What to See in Clevedon - Top Sights and Attractions

Manor house in England. Clevedon Court is a manor house on Court Hill in Clevedon, North Somerset, England, dating from the early 14th century. It is owned by the National Trust and is designated as a Grade I listed building.

The house was built and added to over many years. The great hall and chapel block are the earliest surviving parts of the structure with the west wing being added around 1570, when the windows and decoration of the rest of the building were changed. Further construction and adaptation was undertaken in the 18th century when it was owned by the Elton baronets. The house was acquired by the nation and was given to the National Trust in part-payment for death duties in 1960. The Elton family is still resident in the house, which is now open to the public.

In addition to the main house, the grounds include a selection of walls and outbuildings, some of which date back to the 13th century. The gardens are listed (Grade II*) on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.^[1]

The Curzon Cinema & Arts, in Clevedon, North Somerset, England, is one of the oldest continually running purpose-built cinemas in the world.

Opened on 20 April 1912 by Victor Cox, the original building had 200 seats and the first show raised funds for the survivors and relatives of those killed earlier in the month on the RMS Titanic. Its first projector was gas powered, but in subsequent years the building was improved with the addition of extra seating (bringing the total number of seats to 389), and was the first public building in the town to have electricity, which also saw the projector upgraded to run on electric.

Between 1920 and 1922, a new cinema was built on the site (without interruption to the nightly programme of films). The building, still in use to this day, has a row of shops along the front, the Oak Room Cafe above, and facilities for stage shows. The cinema was the site of Clevedon's only fatality due to enemy action in the Second World War, when a soldier standing in the cinema doorway was killed by a bomb, damage from which is still visible on the exterior. Muriel Williams, who was in the cinema when it was bombed, recalls the air raid warning flashing on the screen on the night it was bombed in the Curzon Memories App. The App also includes memories from Julia Elton (daughter of documentarian Sir Arthur Elton, who remembers her grandmother frequenting the Oak Room Cafe and rephotography of archive photos of the cinema through the ages.

In 1945, the cinema (previously known as "The Picture House") was sold and changed its name to the "Maxime". Another change of ownership in 1953 brought its current name. After years of decline, the building was greatly altered during the late sixties and early seventies: the box fronts, along with the organ, were removed and the openings 'bricked-up', the balcony was closed, the suspended false ceiling installed, and the projection room returned to its original position at the rear of the stalls.

Never hugely profitable, the cinema was taken into administrative receivership in 1995, and after a campaign to save the cinema spearheaded by Jon Webber, it was bought by Clevedon Community Centre for the Arts, a registered charity, which continues to run it. Patrons include Sir Charles Elton (son of the notable documentary director Sir Arthur Elton), Aardman Animations founders David Sproxton and Peter Lord, directors Nick Park and Terry Gilliam, and actors Tony Robinson and Alan Rickman.

In 2009, the Curzon Cinema successfully passed the first round in its bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and was awarded £31,700 to help develop a more detailed bid for second phase of the awards process. A subsequent Stage II award of £321,900 in 2010 allowed the cinema to complete the first stage of restoration, with some repairs made to the roof, a new exhibition and lounge bar installed, and the Curzon Collection of Heritage Cinema Technology being relocated to the former Coach House adjoining the building.

In 2012, the Curzon Cinema reached the final for Best Heritage Project of the National Lottery Awards.

The Curzon celebrated its centenary on 20 April 2012, with a weekend of celebrations. Run by charitable trust, the Curzon is now seeking to raise funds for the next phase of its restoration, including the Balcony.

In 2015, the former Coach House was transformed into a cafe bar and the Curzon Cinema Collection was put on display throughout the cinema.

Run by a charitable trust, the Curzon is now seeking to raise funds to complete the restoration of the building, the interior tin panelling, the balcony and to install a second screen, creating a sustainable future.

From 2018, the Curzon began to host a boomsatsuma Media Production Extended Diploma at the Curzon Cinema Studio, alongside the North Somerset Creative Campus at Nailsea School.^[2]

Building in Clevedon, England. Clevedon Pier is a seaside pier in the town of Clevedon, Somerset, England on the east shore of the Severn Estuary. It was described by Sir John Betjeman, as "the most beautiful pier in England" and was designated a Grade I listed building in 2001.

The pier was built during the 1860s to attract tourists and provide a ferry port for rail passengers to South Wales. The pier is 312 m (1,024 ft) long and consists of eight spans supported by steel rails covered by wooden decking, with a pavilion on the pier head.

The pier opened in 1869 and served as an embarkation point for paddle steamer excursions for almost 100 years. Two of the spans collapsed during stress testing in 1970 and demolition was proposed, but local fund raising and heritage grants allowed the pier to be dismantled for restoration and reassembled. It reopened in 1989, and ten years later was awarded the Pier of the Year from the National Piers Society, and a Civic Trust Award. The pier now offers a landing stage for steamers and is a popular attraction for tourists and anglers.^[4]

Building in Clevedon, England. The Church of St Andrew in Clevedon, Somerset, England. Parts of the original 12th-century church remain with 14th- and 15th-century additions. It is on a hill overlooking the Bristol Channel, and has been designated as a Grade I listed building.

The church was built on Anglo-Saxon foundations.

It is the burial place of Arthur Hallam, subject of the poem In Memoriam A.H.H. by his friend Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The exterior of the church includes a carving which may be a Sheela na gig. The Anglican parish of Clevedon is part of the Portishead deanery.

St Andrew's was used as a filming location to depict the local parish church in all three series of the popular crime drama Broadchurch.^[6]

Clevedon Shore is a 0.38 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest adjacent to the Severn Estuary at Clevedon, North Somerset, notified in 1991.

It is the side of a mineralised fault, which runs east-west adjacent to the pier, and forms a small cliff feature in dolomitic conglomerate on the north side of Clevedon Beach, containing cream to pink baryte together with sulphides. The minerals identified at the site include: haematite, chalcopyrite, tennantite, galena, tetrahedrite, bornite, pyrite, marcasite, enargite and sphalerite. Secondary alteration of this assemblage has produced idaite, Covellite and other Copper sulphides.

The site is listed as a Geological Conservation Review site as several of the minerals found here are rare, in particular the beudantite. The presence of copper and arsenic is unusual for the Mendip district.^[8]