Portland Bill Lighthouse
Portland Bill Lighthouse is an operational lighthouse of early 20th century origin, located 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 have been Grade II Listed 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 1903, the Corporation of Trinity House made the decision to replace the existing lighthouses, which had both been rebuilt in 1869, with a single one at Bill Point. 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.
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. The lighthouse was designed by Sir Thomas Matthews, and tenders were sought for its construction in July 1903. In October, builders Wakeham Brothers of Plymouth 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.
Trinity House 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. In the 1950s, a detached cottage was built within the lighthouse grounds as a third keepers' quarter. The lighthouse was later automated on 18 March 1996, with its operation being handled by the Trinity House Planning Centre in Harwich, Essex.
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 HRH Prince Philip, 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 HRH Anne, 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 lantern
The lantern's first-order, catadioptric Fresnel lens, weighing three-and-a-half-tons, is made up of four fixed, vertical panels and a concave prismatic reflector. It revolves 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 1951. 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.
Today, a 1kW MBI lamp is used, which through the lens gives an intensity of 635,000 candela, providing a range in excess of 25 nautical miles. Trinity House describes the existing 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 addition to the main lantern, 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 1940 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, however 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. The primary sources are in italics.
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 Magazine - Portland – Three Lighthouses Walk - Teresa Ridout - March 2014 - website page
11) Google Books - The Crown Estate: Report of the Commissioners for the Year Ended 1997 - website page
12) Grace's Guide - Portland Bill Lighthouse - website page
13) Historic England - The National Heritage List for England - New Lighthouse with Boundary Walls - website page
14) Isle of Portland Official Guide - Portland Urban District Council - Ed. J. Burrow & Co. Ltd, Chelternham and London - 1950s - pages 14-16 - book
15) Lost Sounds: The Story of Coast Fog Signals - Alan Renton - Whittles Publishing - 2001 - ISBN: 978-1870325837 - book
16) Sailers.co.uk - New Lighthouse Visitor Centre for Portland Bill - website page
17) The Book of Portland: Gibraltar of Wessex - Rodney Legg - Halsgrove - 2006 - ISBN: 978-1841144979 - page 106 - book
18) The British Newspaper Archive - various contemporary newspaper articles and notices - website page
19) The Royal Manor of Portland: A Walker's Guide - S. C. Millward - 1999 - pages 24-25 - book
20) Trinity House - Flash - Summer 2015 - Issue 23 - journal
21) Trinity House - HRH The Princess Royal opens the Portland Bill Lighthouse & Visitor Centre - May 2015 - website page
22) Trinity House - Portland Bill Lighthouse - website page
23) Trinity House - Portland Bill Lighthouse visitor centre - website page
24) Worldwide Lighthouses - Portland Bill Lighthouse - website page
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 1903, the Corporation of Trinity House made the decision to replace the existing lighthouses, which had both been rebuilt in 1869, with a single one at Bill Point. 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.
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. The lighthouse was designed by Sir Thomas Matthews, and tenders were sought for its construction in July 1903. In October, builders Wakeham Brothers of Plymouth 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.
Trinity House 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. In the 1950s, a detached cottage was built within the lighthouse grounds as a third keepers' quarter. The lighthouse was later automated on 18 March 1996, with its operation being handled by the Trinity House Planning Centre in Harwich, Essex.
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 HRH Prince Philip, 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 HRH Anne, 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 lantern
The lantern's first-order, catadioptric Fresnel lens, weighing three-and-a-half-tons, is made up of four fixed, vertical panels and a concave prismatic reflector. It revolves 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 1951. 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.
Today, a 1kW MBI lamp is used, which through the lens gives an intensity of 635,000 candela, providing a range in excess of 25 nautical miles. Trinity House describes the existing 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 addition to the main lantern, 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 1940 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, however 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. The primary sources are in italics.
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 Magazine - Portland – Three Lighthouses Walk - Teresa Ridout - March 2014 - website page
11) Google Books - The Crown Estate: Report of the Commissioners for the Year Ended 1997 - website page
12) Grace's Guide - Portland Bill Lighthouse - website page
13) Historic England - The National Heritage List for England - New Lighthouse with Boundary Walls - website page
14) Isle of Portland Official Guide - Portland Urban District Council - Ed. J. Burrow & Co. Ltd, Chelternham and London - 1950s - pages 14-16 - book
15) Lost Sounds: The Story of Coast Fog Signals - Alan Renton - Whittles Publishing - 2001 - ISBN: 978-1870325837 - book
16) Sailers.co.uk - New Lighthouse Visitor Centre for Portland Bill - website page
17) The Book of Portland: Gibraltar of Wessex - Rodney Legg - Halsgrove - 2006 - ISBN: 978-1841144979 - page 106 - book
18) The British Newspaper Archive - various contemporary newspaper articles and notices - website page
19) The Royal Manor of Portland: A Walker's Guide - S. C. Millward - 1999 - pages 24-25 - book
20) Trinity House - Flash - Summer 2015 - Issue 23 - journal
21) Trinity House - HRH The Princess Royal opens the Portland Bill Lighthouse & Visitor Centre - May 2015 - website page
22) Trinity House - Portland Bill Lighthouse - website page
23) Trinity House - Portland Bill Lighthouse visitor centre - website page
24) Worldwide Lighthouses - Portland Bill Lighthouse - website page
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