The Low Lighthouse is one of three historic

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

s in Burnham-on-Sea,

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England, and the only one of the three which is still active. It is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

and stands on the

foreshore The intertidal zone or foreshore is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide; in other words, it is the part of the littoral zone within the tidal range. This area can include several types of Marine habitat, habitats ...

. First lit in 1832, the Low Lighthouse operated in conjunction with the (onshore) High Lighthouse for 137 years. Then, in 1969 (after improvements had been made to the High Lighthouse) the Low Lighthouse was deactivated; but later, in 1993, the Low Lighthouse was re-established and the High Lighthouse was instead decommissioned). The Low Lighthouse has long been known as 'the Lighthouse on Legs', as evident in an 1859 guide book: "the writer has heard merry children, while sporting on the sands, call this smaller beacon, ''the lighthouse on legs''".

Location

Burnham-on-Sea is notable for its beach and

mudflats Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal ...

, which are characteristic of Bridgwater Bay and the rest of the

Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel (, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales (from Pembrokeshire to the Vale of Glamorgan) and South West England (from Devon to North Somerset). It extends ...

where the tide can recede for over . Burnham is close to the estuary of the

River Parrett The River Parrett is a river that flows through the counties of Dorset and Somerset in South West England, from its source in the Thorney Mills springs in the hills around Chedington in Dorset. Flowing northwest through Somerset and the So ...

where it flows into the

, which has the second highest

tidal range Tidal range is the difference in height between high tide and low tide. Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and Sun, by Earth's rotation and by centrifugal force caused by Earth's prog ...

in the world of , second only to

Bay of Fundy The Bay of Fundy () is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is an arm of the Gulf of Maine. Its tidal range is the highest in the world. The bay was ...

Eastern Canada Eastern Canada (, also the Eastern provinces, Canadian East or the East) is generally considered to be the region of Canada south of Hudson Bay/ Hudson Strait and east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces (from east to west): Newf ...

. The constantly shifting sands have always been a significant risk to shipping in the area.

History

The low wooden pile lighthouse is high, the light being at . It was built by Joseph Nelson in 1832, in conjunction with the High Lighthouse, to replace the original Round Tower Lighthouse (which itself had been built to replace the light kept burning in the tower of St Andrews Church to guide fishing boats into the harbour). The new High and Low lighthouses were first lit on 1 December 1832. The Low Lighthouse was painted white with, on the seaward side, a black vertical stripe, one third the width of the building; the High Lighthouse was plain white. In 1890, to make the lighthouses more conspicuous by day, the colour of the stripe on the Low Lighthouse was altered to red, and a similar red vertical stripe was added to the High Lighthouse. Operation of the Low light was overseen by the keepers based and accommodated at the High Lighthouse.

Early operation

The Low Lighthouse showed a narrow fixed beam of white light from the lightroom on the upper floor, through a square window on the west side of the structure. Together, the High and Low Lighthouses functioned as

leading 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 nigh ...

, guiding vessels into the entrance channel for the River Parrett (the narrow entrance channel to the river lay between extensive mud flats: Berrow Flats to the north, Stert Flats to the south). The Low light had a range of , and beyond the narrow entrance channel the leading lights served in addition to provide a safe line of approach for vessels navigating up the Bristol Channel from the direction of Hurlstone Point and

Minehead Minehead is a coastal town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, north-west of the county town of Taunton, from the boundary with the county of Devon and close to the Exmoor National Park. T ...

. In April 1844, Trinity House issued a notice warning that the Gore Sand (at the southernmost tip of Berrow Flats) had extended itself in a southerly direction to such an extent that the two lighthouses in line no longer indicated the deep water channel between the mud flats. From 1 November 1866, the Low light was provided with an additional red light which shone a narrow beam in the direction of Gore Sand; at the same time, another red light was added (shining upriver from a window on the south side) to help guide vessels leaving the River Parrett.

Automation

When electricity was brought to Burnham in 1927 a 1000-watt

incandescent light bulb An incandescent light bulb, also known as an incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe, is an electric light that produces illumination by Joule heating a #Filament, filament until it incandescence, glows. The filament is enclosed in a ...

was installed in each lighthouse (replacing the paraffin vapour burners then in use) which rendered the keepers redundant. A submarine cable was laid between the two lighthouses and the characteristics of the two lights were synchronised (being controlled by a 'motor driven character machine' installed in the High lighthouse, which controlled both light circuits together). Both lights were given an occulting characteristic, the Low light occulting every 2.5 seconds, the High light every 5 seconds. In each location the lamp was set within a sectional fixed

optic Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultravio ...

, backed by a dioptric mirror. An automatic lamp changer was provided: in the event of a lamp failure the spare bulb was brought into operation and if it also failed an acetylene lamp would be automatically lit. Following automation, the Low light had a range of , the High light . The Low light retained its red sectors.

Decommissioning and recommissioning

From 1969, in addition to the main light, a subsidiary

sector light A sector light is a man-made pilotage and position fixing aid that consists of strictly delineated horizontal angle light beams to guide water-borne traffic through a safe channel at night in reasonable visibility. Sector lights are most often ...

was shown from a lower window in the High Lighthouse to indicate the correct bearing for the deep-water channel. This rendered the Low lighthouse surplus to requirements and it was deactivated that same year. On 31 December 1993, however, the High lighthouse was itself, in turn, deactivated; its flashing white light and subsidiary sector light were both transferred to the Low lighthouse, which was thereby brought back into commission. Today, the Low Lighthouse has a

focal plane In Gaussian optics, the cardinal points consist of three pairs of points located on the optical axis of a rotationally symmetric, focal, optical system. These are the '' focal points'', the principal points, and the nodal points; there are two ...

of and provides a white flash every 7.5s, plus a fixed directional light (white, red, or green depending on direction) at a focal plane of . It is operated by

Sedgemoor Sedgemoor is a low-lying area of land in Somerset, England. It lies close to sea level south of the Polden Hills, historically largely marsh (or "moor" in its older sense). The eastern part is known as King's Sedgemoor, and the western part We ...

District Council.

References