Some pretty unusual things have happened on Southend Pier over the decades – things so strange they are difficult to believe.

Take for example an incident in October 1874 when a fashionably dressed gentleman was seen walking up and down the crowded pier at 11 in the morning.

Nothing bizarre about that, but then out of the blue he darted to the end of the pier, removed a revolver from his overcoat and shot himself straight below the heart.

He then threw the revolver onto the pier decking, gave a loud shriek and leapt over the side into the estuary. Lifeguards jumped in and dragged out his body, which was clinging to life.

He was conveyed to Victoria Hospital but he died shortly afterwards. His identity remained a mystery, except that he was around 39 years old and a visitor to the town.

In October 1904 almost the exact same thing happened. A well dressed man, of the same age was on the pier when he shot himself through the mouth with a revolver in full view of the public. When the police arrived, they found the weapon still in his hand.

These were just two dramatic incidents in the long life of Southend Pier – both the original one and the mile-and-a-third long structure we know and love today – which has endured multiple fires, crashes and economically crippling visitor lulls.

But things are looking up for the pier. The Echo revealed on Tuesday how it had been a record-breaking month in terms of visitor numbers. The attraction welcomed more than 74,000 visitors in August, the highest number since records began 14 years ago.

The news has been welcomed by council leaders and traders who put a lot of faith in Southend’s iconic landmark.

To celebrate the milestone here are six pier stories from the past to grab your attention..

1) There was once a mortuary underneath Southend Pier. This was the old pier – the wooden one which stood before the replacement iron pier was opened 1889. Even when the new pier was built, the old one remained for a number of years – and so did the mortuary. In the end it was moved as residents and local traders complained about the smell.

2) In August of 1926 a boy was killed after he was electrocuted on the pier tram line. Albert Keminski, aged 13 of Bethnal Green had been staying in Southend on holiday. An inquest heard how the teenager could only read words such as ‘cat and dog’. He had climbed over the railings into the tramway despite the many warning notices. The coroner remarked: “If this boy had been able to read in all probability this accident would not have happened.”

3) In 1901 the pier was more popular than ever and some 260,000 people arrived at and departed the pierhead by steamboat.

4) In 1908 the pier was cut clean in two when a hulk ship broke free of her moorings an breached the pier during a fierce gale.

5) In November 1921 a sad message was found written on a card and placed inside a pair of boots left within a shelter on the pier. The message read: “My head is breaking. Death is the greatest profiteer”. The message had been left by man with memory problems from Walthamstow who had been reported missing..

6) In 1904 George Reeves, a hotel owner visiting Southend from London was travelling on the conductor’s platform on an electric car on the pier when he fell and grasped the brake-wheel.

He was electrocuted so badly the fingers on his left hand were burned to the bone and his right hand was severely burned.