Gunfleet Lighthouse is a derelict screw-pile lighthouse lying in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

, six miles off the coast at

Frinton-on-Sea Frinton-on-Sea is a seaside town and (as just Frinton) a former civil parish, now in the parish of Frinton and Walton, in the Tendring district of Essex, England. In 2018 it had an estimated population of 4,837. History The place-name 'Fri ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, constructed in 1850 by James Walker of

Trinity House The Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond, also known as Trinity House (and formally as The Master, Wardens and Assistants of the Guild Fraternity or Brotherhood of the most glorious and undivided Trinity and of St Clement in the ...

. George Henry Saunders was the contractor. Walker and Burges were the Engineers. It is in height and hexagonal in plan; mounted on seven piles forming a steel lattice and originally painted red. It was first lit on 1 May 1856, replacing a light vessel which had been on station there since 1850. When in use, the lighthouse was staffed by two keepers. They were accommodated in a single-storey dwelling, immediately below the lantern, which was divided into a living room (also used as a kitchen), a bed room and an oil room (in which the fuel for the lamps was stored). The walls and roof were of

corrugated iron Corrugated galvanised iron (CGI) or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America), zinc (in Cyprus and Nigeria) or ...

, with

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

angle plates. Additional storage space was provided in the 'inverted pyramid' beneath the dwelling, which was accessed by a ladder from the gallery. The light flashed red once every 30 seconds; it was lit using

Argand lamp The Argand lamp is a type of oil lamp invented in 1780 by Aimé Argand. Its output is 6 to 10 candelas, brighter than that of earlier lamps. Its more complete combustion of the candle wick and oil than in other lamps required much less frequen ...

s and reflectors mounted on a revolving triangular frame, with a pane of red glass mounted in front of each reflector. Initially nine lamps and reflectors were used (three groups of three), but the number was later increased to fifteen (three groups of five). It also had a fog bell, which sounded once every ten seconds in bad weather; like the lamp mechanism, it was driven by clockwork. In 1908 the light was upgraded to flash red once every fifteen seconds; thereafter it was listed as a dioptric light (i.e. equipped with

lenses A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements''), ...

rather than reflectors). The light and fog signal continued to be listed as active into the 1940s, but by 1951 it had been decommissioned. It remains in use as an automated weather station by the

Port of London Authority The Port of London Authority (PLA) is a self-funding public trust established on 31 March 1909 in accordance with the Port of London Act 1908 to govern the Port of London. Its responsibility extends over the Tideway of the River Thames and its ...

, and marks the northern limit of their jurisdiction. In 1974 an attempt was made to use the lighthouse as a base for the pirate radio station Radio Atlantis but this was thwarted by the authorities.

References

External links

2005 tour of the lighthouse (including internal photographs)

* Lighthouses completed in 1850 Lighthouses in England 1921 disestablishments in England Buildings and structures in Essex Unused buildings in the United Kingdom {{Europe-lighthouse-stub

See also

References

External links