The Signal Tower is a museum in the coastal town of

Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( gd, Obar Bhrothaig ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast some ENE of Dundee and SSW of Aberdeen. The ...

Angus, Scotland Angus ( sco, Angus; gd, Aonghas) is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross. Main industries include agr ...

Working life

Originally built in 1813 as a base of operations for the famous Bell Rock Lighthouse, the Signal Tower housed the families of the keepers stationed on the 'rock', along with the vital shore staff who ran the

lighthouse tender A lighthouse tender is a ship specifically designed to maintain, support, or tend to lighthouses or lightvessels, providing supplies, fuel, mail, and transportation. In the United States, these ships originally served as part of the Lighthous ...

supplying the light. The name Signal Tower comes from the signalling apparatus installed atop of the tower building that was used to communicate between the shore staff (the Master Of The Tender) and the keepers of the lighthouse. An identical set of signalling apparatus is installed atop the lighthouse itself. Installed within the Signal Tower was a small observatory outfitted with a powerful telescope; it was through this telescope that the signalling apparatus on the lighthouse was monitored during the day. In an age before wireless communications, the ball system employed by the Bell Rock was seen as state of the art technology. At night, any fluctuation to the light would see the supply vessel set sail for the 'rock' to investigate. The signalling apparatus worked with a ball hoisted up and down a pole. The Master of the Tender or one of his staff was responsible for keeping watch between 9am and 10am, during which period the lighthouse keepers would hoist the ball up to the top of the pole if all was well. During foggy weather, the watch was postponed to 1pm. If the ball did remain down, it usually signified a major emergency such as a chronic shortage of provisions or illness of one of the lighthouse keepers, in any case, the tender was launched and would sail for the lighthouse as soon as possible. In 1955, with the advent of helicopters and faster boats, staffing for the lighthouse was carried out from

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

, home of the Northern Lighthouse Board. Fishing vessels from Arbroath would routinely carry newspapers, fresh

rolls Roll or Rolls may refer to: Movement about the longitudinal axis * Roll angle (or roll rotation), one of the 3 angular degrees of freedom of any stiff body (for example a vehicle), describing motion about the longitudinal axis ** Roll (aviation), ...

and other non-essential provisions to the keepers and would relay messages back to the shore station, either on behalf of the Master of the Tender or as a favour to the lighthouse keepers.

Council housing

After the NLB handed the building to the then Arbroath Town Council, it was used for around 15 years as

council housing Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council estates, council housing, or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in so ...

before being converted in the 1970s into a museum.

Museum

After its brief and bizarre spell as council housing, the building was converted into a museum, focusing on Arbroath and the surrounding area. Arbroath, like

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

was a major

jute Jute is a long, soft, shiny bast fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus ''Corchorus'', which is in the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is ''Corchorus olit ...

processor and was home to many world-renowned companies, including Shanks Lawnmowers, Giddings + Lewis-Fraser and Keith & Blackman. The museum holds many items and documents relating to the lawnmower manufacturer Shanks, including a number of lawnmowers produced by the company, as well as a variety of documents, photographs and company insignia from Giddings + Lewis-Fraser and Keith & Blackman. In addition to the manufacturing exhibits, the Signal Tower Museum also has many exhibits relating to the Bell Rock Lighthouse, a scale model of the Inchcape Rock and the lighthouse upon it, and one of the light mechanisms previously fitted to the lighthouse. There is a wide range of exhibits relating to the

fishing industry The fishing industry includes any industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products. It is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as including ...

, with scale models of many fishing vessel types once found in the harbour at Arbroath, along with information on fishing and the fish processing industry in Arbroath. In addition to the historical exhibits relating to Arbroath, there is also useful information for ramblers with information on the numerous nature trails around Arbroath.

References and further reading

BellRock.org.uk
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Arbroath Timeline
{{Scottish Museums and Art Galleries Category A listed buildings in Angus, Scotland Lighthouse museums in the United Kingdom Listed museum buildings in Scotland Museums in Angus, Scotland Local museums in Scotland Arbroath