A History of Knightstone Island, Weston-super-Mare

Knightstone Island in 1806

Plan of Weston-super-Mare showing Knightstone Island in 1806 from The First Guide to Weston-super-Mare 1822, edited by Ernest Baker and reprinted in 1901.

Knightstone Island was acquired by the Pigott family in 1696 (they later became the Smyth-Pigotts) and they owned it until the early 19th century. It was purchased in 1820 by Mr John Howe from Bristol. He constructed the first medicinal baths there, which were rented in 1822 by Benjamin Atwell. There were hot and cold saltwater baths, a lodging house, public refreshment rooms and a reading room. At that time the island was connected to the mainland by a natural pebble ridge, which was covered at high tide.

Reverend Thomas Pruen bought Knightstone in 1824. He commissioned the construction of a causeway to the island, which was built above the high tide level, and a low pier, which was used by pleasure boats. He also built an open-air tidal swimming pool on the shore, which was replenished by seawater at every high tide. This was extended into the current Marine Lake in 1929.

Dr Edward Long Fox, a physician from Brislington, bought Knightstone Island in 1828. He and his son Dr F.K. Fox carried out further developments on the island, including raising the level of the causeway using Cornish granite, building a lodging house for patients and a new bathhouse. Joseph James went to Weston-super-Mare, in the employ of his father Thomas James and his older brothers who were all from Brislington, to work on the development of Knightstone for Dr Fox. Later, Dr Edward Long Fox died and he mentioned Joseph James in his will saying that he’d been his Superintendent of the Baths there.

The name most, usually associated with the island is that of Dr Edward Long Fox (1760-1835), the eminent spa doctor and physician of Brislington, near Bristol. ln fact, the first development in 1820 was the work of two Bristol speculators, Howe and Taylor, who rented the Baths to a Mr Atwell. The island cost them t200; in the mid-twenties, they sold it to the Rev. T. Pruen who spent £82,500 on the first causeway.

Dr Fox and his son spent £25,000 on improvements at Knightstone and established Weston’s claims as a health resort beyond all doubt. The spiralling expenditure reflects the rapidity of the town’s growth. ‘The bathing establishment consists- of a spacious open swimming bath,’ said a guidebook of 1840,

‘plunging and warm baths, hot and cold shower baths, dry hot and vapour baths, either medicated with sulphur, iodine, chlorine, or otherwise. The necessary apparatus is also provided for the administration of the douche, and the superintendent has been instructed in the process of shampooing.’

A warm bath cost 3/- (15p.). Various courses of treatment were prescribed by physicians for their patients or were followed by visitors. Apart from exercise and health-giving sea-breezes, these included the various medicinal baths, bathing in the sea, ‘taking the waters’ from medicinal mineral springs, and drinking sea-water. Weston boasted several chalybeate mineral springs, rich in iron salts, like those at the older spas. The lodging houses of Knightstone were designed for chronic invalids, and it was claimed that few diseases could withstand this battery of treatments.

The island changed hands several more times after 1850 and the buildings on it were rebuilt or re-modelled several times. The island was eventually acquired by a consortium that was led by Joseph James and later was owned by the local council.

Grand Opening of Knightstone Baths,
Weston-super-Mare, May 1902

The council enlarged the island by building a new retaining wall on the north-eastern side. They built a new swimming pool and a Pavilion, which both opened in May 1902. The Pavilion was designed by the architect J.S. Stewart and included refreshment rooms, a reading room, a billiard room and a theatre. It had electric lighting and a hot water heating system. Seawater was used in the swimming pool and a huge settling tank was constructed underneath the pool and Pavilion.

In September 1903 hundreds of people were temporarily marooned on the island and Eddie Bryant, the Pavilion’s electrical engineer, was drowned when the causeway was swept away in a storm during a performance at the theatre.

Damage to Knightstone Causeway
during the great storm of 1903.

Bad concerts, plays, operas and other shows were performed at the Knightstone Pavilion and films were shown but the stage was too small for large productions.

By the 1970s Knightstone Pavilion was struggling financially and it finally closed in 1991. There were plans to convert the site into a leisure complex but these never came to anything and the buildings on Knightstone Island gradually deteriorated.

In 2006-7 the whole island was redeveloped. The Bath House and front section of the ground floor of the Pavilion were converted into commercial premises. The rest of the Pavilion and the swimming pool were converted into homes and two new apartment blocks were built on the island.

The Queen visited to re-open the island’s perimeter walkway on 20th July 2007. The Coronation Promenade was first opened in 1953 to celebrate her coronation.

Knightstone was the focal point of the seafront in the 19th Century. Refreshment rooms were opened, and together with the causeway, the island provided the town with a natural pier. This was the favourite spot for leisurely promenading, and also for painting and sketching, as countless paintings, prints and photographs testify. A walk on Knightstone sums up the spirit of the Victorian resort. From the north side look back at the buildings around Glentworth Bay. On the left the seaward side of Claremont Crescent can now be seen. Higher up the hill, and flanked by Atlantic Terrace, is Holy Trinity Church, its spire piercing the wooded skyline. This area, developed in the 1860s, was known as Cliftonville.

The success of Weston’s 19th Century buildings came from their being in keeping with the scenic attractions, notably the hill and the bay. Good design and sensitive use of building materials meant that an effect of harmony was produced, the town taking its cue from the spirit of the locality. The styles were mostly revivals of one kind or another. Some of the smaller and earlier terraces on the seafront still clung to the ‘Georgian’ ideals of architecture: Very plain, relying for effect on good proportions and one or two constantly repeated motifs such as a round-headed doorway or a keystone over a window. They were built in brick, either with frontages faced with dressed limestone blocks or with sides and front covered with plaster scored to resemble blocks. Examples are Prince’s and Albert Buildings, already seen. Some of these have been painted so that the effect of natural material is lost. In the second

half of the century, in the inland developments, grey limestone came to predominate following the working of quarries on Worlebury Hill. These produced a rough, hard, grey carboniferous limestone, with overtones of pink and red. In addition, a softer honey-coloured oolitic limestone was used, either Bathstone or Dundry stone and sometimes a similar sandstone.

Return to Knightstone Road and turn right then left into Greenfield Place. Here is one of the earliest large scale prestige developments at Weston: a seafront pleasure garden, framed by terraces, the town’s finest crescent, and a row of villas. ‘Their situation is delightful and cheerfully picturesque; with a south aspect,’ a guidebook of 1847 commented on the villas. ‘A tastefully arranged pleasure ground is laid out in front, diversified-with group of rock work, beds of flowers, and shrubs; interspersed with young trees, which promise in a few years to add materially to the beauty of the spot.’ Behind Albert Buildings is Greenfield Terrace, its shallow U-shape enclosing tiny front gardens. The facade with its balconies is quiet and dignified, and the roof has a triangular pediment at each end. Notice how the main windows of the farthest house have been ‘turned round’ to give a good view of the sea. The long row of villas, Park Place, begins at the far end of the Terrace. Park House, nearest the road, is the finest,

with three lighted, round-headed Venetian windows on the first floor.

The next villa, hidden by trees, is also good, and the whole row was impressive, as a unity, but is rather lack-lustre now due to modern additions.

Return to Knightstone Road and turn left. Putting greens, lock-up garages, and a massive car park has claimed this former pleasure garden, once the pride of Weston, and the original charm has to be imagined. The present clutter is heartbreaking to behold. ln the background Royal Crescent still retains the majestic grandeur of early days, when it looked out to Knightstone over smooth lawns, flowers and shrubs. The giant arches in which the windows are placed give an added illusion of height. By contrast, Victoria Buildings (1840) on the seafront was once a charming row of seven small dwellings; the two houses at the farther end show how delightful they once appeared.

Another row in a similar style, which has escaped ‘improvement’ (Park Villas), can be seen by making a short detour down Victoria Place, the lane to the right of Victoria Buildings. These were either built by, or at least lived in, by Joseph James.

Next, on the corner, is an interesting group: the Old Thatched Cottage flanked by four early Victorian houses. The cottage is the only remaining section of a much_l’arger dwelling Suilt in 1791 (some sources say 1774) by Rev. William-Leeves, who was Rector of Wrington at the end of the 18th Century. Set in the garden wall is a stone inscribed ‘W.8.’; this may refer to his friend, the poet William Bowles, who lived at Uphill.

Cross over Knightstone Road and pass the Cabot Hotel. Here is the second large open space on the seafront; a string of these open areas gave relief to the rows of buildings and, before the sea wall was built up in the 1880s, made it possible to see right into the heart of the town from the beach. This whole area, comprising the Winter Gardens (point 4), Italian Gardens, and the grounds of the Royal Hotel, was formerly a field opening onto High Street. The Winter Gardens were not laid out until the 1920s. The field had belonged to the Royal Hotel, which was the first hotel in Weston (1808). Its early years were difficult and it closed and reopened twice. The present facade, with its round-headed windows and classical details, dates from about 1845 and was intended to harmonise with new buildings of that period. On the left of the sweeping lawn is Royal Terrace (c. 1860) with a fine range of balconies. Originally the small hipped-roofed turrets at each end were symmetrical. The seaward end of this block is of a later date.

Weblinks

Recent Architectural Development of Knightstone Island https://www.fm-architects.co.uk/projects/knightstone-island/

History of Knightstone Island http://alifetimeofislands.blogspot.com/2013/10/island-209-knightstone-island-weston.html

Weston Civic Society – With a collection of Walking Tour Guides around Weston-super-Mare and Knightstone with history of local architecture https://www.westoncivicsociety.org.uk/newpage

Resources & Research

This research and information about Knightsone Island have been compiled with the help and assistance of many volunteers from the Weston-super-Mare Family History Society and The Bristol and Avon Family History Society. I am particularly grateful to Anne Wolforth, Julie Mather-Johns and Lorna Gibson.