Beacon Stones

Much has been speculated and written about this flint-and-mortar conglomerate over the years, and I will leave its alternative title of “The Witches Stones” for my friend Ivan Bunn to make comment. What you see is the remains of the base of a beacon, one of a pair erected in 1550 (on the orders of the Marquis of Northampton), to warn of attack from the sea. Its companion was located further to the north, near what is now the junction of Corton Road, Gunton Drive and Links Road. 

The idea was to light one of the beacons if a large fleet of ships was detected out at sea and to fire them both if any landing appeared to be in the offing. By 1584 (when a defensive survey of Lothingland was carried out), the latter one had decayed and been pulled down and a post-mill built on the site. 

This particular structure can be seen on a map of the local coastline dating from c. 1580 and also on a fine Lowestoft Porcelain polychrome jug (dedicated to the miller, Jeremiah Warner) in the Castle Museum collection, Norwich. The beacon which occupied the site on what was once part of the old North Common (just inside the entrance to Belle Vue Park, today) is also shown on the map of 1580. It was secured to a square wooden frame or base fixed to the masonry, the central pole braced by four diagonal supports - one of which had horizontal hand-holds and foot-holds attached to it, to facilitate climbing. 

These continued all the way up the pole to the brazier set at the top, with two ropes hanging down from either side of its platform to assist the climber or climbers. If and when used, the brazier would have been filled with easily combustible pieces of wood and ignited. The structure was just one small part of what may be termed England’s mid-Tudor “early warning” system. 

There was concern, at this time, in the middle of the 16th century, of a possible war with Scotland and France - traditional allies for some considerable time, and with the young Mary Stuart (daughter of James V, deceased, and heir to the Scottish throne) living at the French court and betrothed to Francis, the Dauphin, whom she was later to marry in 1558. She had gone out there in 1548, at the tender age of six - the second phase of a life that was to prove so eventful and was ultimately to end in execution sanctioned by her English cousin, Elizabeth. 

CREDIT:David Butcher / The Lowestoft Archaeological and Local History Society