The Round Tower was 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 ...

Burnham-on-Sea Burnham-on-Sea is a seaside town in Somerset, England, at the mouth of the River Parrett, upon Bridgwater Bay. Burnham was a small fishing village until the late 18th century when it began to grow because of its popularity as a seaside resort. ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England, established in 1801. It was decommissioned in 1832, having been replaced by a pair of

leading lights Leading lights (also known as range lights in the United States) are a pair of light beacons used in navigation to indicate a safe passage for vessels entering a shallow or dangerous channel; they may also be used for position fixing. At night ...

half a mile to the north, and is now a private dwelling.

Location

Burnham-on-Sea is notable for its beach and

mudflats Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal fl ...

, which are characteristic of

Bridgwater Bay Bridgwater Bay is on the Bristol Channel, north of Bridgwater in Somerset, England at the mouth of the River Parrett and the end of the River Parrett Trail. It stretches from Minehead at the southwestern end of the bay to Brean Down in the nor ...

and the rest of the

Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel ( cy, Môr Hafren, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Seve ...

where the tide can recede for over . Burnham is close to the estuary of the

River Parrett The River Parrett flows through the counties of Dorset and Somerset in South West England, from its source in the Thorney Mills springs in the hills around Chedington in Dorset. Flowing northwest through Somerset and the Somerset Levels to it ...

where it flows into the

, which has the second highest

tidal range Tidal range is the difference in height between high tide and low tide. Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and Sun and the rotation of Earth. Tidal range depends on time and location. ...

in the world of , second only to

Bay of Fundy The Bay of Fundy (french: Baie de Fundy) is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is an arm of the Gulf of Maine. Its extremely high tidal range is the hi ...

Eastern Canada Eastern Canada (also the Eastern provinces or the East) is generally considered to be the region of Canada south of the Hudson Bay/Strait and east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces (from east to west): Newfoundland and Labrador, ...

. The constantly shifting sands have always been a significant risk to shipping in the area.

History

According to local legend, on a stormy night in around 1750 a fisherman's wife placed a candle in the window of her cottage, near the church, to guide her husband back home. Such was its effectiveness that local sailors began to pay her regular small sums of money to keep a candle burning night by night. Later, she was paid £5 by the sexton of St Andrews Church, who took over the responsibility but placed the light on top of the church tower where it was more easily to be seen. A local vicar, either John Goulden in 1764 or Walter Harris in 1799, raised a subscription amongst the local population to replace the light on the church. Towards the end of the century, the curate The Revd David Davies paid the sexton £20 for the right to exhibit the light, having himself resolved to establish a purpose-built lighthouse; as a result, the Burnham (or Bridgwater) Lighthouse was built alongside the curate's house, and first lit in 1801. Funds towards the maintenance of the light were raised from local merchants and ship owners; however by 1813 these funds were proving insufficient, and Davies was given permission to levy dues to supplement the £135 annual income as this wasn't enough for the lights maintenance. A 100 years

lease A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

had been attached to the permission to levy dues; however the outstanding 85 years of the lease was purchased 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 ...

around 1829. Funds from the sale were used by The Revd David Davies to improve the local area in an attempt to create a

spa town A spa town is a resort town based on a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visit spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath in 1668. H ...

, 'Daviesville', in the parish. In 1831, the lighthouse was described as having a distinctive occulting characteristic as follows: "This light appears in full force like a star one minute and a half, and is then eclipsed half a minute. It is lighted throughout the night, and is seen at the distance of one or two leagues, according to the state of cloudiness or clearness of the atmosphere". Trinity House soon resolved to replace the lighthouse with "a far more elegant, and much loftier structure, about half a mile northward of the former building, and which, from its greater altitude, as well as from there being no land intervenient to the point of view, must be perceptible at a far greater distance". At the same time, they planned to erect a second light on the foreshore, the two together being designed to function as

. Trinity House continued to operate the old lighthouse until 1 December 1832, when it was decommissioned and the new

High High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift ...

and Low lighthouses were lit. The machinery used to eclipse the light was transferred from the old lighthouse to the new High Light, which displayed a similar characteristic. Later, the old tower was shortened to two storeys, to prevent any confusion with the new High Lighthouse, and battlements were added.

Significance

In his 1836 guide to the new spa town, George Henning MD described the Round Tower lighthouse as having been "the great feature of the place, and the cynosure of the waters. It was the erection of this building that raised Burnham from obscurity. It drew strangers to the place, and those of quick perception saw intuitively, that it was a land of promise".

References

{{authority control Towers in Somerset Lighthouses completed in 1801 Lighthouses in Somerset Burnham-on-Sea

Location

History

Significance

See also

References