Banjo Pier

Banjo Cottage is named after the famous pier in Looe.

Banjo Pier itself is named because of it's shape.  It has a short 'neck' and round bulbous end which, when viewed from above, looks like the shape of a Banjo.

But why this shape as most piers are long and straight?

Banjo Pier is nearly 130 years old and was built as a prototype to try and solve a specific problem.  It is therefore the oldest surviving example of a 'Banjo pier' and is a Grade 2 listed structure.

Looe is a famous fishing town and has been for centuries, but one of the issues faced by Looe and it's fishing fleet was that the river entrance would regularly clog up with silt.  This happens because of the silt carried by the River Looe would be deposited at the river mouth where it met the sea.

In 1897 a local engineer, Joseph Thomas, proposed a radical solution for this by building a shorter, thicker pier with a rounded end.  The design was very radical at the time and not well received.  But so sure was he that the solution would work, that he offered to pay for it himself if it didn't.  The solution did work and the habour commission agree to pay for it.  This unique shape solved the problem and the river does not get clogged with slit to this day.

How does the Banjo shape stop silt?  

It works, because having a rounded end removes the corners at the end of a regular shaped pier. These corners cause the silt, carried by the outflowing tide, to become trapped.  As the outflowing current travels down the length of the pier, it reaches the end of the pier and is 'sucked' into the still water at the front of the pier.  This causes the current to stop, and it can no longer support the silt it was carrying so it gets deposited.  Over time, this will build up and build up and eventually become self fulfilling as the edges of the deposited silt cause the current to stop and deposit more silt and so on.

Having a round end means that there are no corners for the current to get trapped behind and thus the silt is carried out to sea on the moving water.

This solution was the first of it's kind in the world and has been copied in other locations to solve similar issues.  But, Banjo Pier in Looe is the original.

Today the fishing fleet no longer use the pier to offload, though there is a navigation light on the pier to guide the fleet home.  The pier is often used for visitors to sit and enjoy the view.  At high tides it is used by anglers to try to catch Bass, Pollock and the occasional Gurnard.  

At low tide it is possible to walk around the base of the pier and look up at the structure that has been there for over 130 years.

In more adverse weather the waves regularly go over the pier 'neck' and it becomes unsafe to walk along, hence there are gates at the start of the pier that are there to ensure visitor safety.

No matter what the weather or season, guests at Banjo Cottage are able to see Banjo Pier from the living room windows and watch the boats come and go.