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Lighthouse
Bamburgh Lighthouse
(also known as Black Rocks Point Lighthouse) was built by
Trinity House
in 1910 to guide shipping both passing along the Northumberland coast and in the waters around the
Farne Islands
. It was extensively modernised in 1975 and is now monitored from the Trinity House Operations and Planning Centre in
Harwich
. Routine maintenance is carried out by a local attendant. It is the most northerly land-based
lighthouse
in England.
[1]
When originally built, the lamp was mounted on a 36 ft (11 m)-high skeletal steel tower (the footprint of which can still be seen within the compound) which stood alongside the white building which housed an
acetylene
plant to power the lamp.
[2]
(A similar arrangement can be seen today at
Peninnis Lighthouse
in the
Isles of Scilly
.) The lamp was mounted within a fixed
third-order dioptric
optic.
[3]
It was a
sector light
with a
group occulting
characteristic (showing two eclipses every 15 seconds).
[4]
The light was electrified in 1967.
[3]
Diesel generators were installed in the (redundant) acetylene building.
In 1975 the tower was removed, and a new lantern and lens were installed on top of the old acetylene building.
[1]
In the 1980s the lighthouse was connected to
mains electricity
, the generators being retained as a standby provision.
[5]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Bamburgh Lighthouse"
. Trinity House.
- ^
Vintage postcard showing original arrangement.
- ^
a
b
Jackson, Derrick (1975).
Lighthouses of England and Wales
. Newton Abbott, Devon: David & Charles. p. 114.
- ^
Potter, J. D. (1910).
North Sea Pilot, Part III
. London: The Admiralty (Hydrographic Office).
- ^
Woodman, Richard; Wilson, Jane (2002).
The Lighthouses of Trinity House
. Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts.: Thomas Reed. p. 98.
General references
[
edit
]