The Portland Breakwater Lighthouse is a functioning lighthouse located at Portland Harbour,

Isle of Portland An isle is an island, land surrounded by water. The term is very common in British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct fr ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is situated on the southern end of the north-east breakwater. The lighthouse, a white hexagonal

cast-iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

structure, was established in 1905. Built by

Chance Brothers Chance Brothers and Company was a glassworks originally based in Spon Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands (formerly in Staffordshire), in England. It was a leading glass manufacturer and a pioneer of British glassmaking technology. The Chance fam ...

, initially it displayed a white flash every five seconds and had a visible range of .London Gazette, Issue 27778, Page 2286, 24 March 1905
/ref> It was also provided with a

fog bell A fog bell is a navigation mark used as an audible aid to navigation in seafaring, especially in fog and poor visibility. Floating navigation signs with bells are called bell buoys. On ships, the ship's bell is used for sound signals. Due to more ...

, sounding once every ten seconds in foggy weather. The light was originally lit by oil, later changed to gas and is today lit electrically with a modern LED lamp. The light was owned by the Admiralty, but managed 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 ...

(who, until the light was automated in the late 1960s, provided three resident keepers accommodated in a nearby dwelling on the breakwater). The lighthouse was restored and repainted in 1995, prior to the closure of Portland Naval Base; subsequently, ownership of the lighthouse (along with the harbour as a whole) was vested in Portland Port Ltd, and the Portland Harbour Authority took over its management. The lighthouse underwent restoration again in 2016. The lighthouse's current use continues to aid navigation of boats in the area, warning mariners of the breakwaters by giving a white flash every 10 seconds. Surrounding the lighthouse are various defensive buildings such as pillboxes. The former

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, ultravio ...

from the lighthouse has been placed in Weymouth Museum.

Lighthouse Staff

In a 2005 newsletter of the South Dorset Amateur Radio, former keeper John Trotter recalled memories of the lighthouse:

References

External links

Portland Port
1905 establishments in England Lighthouses completed in 1905 Isle of Portland Lighthouses in Dorset Lighthouses of the English Channel Towers in Dorset {{Dorset-struct-stub

Lighthouse Staff

See also

References

External links