Withernsea Lighthouse

Withernsea Lighthouse
Tower


Location	Withernsea East Riding of Yorkshire England
OS grid	TA3393327967
Coordinates	53°43′51″N 0°01′44″E / 53.730953°N 0.028751°E / 53.730953; 0.028751
Constructed	1894
Construction	brick tower
Height	128 feet (39 m)
Shape	tapered octagonal prism with balcony and lantern
Markings	white tower and lantern
Operator	Withernsea Lighthouse Museum ^[1]
Heritage	Grade II listed building^[2]

Light
Deactivated	1976

Withernsea Lighthouse is an inland lighthouse that stands in the middle of the town of Withernsea in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The lighthouse stands 127 feet (38 m) high and took 18 months to build between 1892 and 1894.^[3] Formerly owned and run by Trinity House of London, it ceased operation on 1 July 1976 and is now used as a museum.

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History

The lighthouse is distanced nearly 1⁄4 mile or 400 metres from the sea front. At the time it was built, there was nothing between it and the sea but sand dunes, and fear of coastal erosion led to it being positioned well back.^[4] The lantern atop the tower and the Fresnel lens optic within it both came 'second-hand' from the old North Lighthouse at High Whitby,^[5] which had been decommissioned shortly before the building work at Withernsea began.

Initially, the light was provided by an eight-wick paraffin lamp, which was set within the fixed first-order catadioptric optic (which had been designed and manufactured by Chance Brothers in 1858). It was an occulting light, the lamp being eclipsed three times in quick succession every minute;^[6] the occulting mechanism was clockwork. A petroleum vapour lamp was introduced in the early 20th century;^[7] the triple-occulting arrangement remained in place until 1936.^[8]

In 1936 the light was electrified: it was given a 100 volt, 1500 watt bulb set within an eight-sided revolving third order Fresnel lens array, which displayed a white flash every three seconds with a range of 17 nautical miles (31 km; 20 mi).^[3] Withernsea was the first lighthouse in the North of England to be converted from oil to electricity. It ran off mains electricity, but if the main lamp failed an automatic lamp changer brought a battery-powered lamp into action.^[9] This arrangement, provided by the Chloride Electrical Storage Company, was said to be 'the first electrical emergency lighting system to be adopted by Trinity House for a lighthouse'.^[10] A similar system was installed at Lowestoft two years later, and subsequently it was widely adopted across the service.

The lens weighed two tons and floated in a mercury bath; it was turned by clockwork. The lighting system, lens and clockwork mechanism remained in use into the 1970s.^[11] Before decommissioning in 1976, the lighthouse was operated as a 'man-and-wife station', run by a couple who were accommodated in the adjacent cottage.^[12]

Lighthouse today

The base of the lighthouse features RNLI and HM Coastguard exhibits, with models and old photographs. These record the history of ship-wrecks in the area and detail the Withernsea lifeboats and crews who saved 87 lives between 1862 and 1913. It also depicts the history of the nearby Spurn lifeboats.

The local history room has Victorian and Edwardian photos of the town including the pier and railway. There is a Kay Kendall memorial to the 1950s film star, who was born in the town.

The lighthouse has antennae attached used to provide local mobile phone coverage.^[13]^[14]

Views from the lamp room in the Withernsea Lighthouse are available to visitors after climbing the 144 steps. There is no lamp, as this was removed after closure and sent to St Mary's Lighthouse in Tyne and Wear where it can still be seen to this day.^[4]

The lighthouse and adjoining lighthouse keepers' houses are Grade II listed buildings.^[2]

Gallery

As seen from the street
Garden view of the lighthouse and keepers' cottage
Steps inside the lighthouse
The view from the top
Trinity House plaque on the tower
The old Withernsea optic (now in St Mary's lighthouse, Whitley Bay)

References

^ Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of Eastern England". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
^ ^a ^b Historic England. "Withernsea Lighthouse and adjoining pair of lighthouse keepers cottages (1083470)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
^ ^a ^b "About The Lighthouse". Withernsea Lighthouse Museum. Archived from the original on 25 April 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
^ ^a ^b Jones, Robin (2014). Lighthouses of the North East Coast. Wellington, Somerset: Halsgrove.
^ Mercantile Marine Fund: Minutes of Evidence Taken Before the Committee of Inquiry appointed by the President of the Board of Trade. London: HMSO. 1896. p. 281.
^ London Gazette, Issue 26487, Page 1091, 20 February 1894.
^ Miles, George T. J.; Richardson, William (1911). A History of Withernsea. Hull: A. Brown & Sons. p. 38.
^ Talbot-Booth, E. C. (1936). A Cruising Companion: Ships and the Sea. New York & London: D. Appleton-Century Company. p. 65.
^ "News in Brief: Electric Lighthouse". The Electrical Journal. 116: 99. 24 January 1936.
^ "News in Brief: Lighthouse Emergency Lighting". The Electrician. 116: 189. 7 February 1936.
^ "Withernsea (photographed in 1974)". Lighthouses of England. Archived from the original on 18 May 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
^ Jackson, Derrick (1975). Lighthouses of England and Wales. Newton Abbott, Devon: David & Charles. p. 105.
^ Withernsea suffering phone signal woes during lighthouse repainting Hull Live, 12 May 2021. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
^ Withernsea businesses complain of lost trade over phone mast work BBC News, 13 October 2023. Retrieved 17 October 2023.