The Encyclopaedia of Portland History
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Portland Bill Lighthouse

Picture
Portland Bill Lighthouse is an operational lighthouse of early 20th century origin at Bill Point, the southernmost point of Portland Bill. Active since 1906, it replaced the Old Lower and Higher Lighthouses in warning coastal traffic clear of the Bill, acting as a waymark of the English Channel, and safely guiding vessels heading to Portland and Weymouth Harbours.

The lighthouse is still operational today and is one of Portland's most popular tourist attractions. With a visitor centre and tours available, it remains the most visited Trinity House lighthouse open to the public. The lighthouse (and its boundary walls) has been a Grade II listed building since May 1993.

History
For centuries, Portland's position in the English Channel, with its treacherous coastline, has made it a major hazard to shipping. Both Chesil Beach and Portland Bill in particular have been the location of many shipwrecks. The narrow promontory of Portland Bill is notably dangerous because of its shallow reefs and ledges such as the Portland Ledge, the Shambles sandbank to the south-east, and the Portland Race - a tidal race caused by the clashing of tides, and further exacerbated by the reduced depths over the Portland Ledge. Although beacons had been lit overlooking the Bill on Branscombe Hill since Roman times, a lighthouse was not erected until the early 18th century. In 1716, two lighthouses were built to warn and guide shipping around the Bill, and these continued to work as a pair until the 20th century.

In 1902, the Corporation of Trinity House made the decision to replace the existing lighthouses, which had both been rebuilt in the 1860s, with a single one at Bill Point, designed by Sir Thomas Matthews. In addition to the increasing importance of Portland Harbour and its naval station, the harbour's complete enclosure with the construction of two new breakwater arms between 1896-1905 led Trinity House to consider a potential re-organisation of the existing lights at Portland. At Portland Bill, they felt that the two lighthouses had become obsolete and only a newly-constructed lighthouse was able to meet all modern navigational requirements, particularly after storms in 1901 saw the loss of approxiately fifteen vessels off Portland's coast.

As the proposed site at Bill Point was common land, the corporation began talks with a locally-formed Committee of Commoners, who were appointed on 17 June 1903 by Messrs J. Lano, H. Sansom, R. Pearce, F. J. Barnes and Robert White. An agreement was soon reached and Trinity House paid £300 to acquire the land. Tenders were then sought for the lighthouse's construction in July 1903 and Wakeham Bros of Plymouth subsequently hired. In October, the builders began excavating the foundations which, measuring approximately 2.1 metres deep and 1.8 metres across, were completed by May 1904. Work then began on the construction of the 136 feet tower and attached keepers' quarters. The building stone was sourced from the nearby Bill Quarries, which operated around the cliffs of the Bill.

In July 1904, Trinity House invited tenders for the construction and fitting of the lantern, with Chance Brothers and Co of Smethwick, West Midlands, being given the contract. When Wakeham Bros finished building the tower up to lantern room height, the lantern was hoisted into place during late 1905. Once construction was completed, the lighthouse was painted white, with a red band around the middle. Having cost £13,000 to complete, it was first lit on 11 January 1906, allowing the Higher and Lower Lighthouses to be decommissioned and put up for auction in early 1907.

During World War I, the lighthouse only operated intermittently at half power for the benefit of Allied shipping. Trinity House later chose Portland's lighthouse, along with St Catherine's in the Isle of Wight, for the experimental use of a new navigational aid known as Ramark beacons in 1949. They allowed vessels to record the bearings of the two lighthouses. During the 1950s, a detached cottage was built within the lighthouse grounds as additional keepers' quarters and the existing block modernised. Plans to automate the lighthouse were later drawn up in 1992 and completed on 18 March 1996 when its operation was handed over to the Trinity House Planning Centre in Harwich, Essex.

In October 2018, Trinity House sought planning permission for the modernisation of the lighthouse, which was approved in January 2019. The intended work, due to be carried out over the course of 2019-20, will involve updating the existing light and fog signal, and removing redundant equipment. The original lens will be replaced by a "modern non-rotating LED light source" and the CG-1000 fog signal emitter with a Sabik SFH-3 emitter. In order to retain the original 1905 lens as a feature of the visitor centre, space was made in the tower's base level by removing redundant plant and equipment associated with the original fog signal. The lens was removed from the lantern room in January 2020.

Tourist attraction
Since its construction, the lighthouse has remained one of Portland's prime and most distinctive attractions. Portland Bill itself became a popular tourist destination after the first tarred road was laid in 1922. During the 1930s, a public car park was established, while beach huts and cafes began to appear. Visitors to the lighthouse were welcomed, with the keepers showing "great courtesy" to them.

When the lighthouse was automated in 1996, the three keepers' quarters were sold to the Crown Estate. An agreement was then made with Weymouth & Portland Borough Council to transform the ground floor of the two original quarters into a tourist information and visitor centre, with a flat occupying the first floor. Planning permission was approved in October 1996 and the centre opened in March 1997, with an official opening following on 14 July 1999 by Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. The centre was opened during the peak season and featured displays on Portland's environment and heritage. Separate to the centre, tours of the lighthouse were organised by the Crown Estate under licence of Trinity House.

The council closed the centre in September 2013 as part of newly-proposed budget cuts. The Crown Estate then approached Trinity House to see whether they would be interested in taking over the existing lease. Wishing to enhance the visitor experience of the lighthouse's tours, Trinity House began talks with the Crown and other parties for the creation of a new centre. Deciding to proceed with the idea, Trinity House gained various financial contributions, most notably an £80,000 grant from the Trinity House Maritime Charity, and first publicly announced the upcoming centre in October 2014.

The Trinity House Field Operations Team carried out necessary refurbishment work on the building, while the main contractor, Leach Colour, handled most aspects of the centre's design, features and layout, with Bivouac providing the graphic scheme. Leach Colour began installing the exhibitions in February 2015. The centre was opened on 29 March, while Anne, the Princess Royal, formally opened it during a private ceremony on 12 May. The centre is themed around the lighthouse, its keepers, and the history of Trinity House, and includes interactive displays and artefacts. A licensee operates the centre on behalf of Trinity House, with AMH Support Services providing tours of the lighthouse.

Lamp and lens
The lighthouse's first-order, catadioptric Fresnel lens, weighing three-and-a-half-tons, was made up of four fixed, vertical panels and a concave prismatic reflector. It revolved at one revolution every twenty seconds on four inches and 0.75 tons of mercury. Originally, an incandescent three-light oil burner was used to produce a beam that was able to flash four times over two seconds, followed by an approximate fifteen second interval. Matching the power of 2,500 candles, the lantern was able to send its beam out 18 nautical miles. It was rotated using a weight-driven clockwork mechanism, until an electric-powered system was installed in 1952. The oil burner was replaced with a 3kw filament lamp in 1942, and this type of lamp remained in use at the lighthouse until its automation in 1996.

A 1kW MBI lamp was used between 1996 and 2019, which through the lens gave an intensity of 635,000 candela, providing a range in excess of 25 nautical miles. Trinity House described the optic as "very unusual as due to the arrangement of the panels the character gradually changes from one flash to four flashes between the bearings 221°and 244° and from four flashes to one flash between bearings 117° and 141°." In preparation of the 2019-20 modernisation scheme, the lens was last switched on during the evening of 4 October 2019 and ceased use around 7am the following day.

In addition to the main lens, a ruby light was installed at the lighthouse to assist vessels around the Bill and Shambles Sandbank. Trinity House also provided a lightship at the Shambles from 1859 to 1976. Today, the Sector Light Room continues to house a red sector light, which is directed over the Shambles at night. It has an intensity of 11,000 candela and a range of 13 nautical miles. Meanwhile, automatic buoys are stationed at the east and west ends of the sandbank.

Fog signal
The lighthouse's original fog signal, an F-type diaphone, was installed in 1942 and placed approximately 65 feet up the tower. Calls had been made in the House of Commons for the lighthouse to be given its own fog signal in 1936, but Trinity House felt it was unwarranted, particularly as the Shambles Lightship was already equipped with one. With the outbreak of World War II, the lightship was removed from her station and towed into Portland Harbour in 1940, prompting the installation of the lighthouse's diaphone. After the war, the lightship returned to the Shambles, while the diaphone at the lighthouse remained operational largely at the request of the Admiralty.

The signal was generated using a Reavell compressor, which was powered by British Thomson-Houston induction motors. Two compressors were installed at ground level, one as a back-up, along with a standby generator in the event of the loss of electrical power. Six air receivers stored the compressed air, which would be sent up a long pipe to two sounding receivers connecting to the diaphone on the second floor. When activated, a three-and-a-half second blast would sound every half a minute.

When the lighthouse was automated, the diaphone was replaced by a CG-1000 fog signal, which continues to activate automatically with the use of a fog detector. In 2002, Trinity House began considering the restoration of the diaphone, primarily as a heritage feature and as an additional attraction to visitors. After a feasibility study, work commenced in 2003 and was completed in August, allowing the signal to sound every Sunday morning. It was one of two working fog signals of its kind in the UK, alongside the Lizard Lighthouse in Cornwall, until its final sounding in 2017.

Camera
In February 2012, a specialist CCTV camera was installed at the top of the lighthouse to provide the nearby NCI Portland Bill station with a visual of the inshore passage around Portland Bill. The £8,000 camera was donated by Bosch and the remaining £10,000 needed for the project was achieved through fundraising and donations. It was officially launched on 6 March.

Design
The lighthouse, built of Portland stone, is 136 feet in height, with the tower measuring 115 feet and the lantern section 21 feet. The exterior of the lantern room has a balcony running around it, featuring cast iron balustrades. Inside, a spiralling staircase of 153 steps leads to the upper levels of the lighthouse from the ground floor. The first level houses the sector light room, and the second contains the diaphone and its sounding receivers. The next level, the service room, sits directly below the lantern room, and contains the clockwork mechanism used to rotate the lantern prior to the installation of the electric system. From this level, the lantern room is accessed by a steep flight of stairs.

Connected to the lighthouse is the former keepers' quarters, which is a two-storey building now housing the visitor centre. A boundary wall encloses the lighthouse. Later post-war additions to the grounds include a third keepers' cottage in the north-west corner, along with service buildings in the south-east and south-west corners.

References
The following is an A-Z list of references for this page.

1) Ancestry.com - Genealogy - Portland Year Book 1905 - Chronology of the Island of Portland 700 - 1905 AD - Paul Benyon - website page
2) Ancestry.com - Genealogy - Portland Year Book 1905 - Light-Houses - Paul Benyon - website page
3) BBC News - Coastwatch installs CCTV on Portland Bill lighthouse - February 2012 - website page
4) BBC News - Portland Bill lighthouse visitor centre planned - October 2014 - website page
5) Bivouac - Portland Bill visitor centre - website page
6) Bournemouth Echo - The Queen is coming to Dorset this summer - Laura Kitching - April 2009 - website page
7) Dorset Echo - Blast from the Past - August 2003 - website page

8) Dorset Echo - New tourism service will operate from multiple centres on island - Rachel Stretton - December 2013 - website page
9) Dorset for You - W&PBC - Planning Application Details - 96/00428/FUL (18 October 1996) - website page
10) Dorset for You - W&PBC - Planning Application Details - WP/18/00831/LBC (19 October 2018) - website page
11) Dorset Magazine - Portland – Three Lighthouses Walk - Teresa Ridout - March 2014 - website page
12) Google Books - The Crown Estate: Report of the Commissioners for the Year Ended 1997 - website page
13) Grace's Guide - Portland Bill Lighthouse - website page
14) Historic England - The National Heritage List for England - New Lighthouse with Boundary Walls - website page

15) Isle of Portland Official Guide - Portland Urban District Council - Ed. J. Burrow & Co. Ltd, Chelternham and London - 1950s - pages 14-16 - book
16) Lighthouses of England and Wales: Portland Bill - Martin Boyle and Ken Trethewey - B & T Publications - 1996 - ISBN: 978-1901043013 - book
17) Lost Sounds: The Story of Coast Fog Signals - Alan Renton - Whittles Publishing - 2001 - ISBN: 978-1870325837 - book
18) Sailers.co.uk - New Lighthouse Visitor Centre for Portland Bill - website page
19) The Book of Portland: Gibraltar of Wessex - Rodney Legg - Halsgrove - 2006 - ISBN: 978-1841144979 - page 106 - book
20) The British Newspaper Archive - various contemporary newspaper articles and notices - website page
21) The Royal Manor of Portland: A Walker's Guide - S. C. Millward - 1999 - pages 24-25 - book
22) Trinity House - Flash - Summer 2015 - Issue 23 - journal
23) Trinity House - HRH The Princess Royal opens the Portland Bill Lighthouse & Visitor Centre - May 2015 - website page
24) Trinity House - Portland Bill Lighthouse - website page
25) Trinity House - Portland Bill Lighthouse visitor centre - website page
26) Worldwide Lighthouses - Portland Bill Lighthouse - website page



Gallery

These images can be enlarged by clicking on them. Some images have information attached to them, and to view this you can either enlarge the image or hover the mouse over each thumbnail.

The exterior of the lighthouse


Portland Bill Lighthouse and its former keeper's cottages. The attached quarters are original, the detached cottage was built in the 1950s.
The lighthouse's distinctive white and red stripe has become an iconic feature of Portland.
A closer look at the lantern room at the top of the tower.
A closer look at the former lighthouse keeper quarters.
The lighthouse from the very south of Bill Point.
The Trinity House Obelisk was built in 1844 as a daymark.
The lighthouse as seen from the north side.
From Branscombe Hill area, near the Old Higher Lighthouse. The MOD magnetic range is seen alongside the lighthouse.
The lighthouse from the eastern side of the Bill.
And here from Red Crane.
The lighthouse from Cave Hole region.
The lighthouse seen from the sea.
A photograph from 1962 showing the tower of Portland Bill Lighthouse. (© Gordon Spicer, licensed for reuse under CC BY-SA 2.0: geograph.org.uk/photo/2224371)
The lighthouse as seen around 1970. (© Ronald Searle, licensed for reuse under CC BY-SA 2.0: geograph.org.uk/photo/3826205)
A view across from Red Crane across to the lighthouse. This photograph dates from the late 1970s-mid-1980s and has been kindly supplied by Peter Ganley. (© Copyright.)
The lighthouse at a time before its automation. This photograph has been kindly supplied by Peter Ganley. (© Copyright.)
The lighthouse as seen in 1988. (© Helmut Zozmann, licensed for reuse under CC BY-SA 2.0: geograph.org.uk/photo/3286955)

The inside of the lighthouse

The new visitor centre opened in 2015. The first section is situated alongside the gift shop/entrance.
This exhibit details the history of Trinity House and Portland's lighthouses.
The next section is named "Into the Dark".
It features information on the history of navigation.
And a model of a lightship.
The remaining room features various exhibits and items on display.
The ground level of the tower holds various machinery including the fog compressors and induction motors.
The diaphone's three pairs of air receivers, measuring 6 feet by 3 feet in diameter.
A Reavell compressor for the operation of the fog signal.
The Ensign of Trinity House. It is a British Red Ensign defaced with the shield of the coat of arms (a St George's Cross with a sailing ship in each quarter).
The beginning of the 153 steps to the top of the lighthouse.
Above the doorway leading to the ground floor is an original plaque moved from the Old Lower Lighthouse in 1906.
Looking back down to the ground floor of the lighthouse.
The next floor is the sector light room.
The red sector light is directed over the Shambles Sandbank.
The view out of one of the tower's windows at this height.
The next floor features a couple of information board in the centre.
Some standby batteries on the right.
The left side of the information boards hold some electrics.
The two sounding receivers for the diaphone, connected to the compressors on the ground floor by the pipe.
The diaphone is within this section too, on an elevated platform.
This image shows how the foghorn is set up and worked.
Looking further up the next set of stairs.
Looking back down on this floor.
This door leads to the next room, which is situated directly below the lantern room.
The tubular casing seen here houses the original clockwork mechanism for turning the lantern. The steep stairs on the left leads up to the lantern room.
Looking back down the steep steps from the lamp room.
The lenses and bulbs of the lighthouse.
And underneath the lantern is the machinery to operate it.
The view from the top of the lighthouse towards the Old Lower Lighthouse.
Trinity House Obelisk as seen from the lighthouse.
And Pulpit Rock.
The NCI's CCTV camera installed in 2012 to monitor the inshore passage around the Bill.

Historical photographs

A 1906 coloured postcard of the new lighthouse by Valentine & Sons of Dundee.
An early 20th century postcard of the lighthouse by Edwin Seward of Weymouth.
An early 20th cenetury view of the lighthouse and obelisk. (Photographer unknown).
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