The Retreat was a large house situated on the site of the Ladies golf course, which was owned by Charles Emmanuel Pierson. Apparently he owned the house at the same time as “Flesk” on the Berrow Road, which was his main home.

His intention was to develop The Retreat into a premier style hotel for Burnham’s many visitors that played golf. It is not known why the house remained empty and undeveloped despite having been granted a temporary licence to serve alcohol. It eventually fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1932. The two photographs are dated August 1932.

Like many old derelict properties the house gained the reputation of being haunted but we have no other details of this than the article below from the Western Daily Press in November 1932.

The failure to develop the property may have had something to do with the Foreshore Dispute that came to court in 1907 when Pierson took the Burnham UDC to court for having removed fences that he had put up on the seaward. boundary of The Retreat site . The previous fence and sand dunes had been badly eroded during a severe storm of 1903.

Pierson was also a Director of Burnham’s Proposed new Pier (Burnham Investment Syndicate Ltd) at the same time, which again failed to materialise. Possibly he was frustrated with both issues not having made any significant progress.