Heugh lighthouse

Not to be confused with Heugh Hill lighthouse on Lindisfarne.
The Heugh Lighthouse

The Heugh Lighthouse
County Durham
Location Hartlepool
County Durham
England
Coordinates 54°41′47.4″N 1°10′34″W / 54.696500°N 1.17611°W / 54.696500; -1.17611Coordinates: 54°41′47.4″N 1°10′34″W / 54.696500°N 1.17611°W / 54.696500; -1.17611
Year first constructed 1847 (first)
Year first lit 1927 (current)
Construction steel tower (current)
sandstone tower (first)
Tower shape cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern
Markings / pattern white tower and lantern
Height 16.5 metres (54 ft) (current)
14.5 metres (48 ft) (first)
Focal height 19 metres (62 ft)
Range 19 nmi (35 km; 22 mi)
Characteristic Fl (2) W 10s.
Admiralty number A2663
NGA number 2056
ARLHS number ENG 314
Managing agent PD Teesport[1]

The Heugh lighthouse is a navigation light on The Headland in Hartlepool, in north-east England. The current lighthouse dates from 1927; it is owned and operated by PD Ports. It is claimed that its early-Victorian predecessor was the first lighthouse in the world reliably lit by gas.[2]

History

Following the establishment of the Hartlepool Dock & Railway company, West Hartlepool quickly grew into a sizeable coal port on the Durham coast. In 1844, mariners tasked with navigating their way into the new docks had expressed concern about the inadequate provision of lights on this dangerous stretch of rocky coastline, and in 1846 the Corporation of Trinity House instructed the harbour authority to make necessary provision.[2]

1847-1915: the first light on The Heugh

The old lighthouse on the Heugh

A lighthouse was promptly built in sandstone, a tapering cylindrical tower 46 ft (14 m) high. It was first lit on 1 October 1847, fuelled by natural gas from one of the local coal mines.[2] The main light was visible for 18 miles out to sea.

The old light's demise came about as an indirect result of the German raid on Hartlepool in December 1914. The lighthouse itself was unscathed (though several nearby buildings received severe damage), but it was realised that the tower obstructed the line of fire of the defensive guns of the Headland batteries. It was therefore dismantled in 1915.

1915-1927: temporary light on the Town Moor

The temporary light on the Town Moor (1915-1927)

As a temporary measure, the light, lantern and lens from the Heugh lighthouse were instead mounted on a wooden lattice structure on the nearby town moor.[3] They remained here until the erection of the new Heugh light in 1927. When the structure was dismantled, the optic (lenses) and light array were saved; they are now on display in the Museum of Hartlepool.[2]

1927 onwards: the current lighthouse

The lighthouse in its compound

The current lighthouse, of a prefabricated steel construction, is a white-painted cylindrical tower, 54 ft (16 m) high. Built not far from the site of the first lighthouse (though without obstructing the line of fire of the guns) it was designed to be able to be dismantled in the event of war, so as not to provide a landmark for enemy gunsights. It was, from the start, electrically-powered and fully automated.

Present-day operation

The lighthouse is still in use today, under the management of the local port authority. It displays a white light, flashing twice every ten seconds. One of the adjacent buildings housed a nautophone fog signal, which used to sound three 3-second blasts every 45 seconds. The other building houses radio equipment for HM Coastguard.[4]

Other nearby lighthouses

The Old Pier, Hartlepool Headland

Nearby Seaton Carew had a pair of lighthouses for many years. They were decommissioned in the late nineteenth century; years later one of the two was re-erected in Hartlepool Marina as a mariners' memorial.

South Gare Lighthouse stands on a pier head at the opposite end of the bay to the Heugh, marking the southern approach to the River Tees.

Just south-west of the Heugh, the Old or 'Pilots' Pier has been marked by a lighthouse since 1836. The present wooden structure (painted white with two narrow red horizontal stripes) dates from 1899; the lantern is strikingly topped by a rotating radar. It displays a green light (one flash every three seconds) with a white sector indicating the deep-water channel into the Old Harbour and Hartlepool Docks.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ The Heugh (Hartlepool Headland) The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved May 1st, 2016
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Jones, Robin (2014). Lighthouses of the North East Coast. Wellington, Somerset: Halsgrove. pp. 84–90.
  3. ↑ "Lighthouses of Northeastern England". Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  4. ↑ "Worldwide Lighthouses". Retrieved 27 December 2014.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Heugh lighthouse.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 5/2/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.