Orfordness Lighthouse

The first lights in this area were constructed in 1637: a pair of wooden leading lights. In 1720 the patent rights were acquired by Henry Grey, Esq.;{{cite book |last1=Page |first1=William |title=The Victoria History of the County of Suffolk, volume 2 |date=1907 |publisher=Archibald Constable & Co. |location=London |page=230 |isbn=9780712906470 |url=https://archive.org/details/victoriahisto02page/page/230/mode/2up/ |access-date=17 April 2020}} he replaced the decaying wooden lighthouses with a pair of brick towers at a cost of £1,850. The lower light, however, went on to be beset by a series of problems:{{cite book |last1=Stevenson |first1=D. Alan |title=The World's Lighthouses: From Ancient Times to 1820 |date=1959 |publisher=Oxford University Press}} the tower was washed away in 1724; it was replaced by a timber hut, it was likewise washed away, in 1730. Its replacement, a timber tower, was destroyed by fire that same year, as was a second replacement the following year. A new tower was built in 1733. In 1746 the high light was coal-fired, the low light was oil-lit.

These were replaced in 1780 by a pair of brick octagonal towers. Scarcely a dozen years later the lower light of the two was precariously close to the sea due to shore erosion; it collapsed not long afterward.

In 1792, anticipating this inevitability, the landowner Lord Braybrooke built a new 'high light' in a different position. This is the lighthouse which stood until 2020 when it was demolished due to continuing shore erosion. The old high light then functioned as the new 'low light'. Both were fitted with Argand lamps and reflectors (there were fourteen burners in the high light, later increased to sixteen).

In 1837 the lease of the Orfordness lighthouses (held together with Winterton Lighthouse to the north) was purchased by Trinity House. The following year, the low light was fitted with a fixed array of dioptric lenses and mirrors by Isaac Cookson & co. of Newcastle upon Tyne{{cite web |last1=Tag |first1=Thomas |title=The Fresnel Lens Makers |url=https://uslhs.org/fresnel-lens-makers |website=The United States Lighthouse Society |access-date=9 March 2019 |archive-date=14 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190214110117/http://uslhs.org/fresnel-lens-makers |url-status=dead }} (the mirrors were replaced by prisms in 1850).{{cite web | title = Lighthouse management : the report of the Royal Commissioners on Lights, Buoys, and Beacons, 1861, examined and refuted Vol. 2 | year = 1861 | pages = 74 | url = https://archive.org/stream/lighthousemanage02blak#page/74/mode/1up }} In 1839 a novel Bude light was installed in the low lighthouse on an experimental basis, to test its appropriateness for use as a navigational light (ultimately the high cost of operation prevented further development in this regard).{{cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=E. Price |title=Our Seamarks: a plain account of the Lighthouses, Lightships, Beacons, Buoys, and Fog-signals maintained on our Coasts. |date=1884 |publisher=Longmans, Green & co. |location=London |page=50 |url=http://access.bl.uk/item/pdf/lsidyv3c6cb808 |access-date=25 February 2019}}

File:Orfordness High and Low Lighthouses.tif

In 1864 both lighthouses were painted with red and white horizontal bands (they had previously been all red).[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/23040/page/5513 London Gazette, Issue 23040, Page 5513, 21 November 1865] The high light retained its Argand lamps and reflectors until 1868, when they were replaced by a multi-wick lamp and a large (first-order) fixed optic, engineered 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 same time a red sector was added to the low light (marking Sizewell Bank to the north-east) and to the high light (marking the edge of the deep water channel through Hollesley Bay to the south-west).[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/23386/page/3126 London Gazette, Issue 23386, Page 3126, 2 June 1868]

In 1887 the low light was again lost to erosion; this time it was not replaced (though Southwold Lighthouse, some {{convert|24|nmi}} to the north, was established shortly afterwards "in lieu thereof").[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/25806/page/2076 London Gazette, Issue 25806, Page 2076, 10 April 1888] Instead, in 1888, red and green sectors were added to the high light,{{cite book|last1=Woodman and Wilson|title=The Lighthouses of Trinity House|date=2002|publisher=Thomas Reed|location=Bradford on Avon}} which was made occulting (with the light being eclipsed for three seconds in every forty). A subsidiary white light was also introduced, shining "north-eastward from a window 60 feet below the high light, visible over an arc of about 25°, covering Aldborough ridge, and to assist vessels in rounding Orfordness".

The lighthouse was further modernized in 1914: a new revolving optic was installed (which remained in use for 99 years), and a new additional light was installed along with fixed lenses at a level below the lantern, so the sector lights now shone from windows on the tower. The lighthouse was electrified in 1959, and in 1964 it became the first lighthouse to be monitored by telemetry from Harwich, ushering in a process of lighthouse automation which continued around England over the next 35 years. The keepers were withdrawn from Orfordness the following year.

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The lighthouse was decommissioned on 27 June 2013, because of the encroaching sea. The modern electrical equipment and hazardous materials (mercury) have been removed. Trinity House has increased the power of the light at Southwold Lighthouse to compensate for the closure of Orfordness lighthouse. Unless demolished, the Orfordness tower was expected to survive for seven to eight years before falling into the North Sea.{{cite news | title=Orfordness lighthouse gets switched off and left to the sea | date=28 June 2013 | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-23091214 | publisher=BBC News}} In September 2019 however, high tides and harsh weather damaged the lighthouse's ancillary bungalow, originally an outbuilding of the lighthouse keeper's cottages, causing it partly to collapse, requiring it to be demolished, and brought the shoreline only feet from the lighthouse itself.{{cite news |title=Orfordness Lighthouse bungalow destroyed by storms |date=October 2019 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-49890769 | publisher=BBC News}} In July 2020 work began to dismantle the structure.{{cite news |title=Orfordness Lighthouse is dismantled as sea edges closer |date=16 July 2020 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-53263525 | publisher=BBC News}}

The 1913 optic has been removed and is now displayed at the London headquarters of the International Maritime Organization.{{cite web |title=Her Majesty The Queen Visits The International Maritime Organization |url=https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/queen-elizabeth-ii-looks-at-an-optic-from-the-news-photo/928011472 |website=Getty Images |access-date=19 March 2019}}

File:Lighthouse With Current Sea Defences (24124892235).jpg

After decommissioning, the lighthouse was purchased by the Orfordness Lighthouse Trust, a registered charity established "to preserve the Lighthouse for as long as possible and its legacy after that".{{cite web |title=About the Trust |url=http://www.orfordnesslighthouse.co.uk/about-the-trust/ |website=Orfordness Lighthouse |access-date=22 February 2019}} Under the Trust's stewardship, the lighthouse was opened to the public on specified days each summer between 2013 and 2019. In the winter of 2013–14, 10 metres of the surrounding beach was lost to erosion; Trust volunteers then installed a sea defence, in the form of gravel-filled bags, to help protect the low cliff in front of the lighthouse. Notwithstanding these measures, the lighthouse remained "at imminent risk of falling into the sea".{{cite web |title=Welcome to Orfordness Lighthouse |url=http://www.orfordnesslighthouse.co.uk/ |website=Orfordness Lighthouse Trust |access-date=22 February 2019}} In 2019 the Trust said that it was committed to keeping the lighthouse standing for as long as possible. For the longer term, it aspired "to dismantle the Lighthouse and rebuild a replica elsewhere on the Ness". With this in mind, the optic was removed in 2014. Storms in September 2019 undermined the bungalow beside the lighthouse, causing it to collapse, and erosion of the beach in front of the structures and to either side of them prevented any further work to repair their foundations and the deployment of any more sea defences. In winter storms in early 2020, the lighthouse's oil store was swept away and only the tower remained undamaged. The Times reported on 18 July 2020 that work on demolition had begun. It quoted Nicholas Gold of the Trust as saying: "In recent months the building has become a hazard."{{cite web |title=Update 30th September 2019 |url=http://www.orfordnesslighthouse.co.uk/ |website=Orfordness Lighthouse Trust |access-date=6 October 2019}} By mid-August, the lighthouse had been completely demolished, but the Trust aim to build a 'tribute', involving the top third of the former lighthouse and some other objects salvaged.

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{{Commons category|Orfordness Lighthouse}}

• [http://www.orfordnesslighthouse.co.uk/ Orfordness Lighthouse]
• [http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/205517 East Anglian Film Archive: Lighthouse keeper training film, including footage of the lighthouse in 1963] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222152038/http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/205517 |date=22 February 2019 }}

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Category:Lighthouses completed in 1792

Category:Towers completed in 1792

Category:Lighthouses in Suffolk

Category:Grade II listed buildings in Suffolk

Category:Grade II listed lighthouses

Category:Former listed buildings in England

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