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EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE History

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EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE History EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE History The reasons Lighthouses *History The most famous lighthouse in the British Isles is probably the Eddystone, built on a small and very dangerous rock 13 miles south west of Plymouth. There have been four separate lighthouses built here. The original tower, completed in 1698, was the first lighthouse to be built on a small rock in the open sea. * The Eddystone Rocks are an extensive reef approximately 12 miles (19 km) SSW of Plymouth Sound, one of the most important naval harbours of England, and midway between Lizard Point, Cornwall and Start Point. They are submerged at high spring tides and were so feared by mariners entering the English Channel that they often hugged the coast of France to avoid the danger, which thus resulted not only in shipwrecks locally, but also on the rocks of the north coast of France and the Channel Islands. Given the difficulty of gaining a foothold on the rocks particularly in the predominant swell it was a long time before anyone attempted to place any warning on them. * The first lighthouse on Eddystone Rocks was an octagonal wooden structure by Henry Winstanley. Construction started in 1696 and the light was lit on 14 November 1698. The lighthouse survived its first winter but was in need of repair, and was subsequently changed to a dodecagonal (12 sided) stone clad exterior on a timber framed construction with an octagonal top section. Winstanley's tower lasted until the Great Storm of 1703 erased almost all trace on 27 November . * Following the destruction of the first lighthouse, Captain John Lovett who acquired the lease of the rock for 99 years, and by an Act of Parliament was allowed to charge passing ships a toll of one penny per ton, both inward and outward. He commissioned John Rudyard to design the new lighthouse, built as a conical wooden structure around a core of brick and concrete. A temporary light was first shone from it in 1708 and the work was completed in 1709. This proved more durable, surviving nearly fifty years. On the night of 2 December 1755, the top of the lantern caught f ire, probably through a spark from one of the candles used to illuminate the light. * Smeaton's lighthouse was the third on the site. Both earlier structures had been built of timber with granite ballast, the idea being that timber would move under wave action rather than resist it. Smeaton, the first engineer to consider the problem, decided to build in stone. Local granite was used for the foundations and facing, and Smeaton invented a quick drying cement, essential in the wet conditions on the rock, the formula for which is still used today An ingenious method of securing each block of stone to its neighbour, using dovetail joints and marble dowels was employed, together with a device for lifting large blocks of stone from ships at sea to considerable heights which has never been improved upon. Using all these innovations, Smeaton's tower was completed and lit by 24 candles on 16 October 1759. In the 1870's cracks appeared in the rock upon which Smeaton's lighthouse had stood for 120 years, so the top half of the tower was dismantled and re- erected on Plymouth Hoe as a monument to the builder. The remaining stump still stands on the Eddystone Rock. * The current, fourth, lighthouse was designed by James Douglass, using Robert Stevenson's developments of Smeaton's techniques. The light was lit in 1882 and is still in use. It is operated by Trinity House. It was automated in 1982, the first Trinity House 'Rock' (or offshore) lighthouse to be converted. The tower has been changed by construction of a helipad above the lantern, to allow maintenance crews access. The tower is 49 metres (161 ft) high, and its white light flashes twice every 10 seconds. The light is visible to 22 nautical miles (41 km), and is supplemented by a foghorn of 3 blasts every 60 seconds .
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