smugglers, television comedians and top-selling writers, and even the wireless pioneer Gugliemo Marconi play a part in the story of Weston's past, as does the amazing diversity of architecture. A walk along the town's seafront encompasses Victorian enterprise, Edwardian splendour, the commercial enterprise of the new-Elizabethans - and the remarkable flood defences of the twenty-first century.