Summer tours back at storm-hit pier after repairs

Volunteer tour guides at a historic lighthouse and pier are gearing up for their first full summer after it was damaged by a storm two years ago.

Guide Stuart Robson, who has been leading tours since 2018, said many volunteers had "personal connections" to Roker Pier and Lighthouse in Sunderland.

It welcomes thousands of visitors every year and tour parties walk the length of the pier tunnel before climbing steps to the top of the lighthouse.

The pier was closed due storm damage in 2023 and this year will be its first full summer running the tours since then.

It was built between 1885 and 1903 and designed by engineer Henry Hay Wake when Sunderland was a major British port.

In 2012, the pier, tunnel and lighthouse had extensive restoration work after being unused for decades.

Works were delayed in November 2016 when gale force winds and high waves washed away the railings and coping stones at the far end of the pier.

Work was completed on the Grade II listed structure in 2018 and guided public tours began.

Kay Skinner joined as a volunteer tour guide in August 2025.

Now retired, the former electrical engineer said she was drawn to the role because she was "fascinated" by the achievements of engineer Wake.

"He made the whole design of the pier and lighthouse.

"Not only that, it was all the mechanical engineering - the crane, the sand rail and the concrete barge that went with it.

"When you go on the tour, you find out how its built, what he did, how he did it.

"It's absolutely brilliant - I love it.

"I find out little bits every time I come through the tunnel. It's a continual learning process."

The 2,000 ft (609m) long Roker Pier suffered significant damage during Storm Babet in 2023, and was closed for nearly two years.

Robson said: "What attracted me to being a guide was the fact that my great-grandfather was a River Wear commissioner diver and he actually worked on the later part of the project, so I have a personal connection.

"It's important to show the next generation. If you don't, history is going to be lost."

Roker Pier and Lighthouse said it had had lots of applicants wanting to be guides this year.

"We mainly have retired people who have time during the week, we need flexibility and a bit of commitment, and people with an interest in history.

"It's all for the love of the job and the connections a lot of us have with the pier," Robson said.

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