St Bees Lighthouse
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St Bees 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 on
St Bees Head St Bees Head is a headland on the North West coast of the English county of Cumbria and is named after the nearby village of St Bees. It is the only stretch of Heritage Coast on the English coastline between the Welsh and Scottish borders, an ...
near the village of
St Bees St Bees is a coastal village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Copeland district of Cumbria, England, on the Irish Sea. Within the parish is St Bees Head which is the only Heritage Coast between Wales and Scotland and a Site of Special ...
in
Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...
, England. The cliff-top light is the highest in England at above sea level.


Earlier lighthouses

The first lighthouse on the site began its life in 1718 on land bought 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 ...
, one of the UK's general lighthouse authorities. It was constructed by Thomas Lutwi e, who paid a lease of £20 per year for the site. It stood 9 metres tall and was 5 metres in diameter topped with a large metal grate on which the lighthouse keeper would burn coal. To make money Lutwi e levied charges of 3½ pence per tonne of cargo carried by vessels to nearby ports. In 1740 the Governors of St Bees School leased the lighthouse, with adjoining parcels of land. late in the tenure of Thomas Lutwidge, to Joseph Burrow of Whitehaven esquire for 5 guineas (£5, 5 shillings) at 1 shilling annual rent. In 1822 it was the last
coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...
-powered lighthouse in Britain, when it was destroyed by a fire in which the keeper's wife and five children perished by suffocation. In its place a circular tower, high, with 15 oil-powered
Argand lamp The Argand lamp is a type of oil lamp invented in 1780 by Aimé Argand. Its output is 6 to 10 candelas, brighter than that of earlier lamps. Its more complete combustion of the candle wick and oil than in other lamps required much less frequent ...
s set within
parabolic reflectors A parabolic (or paraboloid or paraboloidal) reflector (or dish or mirror) is a reflective surface used to collect or project energy such as light, sound, or radio waves. Its shape is part of a circular paraboloid, that is, the surface generated ...
, was built by engineer Joseph Nelson at a cost of £1,447; it was operational from 1823. In 1866 this was in turn replaced by a new, higher round tower, built (along with two new dwelling houses for the keepers) further inland.


The current lighthouse

The foundation stone of the current tower was laid in a ceremony on 10 May 1865, with construction by builder John Glaister of
Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies by road south-west of Carlisle and to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It is th ...
. Civil engineer Henry Norris supervised the construction as resident engineer on behalf of
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 ...
. Beneath the foundation stone a zinc box was laid containing a dated scroll signed by Henry Norris & John Glaister as well as by the others present at ceremony together with newspapers and coins of the realm. The tower is high and stands an average of above sea level. It was built of local sandstone topped by a lantern that was originally destined for
Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...
It was provided with a large (
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 ...
)
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, supplied by Chance Brothers & Co., with a single lamp, supplied by Messrs. W. Wilkins & Co. of
Long Acre Long Acre is a street in the City of Westminster in central London. It runs from St Martin's Lane, at its western end, to Drury Lane in the east. The street was completed in the early 17th century and was once known for its coach-makers, and l ...
. The optic included a 'dioptric mirror' (i.e. a set of double-reflecting prisms) which redirected light from the landward side of the lamp back out to sea. The new lighthouse was still under construction in late November 1866 when Henry Norris was sued by a painter in court in Whitehaven who had not been paid for lettering a notice board at the lighthouse; but it was operational by the end of the year. By the 1890s it was displaying a group-occulting light, on the following pattern: visible for 24 seconds, eclipsed for 2 seconds, visible for 2 seconds, eclipsed for 2 seconds; the light could be seen up to out to sea. From 1913 an explosive fog signal was sounded from the lighthouse; it remained operational into the second half of the century. In the
interwar In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relativel ...
period the lighthouse was used as a turning marker in the
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
to
Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...
air races. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
the local
Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting wi ...
used it to practise defence/attack strategies although there is no record of ammunition being fired at it. The light was electrified in the mid-1950s. In the early 1960s a triple-frequency
Tannoy Tannoy is a British manufacturer of loudspeakers and public address systems. Founded by Guy Fountain in London in 1926 as the Tulsemere Manufacturing Company, today the company is part of the Music Tribe group of brands. History Tannoy Ltd is ...
electric fog signal was provided, in a detached building very close to the edge of the cliff. At Whitehaven Archives there is the Register of Reports on Supernumerary Assistant Keepers between 9 June 1925 and 14 May 1976 listing every keeper at the Light between those dates- too numerous to list here. A Chronological and name index has been compiled and appended to the Archive Catalogue Record. There is a list of keepers between 1841 and 1910 on GenUKI. In 1987 the light was fully electrified, giving a beam of 134,000
candela The candela ( or ; symbol: cd) is the unit of luminous intensity in the International System of Units (SI). It measures luminous power per unit solid angle emitted by a light source in a particular direction. Luminous intensity is analogous to ...
which can be seen away. It was also de-manned and automated at this time: the light was then one of five to be remotely monitored from the Trinity House depot at
Holyhead Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...
. In 1999 the light was further modernised (the lamp being replaced with a cluster of three 250W halogen lamps) after which it was monitored from the Trinity House Planning Centre in
Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-on- ...
. In February 2021 the (by then obsolescent) halogen lamps were removed and a new 90W LED light was installed (still within the original 1866 optic), which has succeeded in providing a more energy-efficient light source without any reduction in its range (18 Nautical Miles). It flashes twice every 20 seconds. The fog signal has been discontinued; it used to sound two blasts every 45 seconds.


See also

*
List of lighthouses in England This is a list of lighthouses in England. It includes lighthouses which are no longer in use as a light but are still standing. It also includes some of the harbour and pier-head lights around the country. Details of several lighthouses and li ...


References


External links


Trinity House

Maritime Lights (Cumbria County Council)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Bees Lighthouse Lighthouses in Cumbria St Bees