Cromer Lighthouse


Cromer Lighthouse is situated in the coastal town of Cromer, in the English county of Norfolk.

History

There has been a lighthouse on the cliff top at Foulness, east of the town of Cromer since 1669. Before this time a light was shone from the top of Cromer parish church to act as a guide to passing shipping. Although this light was small it had always been useful, as had many similar ecclesiastical lights that were dotted around the coastline of Great Britain from medieval times.

First proposals

Sir John Clayton proposed a lighthouse at Foulness, Cromer, along with five other lighthouses on four different sites. In 1669 Clayton and his partner George Blake received the comprehensive patent for the four sites and work began to erect the lighthouses. Each tower cost the partners £3,000; their patent would last for 60 years with specified rates to be paid by the owners of passing vessels, though dues were only paid voluntarily.

Difficult times

The cost of maintaining the lighthouse proved to be very high and this, plus reluctance on the part of ship-owners to part with their voluntary payments lead to a situation were Clayton and Blake could not afford to keep the fire kindled at the top of the Cromer tower. Nevertheless, the Cromer Lighthouse was still of some use as a beacon and was marked on Admiralty charts as "a lighthouse but no fire kept in it".

Renewal

With the Clayton tower falling into disrepair, the owner of the land at Foulness, Nathaniel Life, was convinced that a Lighthouse repaired and maintained was essential at the site. In 1719 a new patent was granted and a new tower was built. Dues were set to shipping at the rate of a farthing per ton of general cargo and a halfpenny per chaldron of Newcastle coal. Nathaniel Life and Edward Bowell jointly received a 61-year lease from Trinity House at a rental of £100 on the undertaking that Nathaniel Life would pass the lighthouse plus one acre of land into the ownership of Trinity House at the end of the 61 years. The lighthouse now maintained a coal fire enclosed in the Lantern.

Upgrade

In 1792 Cromer Lighthouse, by then in the possession of Trinity House, was fitted with new Argand oil-fired lamps and parabolic reflectors. Sperm oil, costing 5s. to 8s. per gallon, was used in Cromer lighthouse.
Cromer was the second Trinity House lighthouse to be fitted with a revolving, flashing light. It was formed of fifteen Argand lamps and reflectors, mounted on a three-sided revolving frame. The reflectors were of plated copper and were said to be large. The apparatus was driven by clockwork, and made a full revolution every three minutes; it had to be wound every five-and-a-half hours. The novelty of the light being recurrently visible and then obscured was an irritation for some seamen at the time.
In 1829 the lighthouse was described as brick-built, 'only three moderate stories high', and crowned with a lantern surrounded by a 'light iron gallery'. The keepers at this time were two young women, who jointly received a pound a week for their wage.

Shore erosion

The lighthouse's position at Foulness was becoming precarious due to rapid cliff erosion along this part of the North Norfolk coast. The sea's encroachment at the base of the cliff caused several land slips with serious slides recorded in 1799, 1825 and 1852. The lighthouse succumbed to the waves' actions in 1866 when it finally slipped down into the sea.

The present lighthouse

With the expected destruction of the old lighthouse, plans to build a new lighthouse had been put into place long before the loss of 1866.
The present lighthouse was built half of a mile from the cliff edge, and came into operation in 1833. It is constructed of masonry and the tower is octagonal in shape and is tall. When built, the tower was topped by a much larger lantern than at present; it contained a revolving three-sided array of 30 oil lamps, which consumed around of oil annually. The optical apparatus took three minutes to complete a full revolution, so the lighthouse continued to display one flash per minute; it was said to be visible up to a distance of.
By 1897 the equipment in the lantern had been upgraded: it now contained fourteen mineral oil lamps and reflectors, arranged in two divisions on either side of a frame which revolved on its vertical axis; it made a full revolution every two minutes and had a range of 27 miles.

Gas

The lighthouse was converted to gas in 1905, when it was connected to the town's gas supply. Cromer was the only sizeable Trinity House lighthouse to make use of town gas as an illuminant. The old reflector array was adapted, with upright low-pressure Welsbach burners installed in the reflectors in place of the old Argand lamps. The arrangement of fourteen burners was retained, seven on each side of the revolving frame ; but the speed of rotation was increased, to one full revolution per minute. Each lamp was rated at 7,000 candle-power, and the light was said to have a range of '20 miles to the horizon and from 15 to 18 miles beyond'.

Electrification

Thirty years later electric lamps were installed in the reflectors, with acetylene provided as a stand-by. In the mid-1950s the lighthouse still contained a rotating array of fourteen lamps with 21-inch reflectors. It was by then the last major lighthouse in Britain equipped with reflectors rather than lenses.
Full electrification took place in 1958, when the array of reflectors was removed and a new optic was installed. At the same time the old lantern was removed and replaced with the current, much smaller one. The light is above sea level.

Automation

In June 1990 the lighthouse was converted to automatic operation and is monitored from the Trinity House Operation Control Centre at Harwich in Essex.
As a consequence of automation the lighthouse keeper's cottage alongside the tower is now let out as holiday apartment although the property is still owned by Trinity House. The lighthouse tower is not open to the public but the area around the lighthouse is easily accessible.