How long did it take to build the original West Pier?
The contractors hoped to build it in 6 months and the West Pier had given them 12 months but it actually took 2.5 years. It didn’t really start until 1864 (although you usually see 1863 in all the books about the West Pier). The first piles were actually put down in March 1864 and it was finished in October 1866. Why did it take so long to construct? Well, one story is that Laidlaw, the contractors, owned an ironworks in Glasgow and they made many of the parts for the West Pier in their own plant, shipped them to Shoreham Harbour and then carted them overland to the West Pier. Laidlaw’s kept claiming that there were delays in the shipping. However, what actually happened was that as soon as the contract was signed (for £21,000) the price of iron shot up massively which meant that the contractors were going to lose money on the deal. So Laidlaw’s were just trying to hold things off in the hope that the price of iron would go down (which it didn’t) and eventually they were forced to cont
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