Bishop Rock, Isles of Scilly
| Bishop Rock | |
 Bishop Rock Lighthouse | |
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| Grid reference: | SV807064 |
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Bishop Rock is a small rock at the westernmost tip of the Isles of Scilly, known for its lighthouse. The rock is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's smallest island with a building on it.
Containing room for nothing more than the uninhabited 160-foot-tall lighthouse, the rock stands between Great Britain and the open Atlantic Ocean.
Bishop Rock is also the eastern end of the North Atlantic shipping route used by ocean liners in the first half of the 20th century, the western end being the entrance to Lower New York Bay. This was the route that these ocean liners took when competing for the Transatlantic speed record, awarded the "Blue Riband."
Lighthouse
Trinity House surveyed Bishop Rock to build a lighthouse in 1843, and work began in 1847.[1] The engineer in chief, James Walker, decided on a 120-foot design consisting of accommodation, and a light on top of iron legs.[1] The light was never lit, since on 5 February 1850 a storm washed the tower away.[1]
In the second attempt, James Walker began building a stone structure in 1851.[1] The site presented a number of difficulties; the paucity of land available area, and the slope of the rock meant that the lowest stone had to be laid below the water level of the lowest spring tides.[2] Despite multiple problems, the tower was completed without loss of life, and the lighthouse shone its first light on 1 September 1858.[2] The total cost for the lighthouse was £34,559.[2]
In 1881, Sir James Nicholas Douglass inspected the tower, and designed renovation to reinforce the structure. The work was begun in 1882 and completed in 1887, under the supervision of Douglass's eldest surviving son, William Tregarthen Douglass.
Bishop Lighthouse is often referred to as "King of the lighthouses" and it is indeed a very impressive structure. It is the second tallest in Britain, second only to the Eddystone Lighthouse and altogether the money spent on reaching this lighthouse we have today has been:
| The first iron lighthouse | £12,500 |
| The second granite lighthouse | £34,559 |
| The third improved lighthouse | £64,889 |
| Total cost | £111,948 |
Difficulty reaching the lighthouse by boat led Trinity House to build a helipad atop the lighthouse in 1976.[3] The tower has been fully automated since 15 December 1992.[4]
The lighthouse was used as a filming location for one of the current BBC One Idents and was also featured in the last segment of the comic documentary series Three Men in Another Boat.
The lighthouse was also featured in the 2010 BBC documentary Islands of Britain.
Wrecks
In 1901 a barque named Falkland struck the rock, her main yard hitting the lighthouse itself.[5]
East of Bishop Rock are the Western Rocks and the Gilstone Reef,[6] where Admiral Shovell's flagship HMS Association was wrecked in the great naval disaster of 1707. Shovell's remains were repatriated to the mainland by order of Queen Anne shortly after their initial burial in the Scillys.
The rock is also the subject of a short orchestral descriptive work by the late Doreen Carwithen (Mary Alwyn) and has been recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Richard Hickox.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Bishop Rock, Isles of Scilly) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Nicholson, Christopher (1995). Rock lighthouses of Britain The end of an era?. Whittles Publishing. pp. 114–115. ISBN 1870325419.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Nicholson, op. cit., p. 116
- ↑ Nicholson, op. cit., p. 126
- ↑ Nicholson, op. cit., p. 127
- ↑ "BRITISH BARK WRECKED; Founders Off Scilly Isles - Part of Her Crew Probably Drowned". New York Times. June 23, 1901. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F0CE2D81139EF32A25750C2A9609C946097D6CF. Retrieved 2008-09-24.
- ↑ A photograph of the Outer Gilstone Rock from www.shipwrecks.uk.com, retrieved 2010-02-21.
| Isles of Scilly |
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St Mary's •
St Agnes •
Tresco •
Bryher •
St Martin's •
Gugh
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