Happisburgh Lighthouse in

Happisburgh Happisburgh () is a village civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is on the coast, to the east of a north–south road, the B1159 from Bacton on the coast to Stalham. It is a nucleated village. The nearest substantial to ...

on the

North Norfolk North Norfolk is a local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in Cromer. The population at the 2011 Census was 101,149. History The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972. It was ...

coast is the only independently operated

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses m ...

in Great Britain. It is also the oldest working lighthouse in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

History

The building was constructed in 1790 as one of a pair of lights ("High Lighthouse" and "Low Lighthouse") and worked with the Newarp Lightvessel to guide mariners around the southern edge of the offshore Haisborough Sands. The light came from rows of oil lamps placed in front of polished reflectors. In 1868 the lantern stage (the top-most part of the tower) was replaced with the diagonally-framed glass structure seen today (which was a new innovation at the time) and following this improvement the reflectors were replaced in each lighthouse by a large (first-order) catadioptric lens designed by Chance Brothers at Smethwick near Birmingham. In 1871 Happisburgh's lighthouses were used for a series of trials comparing a Douglass 4-wick oil light (displayed from the low lighthouse) with a Wigham 108-jet gas light (displayed from the high lighthouse) both using the same optics; the experiments (which tested rival claims made by the principal advocates of these forms of illumination,

James Nicholas Douglass Sir James Nicholas Douglass, (16 October 1826 – 19 June 1898) was an English civil engineer, a prolific lighthouse builder and designer, most famous for the design and construction of the fourth Eddystone Lighthouse, for which he was knig ...

and

John Richardson Wigham :''This article concerns the Irish-based inventor and lighthouse engineer, not his cousin the shipbuilder John Wigham Richardson''. John Richardson Wigham (15 January 1829 – 16 November 1906) was a prominent lighthouse engineer of the 19th ce ...

respectively) were not conclusive and further trials later took place at South Foreland. In order to provide a supply of

coal gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...

for the lamp, a small

gas works A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space. Early gasworks Coal ...

was established alongside the high lighthouse; the gas was manufactured using

cannel coal Cannel coal or candle coal is a type of bituminous coal, also classified as terrestrial type oil shale. Hutton(1987) Dyni (2006), pp. 3–4 Speight (2012), pp. 6–7 Due to its physical morphology and low mineral content cannel coal is considered ...

and stored in a pair of gas holders situated behind the lighthouse. In 1872, the trial having concluded, it was decided to retain gas as the illuminant for the high lighthouse. Beyond Happisburgh, however, Trinity House did not adopt gas as an illuminant for its lighthouses. The low light was decommissioned and demolished in 1884 before it could be lost due to

coastal erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts of storms. The landwar ...

; its lantern and lens were reused at Southwold lighthouse.Point 2 - The Lighthouse
''BBC Suffolk''. Retrieved 2012-10-29. The demolition of the low light led to the High Light being repainted with red bands, so as to differentiate it more clearly from the lighthouse at Winterton; at the same time it was also provided with an

occulting An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks ...

mechanism to differentiate the light itself. The light source was changed to paraffin in 1904, and then to an unwatched

acetylene Acetylene ( systematic name: ethyne) is the chemical compound with the formula and structure . It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is unstable in its pure ...

system in 1929; this meant that there was no further need for keepers to be permanently accommodated on site, and the keepers' cottages were then sold. In 1947 the light was electrified and given a new group flashing characteristic: three flashes every 30 seconds. The tower is tall, putting the

lantern A lantern is an often portable source of lighting, typically featuring a protective enclosure for the light sourcehistorically usually a candle or a oil lamp, wick in oil, and often a battery-powered light in modern timesto make it easier to ca ...

at above sea level. The lighthouse is painted white with three red bands and has a

light characteristic A light characteristic is all of the properties that make a particular navigational light identifiable. Graphical and textual descriptions of navigational light sequences and colours are displayed on nautical charts and in Light Lists with the cha ...

of Fl(3)30s (three white flashes, repeated every 30 seconds) at a height of with a range of . It continues to use the optic installed in 1868. The other lighthouse - the "low light" - was lower. Together they formed a pair of

range lights Leading lights (also known as range lights in the United States) are a pair of light beacons used in navigation to indicate a safe passage for vessels entering a shallow or dangerous channel; they may also be used for position fixing. At night ...

that marked a safe passage around the southern end of the offshore

Haisborough Sands Haisborough Sands (or Haisboro Sands or Haisbro Sands) is a sandbank off the coast of Norfolk, England at Happisburgh.SC1408 Harwich and Rotterdam to Cromer & Terschelling Admiralty Small Craft Chart Coastal planning chart of the Harwich and Rot ...

to a stretch of safe waters known as 'The Would'.

Independence

In 1987 Happisburgh was one of five lighthouses declared redundant by

Trinity House "Three In One" , formation = , founding_location = Deptford, London, England , status = Royal Charter corporation and registered charity , purpose = Maintenance of lighthouses, buoys and beacons , he ...

and deactivation was planned for June 1988. Villagers organised a petition to oppose the closure, and as a result the date was postponed. Under the Merchant Shipping Act of 1894, Trinity House may dispose of a working lighthouse only to an established Lighthouse Authority. On 25 April 1990 the Happisburgh Lighthouse Act received the Royal Assent establishing the Happisburgh Lighthouse Trust as a Local Lighthouse Authority, and Happisburgh became the only independently run operational lighthouse in Great Britain. In June 2018, the lighthouse was repainted. At a cost of £20,000, the work took two weeks by a specialist team of four painters. The 300 litres of specially mixed masonry paints used was donated by a paint company. Friends of Happisburgh Lighthouse, said: “The re-paint demonstrates our continuing commitment to maintaining Happisburgh lighthouse for future generations.” Due to COVID-19, the Lighthouse did not open to visitors in 2020.

In popular culture

* In 1990, the lighthouse featured in an episode of the BBC TV programme Challenge Anneka. The lighthouse was repainted inside and out in 33 hours on 30–31 August 1990, with the programme airing on 15 December 1990. * The lighthouse was used as the location for the video of

Ellie Goulding Elena Jane Goulding ( ; born 30 December 1986) is an English singer and songwriter. Her career began when she met record producers Starsmith and Frankmusik, and she was later spotted by Jamie Lillywhite, who became her manager and Artists and ...

's 2010 song "

The Writer ''The Writer'' is a magazine for writers, published monthly by Madavor Media. History ''The Writer'' was first established by William H. Hills and Robert Luce, two ''Boston Globe'' reporters, as "a monthly magazine to interest and help all lit ...

". * It features prominently in the 2015

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, ap ...

AfterDeath ''AfterDeath'' is a 2015 horror film directed by Gez Medinger and Robin Schmidt, produced by Cameron Lawther. It stars Miranda Raison, Sam Keeley, Daniella Kertesz, Elarica Johnson and Lorna Nickson Brown as five twentysomethings who mysterious ...

'', its beam causing terrifying flashbacks.

Gallery

File:Haisboro Sands.jpg, The location of

off the

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...

coast File:Happisburgh Lighthouse - geograph.org.uk - 62299.jpg, The lighthouse File:Happisbugh Lighthouse lantern.jpg, The lantern inside the lighthouse

Bibliography

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References

External links

Happisburgh Lighthouse website

Trinity House Lighthouse Service

An 1892 OS map, showing both the Happisburgh lighthouses
('England - Norfolk: 030/NW', Ordnance Survey 1:10,560 - Epoch 1 (1892)). Date accessed: 28 August 2010 {{Authority control Lighthouses completed in 1790 Towers completed in 1790 Lighthouses in Norfolk History of Norfolk North Norfolk 1790 establishments in England Grade II listed lighthouses Grade II listed buildings in Norfolk