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Concept
Southwold Lighthouse
Summary
Southwold Lighthouse is a lighthouse operated by Trinity House in the centre of Southwold in Suffolk, England. It stands on the North Sea coast, acting as a warning light for shipping passing along the east coast and as a guide for vessels navigating to Southwold harbour.
The lighthouse, which is a prominent local landmark, was commissioned in 1890, and was automated and electrified in 1938. It survived a fire in its original oil-fired lamp just six days after commissioning and today operates a 180-watt main navigation lamp. This lamp has a range of .
Construction of the lighthouse began in 1887, led by Sir James Douglass, Engineer in Chief of Trinity House. A light was lit on a temporary structure in February 1889 and the lighthouse itself began operating on 3 September 1890. Previously, three fixed lights had been displayed from the cliff at Southwold; these were now discontinued. Both the lantern (the uppermost part of the structure) and the optic (a first-order fixed Fresnel lens), had originally been built by Chance Brothers in 1868 for Happisburgh Low Lighthouse; they became available for re-use when the latter light was demolished in 1883.
The light was initially powered by a six-wick Argand oil burner; it displayed a group occulting characteristic (the light being eclipsed twice every 20 seconds) and had a visible range of . The light was white, but shone red across defined sectors to the north and to the south (indicating the Barnard sands and Sizewell Bank respectively); in addition, 'spare' light, which would otherwise have shone needlessly westwards, was diverted by way of vertical condensing prisms so as to intensify these red sectors.
Just six days after the light was commissioned there was a fire in the lighthouse with the burner being destroyed. The inexperience of the new lighthouse keepers was blamed for the fire.
The burner was replaced with an oil-fired light in 1906 and a petroleum burner in 1923. The light was electrified and automated in 1938, at which time the light characteristic was changed to group flashing, 6 flashes every 20 seconds (modified to 4 flashes in 1965).
Official source
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