Light House 01a High Street

Lowestoft had its first pair of "leading lights" (as they were known) sanctioned by Trinity House in 1609, two years after Caister had received similar authority. Both navigational aids consisted of a pair of braziers of some kind which were set on the beach, on a specific alignment, and fired at night to give shipping safe passage through offshore sandbanks. Lowestoft's enabled craft to negotiate the Stanford Channel between the Newcome and Holm sands into its inshore anchorage, while Caister's provided a route between the Cockle and Barber shoals into Gt. Yarmouth's haven.

In 1628, John Wild (merchant) was charged by Trinity House with supervising the building of a "high light", to give vessels a better alignment into the Stanford Channel, which tended to change position slightly as a result of tidal action. A single beacon on the beach and another, at a higher level, on the cliff-face, would give a more accurate indication of the channel's location. The site chosen was towards the top of Swan Score (now Mariner's Score), on the northern side, and this light remained in use until 1676, when it was replaced by one on the site still in use today. The structure is likely to have been a wooden tower of some kind.

The change of location was sanctioned by Samuel Pepys, in his capacity as Master of Trinity House, because the piece of manorial waste chosen (on an extremity of the town's North Common) was clear of the town's built-up area, whereas its predecessor was surrounded by houses and ancillary buildings and there was the constant danger of fires resulting from the sparks emitted by its wood-burning or coal-burning brazier. A sufficient number of the Elder Brethren of Trinity House were in favour of the move - as was Sir Thomas Allin, the town's famous Restoration-period naval commander, who was living in retirement at Somerleyton Hall, having purchased the manorial title there as well as that of Lowestoft itself.

The lighthouse authorised by Samuel Pepys and constructed in 1676 was a brick-and-flint tower, forty feet high and twenty in diameter. A raised hearth in the the uppermost part of the building (complete with flue and integral stack) was kept fuelled and flaming from sunset to sunrise, with incorporated bellows at the back of it to ensure consistent and effective combustion. There was a large aperture at the top of the lighthouse, on the seaward side, to provide visibility for mariners, and it was decided comparatively early on to glaze this. Not so much to protect the fire from the effects of bad weather as to reduce the risk of wind-blown sparks creating a danger to the town's nearest houses, some 200 yards or so away.

A hundred years later, the lighthouse tower was in serious need of repair and the Elder Brethren of Trinity House decided to remove the whole of the top section and replace it with one of the recently developed reflecting cylinders - this being a system of cylindrically arranged plate-glass mirrors set to reflect the light created by oil-burning lamps. At the time, the oil mainly used would have been extracted from whale-blubber and, while various improvements in lighthouse operation ensued over the years following, oil-burning technology still remained in use.

In 1873, the present structure (two feet higher than its predecessor and with integral accommodation for three lighthouse keepers) was built and began operation on 16 February 1874, with paraffin being used as the fuel to provide the reflected illumination. This continued until 1936, when the facility switched over to electrical power (Trinity House cites this year, while other sources say 1938). It continued to be manned until 1975, when it became automatically controlled from the Trinity House Planning Centre in Harwich. It gives a white flash every fifteen seconds and is visible (in good weather conditions) from twenty-three miles out at sea.

In addition to the "High Lighthouses", built in 1628 and 1676, the "Lowlight" (as it became known) on the beach below remained an important part of the navigational process into Lowestoft's inshore anchorage even after the harbour had been built (1827-30). It had to be aligned with its elevated companion, in order to sail through the Stanford Channel to safe anchorage, and it eventually changed in nature from a simple brazier to something rather more substantial.

By the year 1735, it had become almost impossible for vessels out at sea to align it with the High Lighthouse. This was the result of a combination of factors: erosion of the beach and the Denes, tidal movement of the channel, and the small size of the brazier itself. The decision was therefore taken to construct something far more substantial to create greater visibility and so a sturdy framework of timber, set on a square base but of tapering hexagonal shape was constructed, cross-braced throughout and with the light set at the top. 

Edmund Gillingwater, in his published history of the town (1790), says that the timber was found to have rotted by 1779 and that a replacement was built. An ink-and-wash study of this, produced by local artist Richard Powles in 1784, shows just how substantial this structure was, with "mini-lighthouse" built into the top level and accessed by ladder from the ground. No dimensions are recorded anywhere, but it was an impressive piece of timber-framing and must have been moved up and down the beach (when need arose) by means of horses and rollers.

It remained in operation until 1866 or 67, when a metal replacement on eight tubular legs was built - and this was set on rails to facilitate mobility. Its light converted from whale-oil to paraffin in 1874, with gas succeeding it in 1899, but it went out of operation in 1923 mainly because it was no longer needed. Improved buoyage of the offshore sandbanks had called time on the Lowlight, after more than 300 years of service.

 CREDIT:David Butcher