There has been a long battle to secure the feature of Ramsey’s Queen’s Pier – one that is being won by a group of dedicated volunteers.

After years of looking like nothing more than a relic, life is being breathed back into the iconic landmark thanks to the Queen’s Pier Restoration Trust (QPRT).

In just the last few weeks, the trust has got a train operating along the short section of track which has been carrying passengers while volunteers hope to have restored eight bays of the pier by the end of the summer.

But for years, during the 90s and early 2000s, the pier was in a precarious position with government dragging its heels over restoration plans.

It is easy to forget just how popular the pier was in its heyday which has welcomed royalty with thousands and thousands of passengers boarding ships.

The pier is 2,160ft long and was built for the Isle of Man Harbour Board for the sum of £40,752 (about £4.3m today). The designer was Sir John Coode, who later became president of The Royal Society of Civil Engineers.

Construction began in 1882 and the pier was officially opened on July 22, 1886 by Bishop Rowley Hill, though it had already been in use for about a year.

The pier provided a landing stage to allow Steam Packet ships to pick up or discharge passengers at low tide. In the first year of operation 156 steam ships called at the pier.

A small cafe with a band-stand was constructed on the pier head to provide refreshments and shelter for passengers.

The heyday for Ramsey Queen’s Pier was prior to the First World War when ‘promenading and taking the sea air’ became the in-thing. During 1914 alone, some 36,000 passengers from steamers arrived onto the pier.

King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra disembarked here in 1902 while King George V and Queen Mary had the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert moored here for their visit in 1920. The Queen Mother also disembarked in 1963 when the Royal Yacht Britannia anchored in the bay.

Steam Packet ships had stopped calling at the pier by 1970 due to insufficient passenger numbers.

The pier remained open for use by holiday-makers and anglers but, by 1979, the now disused landing stage at the pier head had deteriorated to the extent that it had to be fenced off from the main deck for public safety. In 1981 the tramway closed.

The seaward end cafe was destroyed by fire in 1991 and was replaced by a new shelter and toilets. These facilities were sadly vandalised within days of being opened which helped seal the pier’s fate.

The pier was finally closed in June 1991 while the berth was eventually removed in 1994 after it was declared unsafe for use.

The government deliberated on restoration which would cost £2.5m at the time and £1m to demolish, but 25 years after closure, nothing happened.

The trust was set up with the sole purpose of restoring the pier so that it can be preserved and used once more. It has kindly supplied many of the photos below which shows just how amazingly popular the pier was along with some from the Manx National Heritage’s iMuseum.