Lighthouse toilets

I am often asked the question - which lighthouse had the first toilet. It is a very popular question in pub quizzes. I can only speak for the English and Welsh lighthouses and the question often refers to island rock lighthouses. Shore stations or land lighthouses, whatever description you would like to give them, always had a toilet, either in the lighthouse keeper's cottage a short distance away, or in an attached building. They would have been built up to the same standard as all toilets of the day.

For rock lighthouses, which were surrounded by sea, then this was a different matter, as the two newspaper reports below indicate.

The Mail on Sunday in December 1984 stated that John Clarke, age 32, was sacked as a keeper on the Smalls lighthouse, because he was protesting that there were no proper toilet facilities. They had to use a bucket and throw the contents from the lantern gallery balcony. Presumably he had to wait until the wind was in the right direction. On October 4th 1985 the paper reported that he had won his appeal against Trinity House for wrongful dismissal.

In the Channel Islands, still part of Trinity House, there is the rock station, Hanois lighthouse. Built 1861-2, it was fitted with a flush toilet in the base of the tower. It is the only UK tower rock station to have such a luxury from new. It used sea water to flush and, yes, one had to be careful one didn't get one's own back when enthroned! Also, being near the entrance, your contemplations would often be shared by a number of sea slaters peering at you from the walls. Gerry Douglas Sherwood, an ex Trinity House Lighthouse Keeper experienced these dubious advantages when stationed there in 1971. He states it was best used at low tide on a calm day...

The picture is of a lighthouse toilet, taken in 2004, but for the life of me I cannot remember which lighthouse it is.

Trinity House Cap Badges

In the last 8 years no one has ever asked about the keeper's metal cap badge, and then within 6 weeks I get two questions. James, a teenager in the Isle of Wight, was metal detecting near St. Catherine's lighthouse and found the cap badge shown in the two pictures on the left. John was metal detecting near St. Ann's lighthouse in Wales and found the one shown in the picture on the right. Both have been cleaned up for the photo, have the fastening pin on the reverse, and are 4.5cm wide. I have spoken to my friendly ex lighthouse keeper, who in turn has consulted the archivist at Trinity House and we can confirm that it is a metal cap badge belonging to a keeper. It is probably Victorian and was still being used up to World War 1.

William Kelly was a keeper at St. Catherine's lighthouse, and a photo of him at the Maritime Museum in Falmouth shows him wearing a cap with this badge. He was keeper there from 1914-1918. An even older photo shows keeper George Freeman with the same badge in his cap. Fred (surname not given) in another photo shows the same badge. This style soon was replaced and my experts, who were young keepers during the war, confirm that their badge was cloth backed and embroidered with gold thread. The type of badge can sometimes indicate the rank.You can see a selection of cap badges at Cap Badges .

Well done to the two enthusiast metal detectors and long may they find buried treasure.

Now and Then

Now – is a photo of the base of the Smeaton’s Eddystone Lighthouse I took on 19th July 2008 (my birthday). Then – is circa 1870 sepia tone photograph of Smeaton’s Eddystone Lighthouse taken from exactly the same angle and almost the same tide. This old photograph was taken by "Groom & Co Photographers, 83 Union St., Plymouth." and as far as I am aware has not been published for at least 100 years. There appear to be four keepers – two on the gallery and two outside on the base rocks fishing.

Now - what are the chances of getting it right again ?

The Bishop visits the Bishop

Every picture tells a story. At first glance you could be forgiven for thinking that this is yet another photograph of the relief of keepers at any rock lighthouse but upon closer examination you will observe that the visitor is not a keeper.

The lighthouse is one of the most exposed in the world and is the Bishop Rock; off the Scilly Isles, beyond Cornwall.

These two rare photographs were taken in August 1936 and show the Bishop of Truro, a local Cornish man, Joseph Hunkin, being winched by hand some thirty feet in the air to the entrance door of the Bishop Rock lighthouse.

Unlike normal visitors who were lashed to the ropes, the Bishop, accompanied by his Chaplain, E. C. Seager, were hauled up in the same traditional manner as lighthouse keepers – as a mark of respect to them. The Bishop Rock lighthouse was the last Trinity House lighthouse to use a hand winch.

The Bishop had arrived at the lighthouse in order to perform the religious ceremony of confirmation for two keepers there and then and after the service he helped to land the provisions.

The pilot boat may well be the local ‘Lilly of Laguna’ run by the Hicks family, of which one was a keeper on this light.

The photographs were probably taken by a member of the Gibson family and appeared in the local and national papers at the time with the Daily Mirror running an article on it. It was the only time that a Bishop from the House of Lords, in full Church of England dress, had visited the Bishop Rock lighthouse. This sight will never be seen again.

In 1950 the unfortunate Bishop Hunkin died in the local dentist’s chair.

This era was in the glorious hey day of the Atlantic steam liner crossings. One of the additional duties of the keepers of this light was to verify and certify the timings as the liners reached the Bishop Rock.

Although not a race, the lighthouses at Bishop Rock and Ambrose, New York harbour would record the time of the steam liner passing and the one that completed the 3,044 mile crossing in the fastest time was allowed to fly the Blue Riband until that record was beaten and the Blue Riband was passed to the next fastest liner.

And yes !, I do know who currently holds it now – do you ?.

When is a lighthouse not a lighthouse ?

Can you put me out of my misery ?. This objects adorns the top of a building at Kings Cross, London. I know it is not a lighthouse - but it looks very much like one. Do you know anything of its history ?

Medals and medallions

Here are two interesting items I saw for sale on eBay -

The first (as above) was described as "STUNNING Eddystone Lighthouse medal dated 1904 Plymouth Exhibition in its original box - showing retailers J A Restall (Jeweller, Silversmith and Medalist) 82, Cambridge Street, Birmingham. The obverse show the Eddystone Lighthouse in brilliant details and the reverse has a view of Britannia surrounds by the latest technology marvels of the day and written "Plymouth Exhibition 1904". Has a diameter of 3.8cm and weighs 26g. Both medal and box in EXCELLENT fault free condition." It was not cheap but what a lovely thing to possess.

The second (as above) was described as "A fine and rare 1947 British Empire Medal awarded to Andrew S. Wood, the Assistant Lighthouse keeper of Hyeskeir Lighthouse, situated on the Mills Rocks, near to the islands of Sanna and Rhum in Scotland. British Empire Medal, Civil Division, GRI Cypher, named to: (ANDREW S. WOOD). With Buckingham Palace forwarding award document for his BEM, named to: Andrew Stewart Wood Esq., B.E.M., dated 1st August 1947. Andrew Stewart Wood was awarded his British Empire Medal on 1st August 1947 for his services as Assistant Light House Keeper at Hyskeir Light House, Scotland. Hyskeir (Oigh Sgier) Lighthouse is situated on rocks approximately 5 miles south west of Canna and 8 miles west of the Island of Rhum. Established in 1904 to light the southern end of the Minch and to warn shipping off Mills Rocks, Canna Island and the rock on which the lighthouse is built. A rare and interesting award relating to Light Houses, though there is no researched citation for this award, it being awarded in 1947 just post WW2, it would be safe to state that Wood probably served in this post throughout the war, a post of extreme responsibility with the large amount of wartime shipping. There is also a possibility that he won this award for an act of gallantry in life saving. Needs further research."
I agree with the comments and hope it went to a good home.

Eddystone souvenir ?

I came across this paper weight recently except that it is not a paper weight but the equivalent to a Victorian specimen or perhaps a business souvenir. The base is made of polished granite and the metal lighthouse could be any rock lighthouse but on the base is the suede label indicating the type of granite and where it was quarried. The location of the quarry means that it would have to be reasonably near the final building and would have to be near a railway or a canal. Gunnislake fits this condition and as the quarry had either changed hands or gone out of business when the old Queen Victoria died; then I can only assume that the nearness and timing means that it was quarried for the Eddystone lighthouse. But which one ?

Was it a sample presented to Trinity House to encourage them to purchase their granite from the quarry of Cornwall Granite Co. Ltd. or was it a souvenir given to Trinity House once the lighthouse was built. Perhaps the quarry displayed it at their London offices in Parliament Square.

I do not know the answer to any of these two questions - but have you any thoughts on it ?. Answers on a postcard please (only joking).

German lightship in port

The old Trinity House National Lighthouse Museum

Did you hear the sad news that the Trinity House National Lighthouse Museum in Penzance has closed. It will not reopen for the March to October season of 2005. It was established in 1990 and opened on 5th June 1991 by HRH Prince Andrew. I spent some years up to the closure as a volunteer in the museum and enjoyed immensely meeting the public and showing them the exhibits.

The wonderful optics and other artifacts will be redeployed by Trinity House and will be on show to the public somewhere else but the fine old building which stands on the ground where the granite for Wolf Rock was dressed will no longer have an association with the lighthouse.

Wolf Rock temporarily replaced

Now here is a sight that has never been seen before and will never be seen again. Wolf Rock lighthouse has just been converted to solar power and whilst the conversion was taking place the Wolf light was extinguished. A temporary light of the same characteristic was provided by Light Vessel No.22 named 'Wolf Rock' and moored close to it.

I took some photographs from the RMS Scillonian III in July 2003 as the boat passed the lighthouse but they were of poor quality. The good news was that I was able to persuade a local fisherman to take some photographs for me and the following are just a selection of 24 pictures that he took.

Francis, the helmsman of the crabber 'William Harvey' took some of the photographs in mid September, and the last few shown below on Friday 26th September as the light vessel was due to be removed early the following Saturday morning on completion of the work.

During his fishing expeditions whilst the conversion was taking place he watched the service helicopter land on the pad at Wolf Rock. The down draught of the helicopter caused the brief case of an important official to be blown away and dashed on the rocks below. He received a frantic radio message from the pilot of the helicopter requesting him to attempt to save, not the battered brief case or documents spreading on the sea like foam, but the owner's wallet which contained credit cards. Needless to say Francis located and 'fished' the wallet and credit cards thus preventing the mermaids a credit free shopping spree and the owner did not have the hassle of reporting his credit cards lost.

The story is true but you will not find it reported in the papers because that is the way Cornish fishermen work and why, for no reward, he took all these photographs for the benefit of those interested.

Women on the Eddystone

And here is another never seen before - the first female 'keepers' to spend the night on the Eddystone Lighthouse. On July 30th 2003 Cathy Kitcher and Caroline Hatton who both work at the Trinity House Depot at Penzance raised £3,300 for charity in a sponsored balloon race.

What on earth is this ?

My old friend Gerry has unearthed the following object and would like to know what it is :-

The wooden box is about 4 inches square. The label in the lid says 'R.F.Bottomley, successor to Crichton Brothers, Manufacturers of Mathematical, Optical and Nautical Instruments. The India Board & to the Hon. Corp. of the Trinity House, Billiter Street, London EC.'. For the avoidance of doubt I would stress that the address given of Billiter Street is that of R.F. Bottomley and in turn is not far away from Trinity House. It would appear that Bottomley were manufactures to both the East India Company and Trinity House. You can see the indentation of the round brass object that rests inside. It is made of brass and the brass rim glass lid is held in place by one brass screw at the side. It is water tight as the object contains a fluid which has not evaporated over the years. Well - your best guess please.