St Mary's Lighthouse
| St Mary's Lighthouse | |||
| St Mary's Island | |||
 St Mary's Lighthouse | |||
| Location | |||
| Grid reference: | NZ35257538 | ||
| Location: | 55°4’18"N, 1°26’58"W | ||
| Characteristics | |||
| Height: | 150 feet | ||
| Tower shape: | tapered cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern | ||
| Tower marking: | white tower and lantern | ||
| Light: | Fl(2) W 20s. | ||
| Range: | 17 nautical miles | ||
| History | |||
| Built 1898 | |||
| Information | |||
St Mary's Lighthouse is on the tiny St Mary's (or Bait) Island, just north of Whitley Bay on the coast of Northumberland. The small rocky tidal island is linked to the mainland by a short concrete causeway which is submerged at high tide.
History
The first light here was in the priory - an 11th-century monastic chapel, whose monks maintained a lantern on the tower to warn passing ships of the danger of the rocks. A lighthouse was built here in 1664 using stone from the priory. This was demolished[1] when the current lighthouse and adjacent keepers' cottages were built in 1898 by the John Miller company of Tynemouth, using 645 blocks of stone and 750,000 bricks. A first-order 'bi-valve' rotating optic was installed by Barbier & Bénard of Paris, very similar to the one they had provided the previous year for Lundy North Lighthouse; it displayed a group-flashing characteristic, flashing twice every 20 seconds. The lamp was powered by paraffin, and was not electrified until 1977; St Mary's was by then the last Trinity House lighthouse lit by oil.[2]
As part of the electrification process the fine first-order fresnel lens was removed by Trinity House (it was later put on display in their National Lighthouse Museum in Penzance). Its place in the tower was taken by a four-tier revolving sealed beam lamp array, manufactured by Pharos Marine;[3] it was powered by two 12-volt batteries, charged from the mains electricity supply.[4]
Decommissioning
The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1984 (just two years after its conversion to automatic operation). The revolving sealed beam array was reused two years later (in reduced form) on the Inner Dowsing light platform in the North Sea, as part of its conversion to become 'the first major lighthouse to be run using solar power'.[3] In 1986 a blue plaque was created to record its early history.[1]
A few years later, St Mary's was opened as a visitor attraction by the local council. In place of the original optic, Trinity House offered a smaller one from their decommissioned lighthouse at Withernsea, and this can still be seen at the top of the tower.[5]
Following closure of the Penzance lighthouse museum, the original lens was returned to St Mary's in 2011 to be put on display.
The lighthouse today
While it no longer functions as a working lighthouse, St Mary's Lighthouse is easily accessible (when the tide is out) and regularly open to visitors; in addition to the lighthouse itself there is a small museum, a visitor's centre, and a café. The cottage was upgraded with a wood pellet boiler in 2014.
Another Victorian lighthouse may be found a few miles to the south of the River Tyne in County Durham, Souter Lighthouse is also now decommissioned, and open to visitors. Souter Lighthouse can be seen with the naked eye from the top of St Mary's Lighthouse.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about St Mary's Lighthouse) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bolckow (2010-02-27), Site of Tynemouth Lighthouse plaque,Tynemouth Coastguard Station, https://www.flickr.com/photos/bolckow/4409879741/, retrieved 2022-02-25
- ↑ Jones, Robin (2014). Lighthouses of the North East Coast. Wellington, Somerset: Halsgrove.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Inner Dowsing Goes Solar". The Dock and Harbour Authority 67 (785): 195. December 1986.
- ↑ "Briefing". The Electrical Review 23 (6): 103. 11 August 1978.
- ↑ World Lighthouse Society Fall 2004 Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 3