THE LIGHTHOUSE ON LEGS

Living in the land locked Midlands it is necessary to travel at least 90 miles to reach tidal water and the sight of a real lighthouse. One such area is the Severn Estuary ( which is tidal with a vengeance ) and the Bristol Channel.

I have long been intrigued by the lighthouse on the beach at Burnham on Sea ( it reminds me of one of Mussorgsky`s "Pictures from an Exhibition" ) so in April 2003 an  opportunity to spend a few days in North Somerset gave me the chance to investigate.

I gather that Trinity House have long ago passed control of the Burnham lights back to the local authority, and I have yet to find out exactly who that is, but Trinity House were very much involved around the time the two main structures were built in 1832 though there is some interesting history before that date.

Burnham is an ancient place yet surprisingly isolated by sand dunes until the 19thcent such that its only connections with the outside world were sand roads and the River Parrett,  gateway to the port at Bridgewater. The village consisted, mainly, of a few cottages huddled around the parish church of St Andrew.  It was in one of those cottages around 1750 that a fisherman`s wife, one stormy night, placed a candle in a window to help guide her husband home from the sea. It was so effective that the fishermen paid her a small sum to keep the candle burning for the benefit of all the local fleet.

Later ( probably after her husband`s death ) the sexton of the church gave the fisherman`s wife £5 for her rights and agreed to place a light on the church tower where it would be more effective. The Curate at that time was the Rev David Davies, a prominent name in Burnham`s history, and about 1800/01 he paid the verger £20 and built a lighthouse, known as the Round Tower, attached(?) to his house on the west side of the church. Local merchants and ship owners began contributing to maintenance of this light but by 1813 the arrangement ran into difficulty and Rev Davies successfully appealed to Trinity House for a grant and permission to levy dues because the £135 annual income was insufficient to maintain an effective light.

Rev Davies was granted a patent/lease for 100 years with permission to collect dues of 3 /- from coasting vessels, 5/- from British ships and 10/- from foreign ones. At that time the port at Bridgewater was flourishing with the number of ships entering the River Parrett increasing from 600 per annum at the beginning of the century to 2,000 per annum by 1832. ( These dues and statistics vary between sources.)   Nevertheless, Rev Davies was thankful to accept £13,681 17s 3d from Trinity House when they purchased the remaining  85 years of his lease around 1829.

In their book "Lighthouses - Architecture, History and Archaeology", Douglas Hague & Rosemary Christie  describe Rev.Davies as the only entirely altruistic private lighthouse owner. Although by 1814 he had moved to a living in Hampshire, the Reverend is reported to have spent most of his summers in Burnham where he used his `bonus` in the development of a spa and holiday resort.                                    After purchase of the lease,in 1832,Trinity House  reduced the height of the crenellated Round Tower by two storeys.  This picture was taken from the churchyard in April 03.

The High lighthouse was built in 1832 by Trinity House  (Joseph Nelson ).  Set inland behind the dunes, on the Berrow Rd, the 100 ft (or is it 120 ft? ) pillar light had a paraffin burner.   It is now a private house and I believe the owners are amateur radio enthusiasts.

 These two pictures show the High Light from front and side.

  When the light was lit it was realised that the choice of vantage point was too low to cover for the massive, maybe over 40 ft, tides so the wooden lighthouse was built on the beach to complement the tall tower. It seems then that the two towers were intended as leading lights; Hague & Christie suggest this could explain the wooden structure. Joseph Nelson was again the designer.

In this view from the beach the High Light is just visible over the dunes.

For obvious reasons not many wooden lighthouses have survived but the 99ft Burnham Low Light looks in very good condition thanks to skilful maintenance and modification after a period of disuse. Seemingly in 1969 it was closed for a while in favour of a light installed at Huntspill 2 miles up the River Parrett.

After just a few years the Low Light was brought back into service following refurbishment. Repairs to the legs, involving grafts and steelplates, are visible in the picture to the right. Trinity House engineers were contracted for the interior work which I understand involved complete re-wiring, new control systems, and new lights to replace the 1st order 40,000 CP catadioptrc system. 

The new navigation lights are shown on the left, with the extra window.  The upper light shows a white flash every 7.5 secs as before (I assume) whist the lower is a green-white-red sector light.  

The earlier occulting was achieved by a window shutter. Nowadays, with automatic control (I assume from Harwich ??) the window appears permanently shuttered.

The photograph below was taken from a spot just in advance of the rising tide on New Years Day 2004 to illustrate the relative positions of St Andrews Church, the old Round Tower, and the present daymark painted on the sea wall. The Wooden Light is approx.1000 yards to the left.

I shall be returning to Burnham because there are gaps in my research, points to check, and I like the place.

I will be pleased to receive comments from anyone out there who can help me in any way.

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