HAMPSHIRE author and broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh is backing a £600,000 bid to fund vital repairs to one of the Solent’s best-known landmarks.

Half the wooden piles that support the 140-year-old Yarmouth Pier have been ravaged by worms and need to be replaced over the next three years.

Daily Echo:

Yarmouth Harbour Commissioners have applied for a Heritage Lottery Fund grant to help meet the cost of the scheme.

But any grant is unlikely to be big enough to finance the whole project, which means the commissioners must raise tens of thousands of pounds themselves.

Alan Titchmarsh has agreed to support the newly re-launched Pier Appeal Fund.

The TV gardening expert and former Isle of Wight Sherriff was previously patron of an appeal that raised £450,000 to finance similar repairs to other parts of the pier.

Now the 65-year-old celebrity is going into battle for the second time in seven years.

He said: “I’m delighted to have been asked by the commissioners to be patron of the pier appeal once again.

“We aim to raise £50,000 towards the refurbishment of this unique Grade II listed building, which has been a landmark at the western end of the Solent for 140 years, cherished by sailors and local residents alike.”

The 609ft jetty was built in 1875 and is reputed to be the oldest all-wooden pier in the UK.

The previous repair project took place in 2008, when more than 50 piles along the length of the historic structure were replaced. Now the other 54 piles, many of which are under the pier head, also need to be renewed.

The timber required is greenheart, which is one of the hardest woods available and is only found in the Caribbean country of Guyana.

A Yarmouth Harbour Commissioners’ spokesman said: “In early 2008 we replaced 54 wooden piles that had been eaten away by gribble (worms).

“We were lucky enough to win a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £350,000 and a Pier Appeal Fund headed by Alan Titchmarsh raised more than £40,000 towards the refurbishment.”

The pier was built to cater for Lymington to Yarmouth ferries, plus steamers arriving from other parts of the Island.

In the 19th century it was quicker to travel from Yarmouth to Cowes by steamer than go by horse-drawn carriage.

These days the pier is used by the paddle steamer Waverley as well as ferries from Poole, Swanage, Weymouth and Christchurch.