A while ago I was sent a photograph of a missing plaque which, I was told, used to hang in one of the buildings on Birnbeck Island, Weston-super-Mare. The plaque commemorated a close association between Birnbeck Pier and HMS Vernon from 1942 to 1949. The words inscribed on the plaque speak to a unique period in the life of Birnbeck Pier, for in 1941 the pier, and the island to which it is linked, was requisitioned by the Admiralty for secret war time weapons testing. The story of the Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Development (DMWD) and the men and women who were employed by this most secret of military organisations is a fascinating one (the personnel at HMS Birnbeck, as it was designated by the Admiralty, were known as the 'Wheezers and Dodgers'). As a small first step I made it my mission to try and discover the whereabouts of the plaque.
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| HMS Vernon / Birnbeck Pier Plaque |
The most obvious place to look would be Birnbeck Pier. The pier is currently undergoing a multi-million pound restoration but since its' closure in 1994, on safety grounds, the buildings on the island have fallen into a state of disrepair. Indeed, there is not much left apart from a clocktower and the walls of roofless buildings. When I visited the island in 2017 the interior of the buildings were a sea of debris and rubbish. Anything of value had long since gone - removed at the time of closure, stolen or simply lost. So where to start the search? As a starting point I enlisted the help of Peter Lander of the Birnbeck Regeneration Trust, a man with an encyclopaedic knowledge of Birnbeck Pier's history. Peter introduced me to a local woman, Jean Sugar, whose mother had the foresight to retrieve an old photograph album from a skip in Locking (near Weston-super-Mare) when the nearby RAF base closed in 2000.
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| The Plaque in the Birnbeck Pier Refreshment Room - 1949 (Jean Sugar Collection) |
The album is a treasure trove of information about the DMWD, and amongst the gems therein, I discovered a series of black and white photographs showing the plaque in its' original position adjacent to the bar in what was know in the 1940s and 50s as the Birnbeck Pier Refreshment Rooms. Above the plaque the photograph shows a mural or very large picture of HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship, in Portsmouth Dockyard. An appropriate pairing given that the anti-submarine warfare establishment designated as HMS Vernon sits within the dockyard complex. Beneath the plaque four women are sitting enjoying a pot of tea whilst at the mirror backed bar a white-coated barman is chatting to two men. But that is not all that Jean Sugar's album had in store. The collection also includes a series of photographs showing HMS Vernon's commander, Captain W.J.Robertson, presenting the plaque to Mr W. J. Jesseman, the managing director and secretary of the Birnbeck Pier Company on the 17 March 1949.
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| Birnbeck Pier in the 1940s (Postcard) |
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| The Plaque Presentation (Jean Sugar Collection) |
With the date in mind, my next step was to interrogate the British Newspaper Archive. Sure enough, the event was covered by several newspapers. In particular there was an extremely descriptive report in the Weston Gazette dated 19 March 1949. In his speech at the event, Captain Robertson explained why Birnbeck Pier had been chosen for weapons testing.
Torpedoes and mines, by their very nature, were required to be recovered after trial. One might drop them in the sea and use divers, but in that way recovery is not certain. This part of the Bristol Channel, with its strong tides and full ebb, was ideal for our purpose. I need hardly remind you that in two wars we have come very near indeed to losing because of our failure to cope with the submarine.
Mr. Jessemann paid tribute to the work of the Piermaster, Capt. K. J. Wide, who had been commissioned as a Lieutenant, R.N.R. during H.M.S. Vernon’s occupation. The hole and splat near the Pier used during the experiments had been constructed at very short notice under his supervision.
The ever helpful Peter Lander was able to provide a picture of Captain Wide (the piermaster) outside the boarded up - for wartime - main gates. Jack Wide (as he was known) worked in close collaboration with the Naval authorities and during the war years was given the rank of Lieutenant, Royal Naval Reserve.
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| Captain Wide and his wife, Catherine (Peter Lander Collection) |
Whilst the Pier Company Directors were quick to offer the pier for military use in time of national emergency at least one was not impressed with the fees paid by the Admiralty. £350 per year, not even enough to pay the pier's insurance premium! Indeed, in examining the Birnbeck Pier Company's cash book in the Somerset Archives (A/DUY 2/3) the foregone income was considerable.
Having established the circumstances under which the plaque was handed over, the question remains as to what happened to it. The next step was to find images of the Refreshment Rooms bar and see if the plaque remained in situ over subsequent years. In the Somerset Archive I discovered a plan, dated 1948, showing a proposed alteration to the bar area. It is not known exactly what alterations were made in the ensuing years but we do know that prior to the 1970s, the plaque was moved. The picture below (from the 1970s) shows the bar area with a staircase installed directly in front of the HMS Victory mural. The plaque is not in its' original position so at the time the steps were put in it was either relocated or removed entirely. My guess is the former, but that can't be proven in the absence of further evidence.
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| The bar area without plaque (Peter Lander Collection) |
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| The same spot in 2017 (Phil Curme Collection) |
Furthermore, by a happy coincidence, I took a photo of the wall space in question during my visit in 2017 - no HMS Victory, no HMS Vernon plaque, no Victorian event place settings, no white coated barman, no happy tea drinkers ... just a shell of a building and a broken down piano.
So what can be concluded about the whereabouts of the plaque? Well, we know where it was installed and we know it was subsequently moved. As to what happened then, the mystery remains. is it amongst the broken roof remnants on Birnbeck Pier? was it thrown into the sea? is it on a wall in someones office or house? Is it hidden away in a loft somewhere? Your guess is as good as mine! One newspaper report described the plaque as being inscribed on brass and another that it had a wooden frame. Maybe the material was reused?
I will finish with an unattributed 1949 newspaper report which stated that the plaque was now treasured possession of the Birnbeck Pier Company. Treasured it may have been, but for now we must consider it lost. The story it references though, is far from lost - and will no doubt be brought to life as part of the 'interpretation' work which will be undertaken for the Birnbeck Pier Restoration Project.
