click here to see an enlarged picture.
click here to see an enlarged picture.
Lowestoft being the most easterly point in the British Isles it is only natural that there should be a lighthouse there, but, Lowestoft had to be different, at one time there were 2 , the Lowlight( on the beach)and the Highlight (on the cliff top). The first Lowlight appears to date back to 1624 and was powered by candles. There were several Lowlights all made out of wood until 1866 when an iron structure was made. They had been made of wood so they could be moved when the channel they marked moved. It seems that the Highlight was to guide ships toward the town and the lowlight to show the way through the sandbanks. This iron Lowlight saw service until 1925 when it was dismantled and not replaced.
The present Highlight was opened in 1874 but the first proper lighthouse was built in 1609 on the instructions of Samuel Pepys and was the first to be built for Trinity House. It stood in what is now Belle View Park on the site of the Royal Navy Patrol Service Memorial, some 300 yards (275mtrs) from its present location. Pepys' lighthouse was lit by coal and was blamed for a fire which destroyed 400 houses. After this the light was modified and the fire was housed in a glazed frame and the fire was blown by the use of bellows. This made the light brighter and used less coal, later other lights were modified to the lowestoft design. This coal fired light remained in use for 200 years when it was replaced by the current Highlight.
The new Highlight was designed to be powered by the all new electricity but paraffin was so cheap and was used instead. It was not until 1936 almost 70 years after its construction that it got plugged in. Although it was lit by electricity its rotation was governed by clockwork, weights hanging down the centre of the tower provided the power. They were wound up during the day, their falling being enough to last the hours of darkness. Lowestoft had to be different again because when viewed from above the beam rotates anticlockwise, the only one in the country so I am told. It may be thought that a massive mechanism would be needed to move the rotating lens but, although the lens weighs 6 tons( ) it floats in a bath of mercury and can be moved by a small boy with one hand, Ask me how I know that. When in 1975 it was fully automated the clockwork drive was donated to the Maritime museum in the Sparrows Nest Park below the lighthouse. Whether it was powered by gravity or electricity the speed of rotation has remained the same, 15 seconds, a fact soon learned when playing wide games on the denes with the scouts .
click here to see an enlarged picture.
Alongside the Highlight is a small garden, in recent years it has been used as an ornamental flowerbed but after the Great war a tank was displayed there and a mighty row ensued when in 1937 the local council decided to sell it for scrap. I personally can remember a model windmill being there for several years when the town was first twinned with Katvik in Holland.
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