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From the two pavilions, one at each end of Penarth's elegant Victorian pleasure pier, the strains of music wafted, clear as chapel bells, on the night air. It was just after 9pm on 3 August 1931.

Penarth Pier (Image from istockphoto.com)

The music was loud but it was also very different. From the New Pavilion at the landward end came the sound of 'Variety', the girls' voices high and shrill above the orchestra. From the old Bijou Pavilion at the seaward end the lilting melody of a foxtrot swept across the waves.

Piermaster Leonard stood outside the New Pavilion, his arms resting easily on the metal railings, glad that yet another August Bank Holiday was almost over. He glanced along the wooden decking, taking note of the two youngsters who were charging towards him. Then came the screams and cries that every piermaster in the country dreaded.

"Fire!" the youngsters shouted. "The pier's on fire!"

Piermaster Leonard and his assistant leapt for the fire hydrants and extinguishers that all piers carried but at that moment the pier burst into flames at their feet. Within minutes a long stretch of the decking had become a mass of spitting and snaking fire.

Penarth, the premier holiday destination on the south Wales coast, had finally been graced with a pleasure pier in 1894. It came after years of debate and discussion - at one time there were even plans to import a second-hand structure from Douglas on the Isle of Man. Many were up in arms at the suggestion, others not so sure. As the editor of the Penarth Observer wrote:

"Any pier would be better than none and no doubt the purchasers would be glad to sell it again at a reasonable profit. We do trust that another season will not be allowed to pass without one of some sort being erected."

Piers, in the Victorian age, meant day trippers and tourists and they, in turn, meant money to any resort lucky enough to attract them. So the need for a pier in Penarth was apparent to all. In the end Penarth did not buy a second-hand pier; a company was formed, shares were sold and the firm of Joseph and Arthur Mayoh of Manchester was employed to build Penarth the pier it deserved.

Opened in 1894 the pier at Penarth led an adventurous and chequered life, being requisitioned by the army as a searchlight base during the Great War. Unusually, the pier had two pleasure pavilions, the first one being a wooden structure on the seaward end, built in 1907. The other was the new ferro-concrete structure created on the landward end in 1929. Both of them were well used for concerts and dances - as on the night of 3 August.

It has never been clear how the fire began. All that is known is that it started in the Old Pavilion, probably when a casually-discarded cigarette fell through the boards and ignited the piles of rubbish that had lain underneath for over 30 years.

Panic spread quickly as people realised the danger. Over 200 people dancing in the Old Bijou Pavilion rushed for the safety of land, and halfway down the pier met a crowd from the New Pavilion who had seen the flames and were rushing to help. Disaster was imminent. Luckily members of the theatre orchestra, piermaster Leonard and his staff and policemen from the town were able to link arms and push the crowd back to the promenade.

Thirty people were unable to get down the pier before the flames became too fierce. These desperate souls took refuge on the concrete landing stage below the Bijou Pavilion, the place where the pleasure steamers of the White Funnel Fleet normally picked up passengers during the summer months. From here they were lifted to safety by boats from the nearby Penarth Yacht Club.

An heroic attempt to put out the fire was made by the local fire brigade but the flames had gained too great a hold. Just after 10pm the Old Pavilion collapsed in a shower of sparks and flames and half an hour later the inferno reached for the whole length of the pier. The central portion collapsed just after 11pm. After that the fire had nowhere to go and simply burned itself out.

Fires on wooden pleasure piers had always been - and continue to be - something of an occupational hazard. In the Penarth Pier fire there were no casualties but the damage to the town and to its tourist trade was incalculable. Thousands of pounds were lost as people simply stayed away or went to Barry Island instead.

The only people to gain were the children of the town who, in the days following the fire, were to be seen happily searching the beach beneath the pier for coppers that had fallen from the buckled and melted slot machines.

The town council decided that a pier was still an essential part of Penarth's amenities and therefore decided to rebuild the structure. It cost many thousands of pounds and took several years but the job was done - although the council wisely decided that a dance hall on the seaward end of the pier was too great a risk and, consequently, the Old Bijou Pavilion would not be rebuilt.

There were more troubles ahead - being hit by a cargo ship in 1947 and by the paddle steamer Bristol Queen in 1966 were just two of the potential disasters the pier survived. But survive it did and today it still stands, a living reminder of how people used to enjoy themselves in the early years of the 20th century.