They are a Sussex landmark and a focal point for visitors but the county's piers have been the source of tears as well as smiles for more than a hundred years.

In the 19th Century, the county boasted six piers, stretching from Hastings to Worthing, but each one has been struck by disaster ranging from fire and storms to bomb damage and disputes between the companies that threatened bankruptcy.

Coupled with the decline in popularity of seaside towns, the once-glorious piers have been reduced to shadows of their former selves.

For Hastings, Eastbourne, Worthing and Brighton, their piers brought a tourist boom and were a crowning attraction.

These grand Victorian structures were engineering marvels of their time but each one has borne the brunt of tragedy.

The pride of the coastline in the Victorian heyday, day-trippers and high society alike flocked to the theatres, dance-halls and fun rides on the piers or just came to walk and take in the sea air.

At its peak, two million visitors a year visited the West Pier.

The first pier to be built in Sussex was the first to be destroyed.

The Chain Pier opened in 1823 but came crashing down in fierce storms in early December 1896.

Before railways came to Sussex, Brighton provided a landing stage for boats arriving from France en route to London.

This early pier, which had chains which suspended the decking, was part of a wrangle between the Palace and West piers long before the current dispute.

In 1891 work started on the Palace Pier, being built by the owners of the Chain Pier. The company intended to knock the old pier down once the Palace Pier was completed but it blew down before they needed to. Some of the wreckage from the Chain Pier floated westwards and hit the West Pier, knocking down part of the structure.

The West Pier Company then sued the Palace Pier company, which at one point was threatened with bankruptcy because of the potential damages.

Part of the problem for both West Pier and Eastbourne Pier was design. The West Pier used to shake when people went on it.

Just a year after it was opened, one August Bank Holiday, it began to quiver with the weight of thousands of visitors.

The West Pier Company spent a fortune trying to make its structure more stable.

Both Brighton piers were shut during the war and large chunks were cut out of them to prevent them being used as landing stages by the Germans.

In January 1970, 100 years after it opened, Eastbourne pier's theatre was struck by a disastrous fire, which closed it.

The pier's owners turned this to their advantage and, with the disco revolution taking hold, built the vast Atlantis nightclub in its place.

During the Second World War the decking was ripped up and machine gun platforms installed in the theatre so soldiers could repel any attempted enemy landings.

The 1,000ft-long pier - which, like the West Pier, was designed by Eugenius Birch - was built purely as a promenade with six small kiosks along its length and a pair of toll booths at its entrance.

This year the famed Camera Obscura is to be restored. The 360-degree Victorian projector will make Eastbourne pier the only one in the world with an operational attraction of this type.

Further east, another grand Victorian structure has suffered.

Hastings pier was closed for more than a year as it decayed into the sea before being revived as a tourist feature.

Hastings was the last resort in Sussex to have a pier built.

In 1869, work started on the structure - which was also designed by Eugenius Birch. Amid a fanfare of excitement, the pier opened on the August Bank Holiday of 1872.

After more than 100 years as a successful tourist attraction, the rot set in the Eighties.

Spiralling maintenance costs combined with falling revenues contributed to its decline.

When the struggle to save it seemed to be over, storms buffeted the pier and forced its closure in October 1999.

Nine months of despair followed but in August 2000 Mundial Invest bought the pier and set about restoring the pier.

It is once again a thriving venue - more than 15,000 people passed through its gates on its first weekend.