1894 The pier was built under instruction of the Marquis of Bristol to provide a postal link and foot ferry to Halfpenny pier Harwich, where a mail ship operated to the Hook of Holland and the Great Eastern Hotel was a popular destination.
1895 Narrow gauge rail track on the pier was also used by the Royal Navy and Royal Marines to load munitions to the nearby armoury housed as part of the original Napoleonic fort, which was home to two Martello towers guarding the entrances to the rivers Orwell and Stour.
1899 Pier first used to land supplies and men from HMS Ganges training ship moored in the river Stour.
1911 Lt Charles Sampson landed a seaplane alongside the pier as part of trials to use aircraft in wartime if needed.
Lt Sampson, a former officer on the original training ship HMS Ganges, which was moored near the pier, returned to Shotley to use the boys to help land and prepare the craft for take-off. He took a crew of them with him and launched the first ever flight off a moving ship he launched a Short S27 from HMS Furious on January 10 1912.
1918 German U-boat submarine fleet surrendered and were escorted into Harwich harbour They moored up on the Shotley side of the river Stour, with some tied up alongside Shotley pier, and Admiralty pier. The Admiralty pier is only a few hundred yards from the civilian Shotley Pier (then known as Bristol Pier after the Marquis ).
1961 Queen Elizabeth II landed at the Admiralty pier from the Royal Yacht Britannia at the beginning of a tour of Suffolk, starting with a parade at HMS Ganges, before driving down through the Shotley peninsula villages.
2013 The pier was bought by East Anglian Property company and offered for sale at an original guide price of £195,000. An auction held in 2015 got to £87,000 but fell short of the reserve price.
2016 A community group was formed to offer shares in order to buy, renovate and restore the pier for use by the public, to preserve its heritage and promote its history. The name Shotley Pier was formally agreed.
