Our impromptu visit to North Somerset took us to a gem of a small seaside town, Clevedon on the Bristol Channel. Like everywhere in Britain, things are getting titivated ready for the Queens Jubilee next week.

Clevedon is a town that swelled in popularity when the Victorians fell in love with fresh air and coastal holidays. The jewel in its crown is the Grade 1 listed pier.

Which managed to get into every one of our photographs during our brief visit.

The pier is very well cared for and is blissfully free of all the amusements tat that usually accompanies sea side entertainment. If fact this pier is very well balanced, with a coffee shop at either end.

All this loveliness failed to completely impress two members of our family. Hugo lowered his centre of gravity firmly to the decking boards of the pier and refused to move. Hannah got the sort of nausea that could only be alleviated by having coffee at both ends of the pier. Both of them affected by seeing the beach and sea far below them between the gaps of the decking boards. Hugo had to be carried, a favoured luxury not lost on Lola who made no fuss at all. Her face says it all in this picture.

The weather was not particularly kind, the one aspect of the pier that we failed to explore was the Port Hole room. We would have had to hang around a bit until a private function ended so I’ve pinched a couple of pictures from the Pier website.The porthole shows off the engineering beauty of the structure.

With the weather turning rather wet we turned for home. An ebay bargain stowed in the back of the van and a new destination explored.