Old Higher Lighthouse

The surrounding coast of Portland, namely Portland Bill and Chesil Beach, have been notorious for the many vessels that became shipwrecked in the area over the centuries.{{cite web|url=http://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouses/lighthouse_list/portland_bill.html|title=Portland Bill|work=trinityhouse.co.uk|access-date=13 June 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150627123852/http://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouses/lighthouse_list/portland_bill.html|archive-date=27 June 2015|df=dmy-all}}{{cite web|url=http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2014/03/portland-three-lighthouses-walk/|title=Portland – Three Lighthouses Walk|work=dorsetlife.co.uk|access-date=13 June 2015}} After years of local petitions to Trinity House, the organisation agreed for a lighthouse to be built at Portland Bill. George I granted the patent in 1716.{{cite book|last=Legg|first=Rodney|title=Portland Encyclopaedia|year=1999|publisher=Dorset Publishing Company|isbn=978-0948699566|page=68}} That year, it was announced that Trinity House had 'caus'd to be erected two round Light-Houses of Stone upon Portland, in the County of Dorset, distant about two Thirds of a Mile from the Bill of Portland'.[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/5464/page/2 London Gazette, Issue 5464, Page 2, 28 August 1716.] This one was built at Branscombe Hill, and the other, the Old Lower Lighthouse, on lower land. Designed as leading lights to guide ships between Portland Race and the Shambles sandbank, they shone out for the first time on 29 September 1716.{{Cite book|title=Portland: an illustrated history|last=Morris|first=Stuart|publisher=The Dovecote Press|year=2016|isbn=9780995546202|edition=revised and updated colour|location=Wimborne Minster, Dorset|oclc=985760298}} Initially, both were fire lights.

Although they had been privately built, Trinity House took over responsibility for the lights on finding them poorly maintained, in 1752.{{cite web |title=Old Higher Lighthouse |url=http://www.portlandhistory.co.uk/old-higher-lighthouse.html |website=The Encyclopedia of Portland History |access-date=22 February 2019}} In 1788 Trinity House had Argand lamps installed within the higher lighthouse, which was the first in England to be fitted with them.{{cite web|url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pbtyc/Portland/PYB/Lighthouse.html|title=Portland Year Book|work=ancestry.com|access-date=13 June 2015}} It was fitted with fourteen lamps arranged in two rows of seven, with a polished spherical reflector set behind each lamp.{{cite web |title=Portland Bill Lighthouse |url=https://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouses-and-lightvessels/portland-bill-lighthouse |website=Trinity House |access-date=3 March 2019}} The lamps were designed by Thomas Rogers.{{cite web |last1=Tag |first1=Thomas |title=Lens Use Prior to Fresnel |url=https://uslhs.org/node/1481 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151223041452/https://uslhs.org/lens-use-prior-fresnel |website=United States Lighthouse Society |archive-date=23 December 2015 |access-date=11 November 2023}}{{cbignore}}

In 1824 Portland High Light was improved by Trinity House: a three-sided revolving apparatus was installed (with Argand lamps and reflectors), 'each face exhibiting its greatest light every two minutes';{{cite book |last1=Purdy |first1=John |title=Memoir, Descriptive and Explanatory: To Accompany the New Chart of the Atlantic Ocean |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_GcnVAAAAMAAJ |date=1825 |publisher=R. H. Laurie |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_GcnVAAAAMAAJ/page/n308 5]}} however in 1835, following the establishment of Start Point Lighthouse with its revolving Fresnel lenses, Portland High was again made a fixed light (matching the Low Light, which had remained fixed throughout).{{cite journal |title=Hydrography |journal=The Nautical Magazine |date=April 1835 |volume=IV |page=195}}

Both Portland lighthouses were rebuilt in 1869, and provided with large (first-order) fixed optics designed and built by James Chance.{{cite book |last1=Chance |first1=James Frederick |title=The Lighthouse Work of Sir James Chance, Baronet |date=1902 |publisher=Smith, Elder & co. |location=London |page=166 |url=https://uslhs.org/sites/default/files/attached-files/The%20Lighthouse%20Work%20of%20Sir%20James%20T.%20Chance.pdf |access-date=24 February 2019}} At the turn of the 20th century, Trinity House made plans to build a new lighthouse at Bill Point to replace both current lighthouses.{{cite web|url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pbtyc/Portland/PYB/Chronology.html|title=Portland Year Book|work=ancestry.com|access-date=13 June 2015}} The new lighthouse was completed in 1905, and the original two lighthouses were then auctioned.{{cite book|last=Mackenzie|first=Roy|title=Portland: A Topographical and Historical Gazetteer|year=1999|page=23}} In 1923 the lighthouse was purchased by the palaeobotanist, campaigner for eugenics, pioneer of birth control and Portland Museum founder Marie Stopes as a summer residence.{{cite web|url=http://www.oldhigherlighthouse.com |title=History of the Old Higher Lighthouse - Old Higher Lighthouse, Portland Bill, Dorset |publisher=Oldhigherlighthouse.com |access-date=2017-10-25}}

During World War II, the Royal Observer Corps used the tower as a lookout.{{PastScape|mnumber=1413281|access-date=3 October 2015}} During the early 1960s the lighthouse was run as a restaurant.{{cite web|url=http://www.geoffkirby.co.uk/Portland/675690/|title=675690 | work=geoffkirby.co.uk|access-date=13 June 2015}} The lighthouse and its cottages were refurbished in 1981. With a total of four cottages within its grounds, both the Branscombe Lodge Cottage and Stopes Cottage are now available as holiday lets.{{cite web| url=http://www.oldhigherlighthouse.com | title=History | publisher=Old Higher Lighthouse }}

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• List of lighthouses in England

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.oldhigherlighthouse.com/ Old Higher Lighthouse official website]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070208170818/http://www.isleofportlandpictures.org.uk/Surnames/Stopes/ Archive pictures of the Lighthouse when owned by Marie Stopes]

{{Isle of Portland}}

{{Lighthouses in England}}

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Category:1716 establishments in England

Category:Lighthouses completed in 1716

Category:Grade II listed buildings in Dorset

Category:Grade II listed lighthouses

Category:Isle of Portland

Category:Lighthouses in Dorset

Category:Lighthouses of the English Channel

Category:19th-century architecture in the United Kingdom

Category:Towers in Dorset