Beachy Head Lighthouse is a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

located in the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

below the cliffs of

Beachy Head Beachy Head is a chalk headland in East Sussex, England. It is situated close to Eastbourne, immediately east of the Seven Sisters. Beachy Head is located within the administrative area of Eastbourne Borough Council which owns the land, formin ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

. It is in height and became operational in October 1902. It was the last traditional-style 'rock tower' (i.e. offshore lighthouse) to be built by

Trinity House "Three In One" , formation = , founding_location = Deptford, London, England , status = Royal Charter corporation and registered charity , purpose = Maintenance of lighthouses, buoys and beacons , he ...

Construction

Beachy Head Lighthouse was built to replace the

Belle Tout Lighthouse The Belle Tout Lighthouse (also spelled Belle Toute) is a decommissioned lighthouse and British landmark located at Beachy Head, East Sussex close to the town of Eastbourne. It has been called "Britain's most famous inhabited lighthouse" becaus ...

on top of the cliffs of Beachy Head, which was completed in 1834. This was not as successful as had been hoped, as its light was frequently obscured by sea mists. Thus it was decided to build a replacement at the foot of the cliffs. Belle Tout lighthouse was decommissioned in 1902, and still exists as a holiday home. In 1900 to 1902 under the direction of Sir Thomas Matthews, the Trinity House Engineer-in-Chief, Beachy Head Lighthouse was built, sited about 165 metres seawards from the base of the cliffs. For the construction, a temporary

cable car Cable car most commonly refers to the following cable transportation systems: * Aerial lift, such as aerial tramways and gondola lifts, in which the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable ** Aerial tramway ** Chairlift ** Gondola lift *** Bi ...

from the cliff was installed for the transport of workers and stones to an iron ocean platform adjacent to the lighthouse. 3,660 tons of Cornish granite were used in the construction of the tower. The lighthouse was equipped with a

first-order In mathematics and other formal sciences, first-order or first order most often means either: * "linear" (a polynomial of degree at most one), as in first-order approximation and other calculus uses, where it is contrasted with "polynomials of high ...

revolving

catadioptric A catadioptric optical system is one where refraction and reflection are combined in an optical system, usually via lenses (dioptrics) and curved mirrors (catoptrics). Catadioptric combinations are used in focusing systems such as searchlights, he ...

optic Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviole ...

made up of three double panels, giving two white flashes every 20 seconds; the lightsource was a Matthews-designed paraffin vapour burner. The newly built lighthouse was also provided with an explosive

fog signal A foghorn or fog signal is a device that uses sound to warn vehicles of navigational hazards such as rocky coastlines, or boats of the presence of other vessels, in foggy conditions. The term is most often used in relation to marine transport. W ...

, which was sounded every five minutes in foggy weather; it involved the keepers attaching a small explosive charge together with a detonator to each arm of a

jib A jib is a triangular sail that sets ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its tack is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bows, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast. Jibs and spinnakers are the two main types of headsail ...

located on the gallery of the lighthouse; when winched into place, connection was made with a dynamo-electric firing machine inside the lantern, from where the charge was remotely fired.

Operation

For more than 80 years, the red-and-white striped tower was staffed by three lighthouse keepers. Their primary job was to maintain the revolving light, which was then visible out to sea. For most of the 20th century cooking was done on a solid-fuel range and the accommodation was lit by paraffin lamps. Electricity first reached the lighthouse in 1975, whereupon an electric lamp was installed in the optic. The explosive fog signal remained in use until 1976 (when it was replaced by an 'ELG 500' electric emitter); at the time Beachy Head was one of the last lighthouses still using explosive signals. The lighthouse was fully automated in 1983 and the keepers withdrawn. A chalk fall on the cliff in 1999 severed the electric cable; during its repair the lamp and fog signal were replaced and upgraded. In June 2010,

announced in the five yearly "Aids To Navigation Review" that the light range would be reduced to and the fog signal discontinued. In February 2011, the work was undertaken and light range reduced by the installation of a new LED navigation light system. The old lens, though no longer in use, was left ''

in situ ''In situ'' (; often not italicized in English) is a Latin phrase that translates literally to "on site" or "in position." It can mean "locally", "on site", "on the premises", or "in place" to describe where an event takes place and is used in ...

''. The fog signal was also discontinued at this time. Trinity House announced in 2011 that it could no longer afford to repaint the distinctive red and white stripes and that it would have to be left to return to its natural granite grey. It stated that because boats now have high tech navigational systems the day marker stripes are no longer essential. However, a sponsored campaign to keep the stripes was launched in October 2011. The required £27,000 was raised. The tower repainting was completed in October using a team including two abseilers. Five coats of paint were applied to the copper lantern at the top and three on each hoop of the tower. In 2019 with the impending demolition of the

Royal Sovereign Lighthouse Royal Sovereign lighthouse, located offshore from Eastbourne, is a decommissioned lighthouse marking the Royal Sovereign shoal, a sandbank named after HMS Sovereign of the Seas, HMS ''Royal Sovereign''. Its distinctive shape is easily recogni ...

, Trinity House has said it will increase the strength of Beachy Head light to compensate for the loss of Royal Sovereign.

Gallery

File:Beachy Head and Lighthouse, East Sussex, England - April 2010 crop horizon corrected.jpg, Looking towards the cliffs and lighthouse from the west near

Birling Gap East Dean and Friston is a civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England.The two villages in the parish are in a dry valley on the South Downs – between Eastbourne three miles (4.8 km) to the east and Seaford an equal dis ...

File:Beachy9888.jpg, Temporary cable car for the construction of the lighthouse File:Beachy Head Lighthouse, East Sussex, England-2Oct2011.jpg, The lighthouse from the sea File:Beachy Head Lighthouse from east.jpg, The lighthouse viewed from the east side File:Beachy Head Lighthouse (geograph 4943660).jpg, Detail of the lighthouse

In popular culture

The lighthouse was a setting in an episode of ''

The Prisoner ''The Prisoner'' is a 1967 British television series about an unnamed British intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a mysterious coastal village, where his captors designate him as Number Six and try to find out why he abruptl ...

'' called

The Girl Who Was Death "The Girl Who Was Death" is an episode of the allegorical British science fiction TV series, ''The Prisoner''. It was written by Terence Feely and directed by David Tomblin and was the sixteenth produced. It was broadcast in the UK on ITV (S ...

. The lighthouse was shown in the 1968 film, ''

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' is a 1968 musical-fantasy film directed by Ken Hughes with a screenplay co-written by Roald Dahl and Hughes, loosely based on Ian Fleming's novel '' Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car'' (1964). The film stars ...

'' after the car falls off the cliff and flies for the first time.

References

External links