A VICTORIAN pier is celebrating its 150th anniversary this month with a day of activities and culminating in the unveiling of new lighting for the historic pier.

Saltburn Pier will mark the occasion on Saturday, May 11, when the town centre and seafront will alive with family fun activities from 10am, including up to 150 volunteers in Victorian dress, a farmers’ market, screen printing workshop, antiques market, roving musicians playing sea shanties, a vintage motorcycle display, Punch & Judy, balloon modelling, the Marske brass band, and the opportunity to have your photograph taken using a vintage camera.

The party will end at 9.45pm with a firework display and the unveiling of new lighting for the pier using low-energy, colour-changing lightbulbs on the underside of the historic walkway.

Sarah Robson, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council corporate director for growth, enterprise and environment, said: “Saltburn Pier means so much to so many people that a celebration is the only way to acknowledge its 150th birthday.

“This is going to be a brilliant day, full of fun and packed with people enjoying themselves.

“We hope people will agree that the new lighting looks amazing. It’s the perfect way to mark the 150 years of our famous pier.”

A special, one-off celebration of old time music hall fun will be held on Friday 10 May, 6.45pm, at Saltburn Community Theatre, Albion Lane.

Tickets cost £6 and are available from Saltburn Library. They can also be reserved by emailing saltburnpier150@gmail.com.

For those interested in the history of the Pier, Saltburn Library is holding a special display throughout May including rare, vintage photographs.

Teesside Archives have also played a part with a recent project to digitise historic plans held in their collections at Exchange House in Middlesbrough. Including a number of plans from Saltburn including the Pier, the Pier Dining Room, the early layout of the resort in the Victorian period and information on the operation of the Cliff Tramway, the digitised plans are now secured for future generations.

Teesside Archives manager Ruth Hobbins said: “The plans of Saltburn pier are amongst tens of thousands of plans covering the local area and companies dating back to the 1800s, including those of global icons such as Sydney Harbour Bridge to local landmarks such as Saltburn Pier and Cliff Tramway.

“We hope by sharing these plans with the wider public will provide a unique insight into the expertise and ingenuity that went into creating these fantastic buildings. In future we hope to secure funding to make the plans more widely accessible so that more people can enjoy our area’s heritage.”

In recent years, Teesside Archives have previously helped with the renovation of the Saltburn Cliff Tramway, originally opened in 1884, by providing access to the original plans of the lift to the engineers restoring the listed structure to the glory of its Victorian heyday.

More information on the collections of Teesside Archives can be found at www.middlesbrough.gov.uk/teessidearchives.

The celebration event for Saltburn Pier has been organised by Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council and The Saltburn Neighbourhood Action Partnership.