Lighthouses of the North East Coast

The coast of the North East has been described as one of the most dangerous in the British Isles.

The North Sea had for centuries provided a vital line of communication between Scotland and England, not only for trade but also for the conveyance of passengers, and shipwrecks had been by and large taken as par for the course. However, with the upsurge in cargoes being carried from the ports of the North East, there was a corresponding rise in the number of wrecks, leading to increasingly vitriolic demands for action to be taken, in the form of better navigational aids.

At one stage it was said that there were an average of 44 wrecks per mile on this coast.

The Newcastle Trinity House received its first royal charter in 1536 and it eventually took responsibility from Berwick-upon-Tweed in the north to Whitby in the south. It established buoys and beacons, licensed shipmasters, mates and pilots, advised and carried out improvements to rivers and ports. In 1584, the Lord High Admiral issued a proclamation empowering Hull Trinity House also to establish buoys and beacons, and to collect dues for their maintenance. The modern era of lighthouse building began at the start of the eighteenth century. In the wake of the Industrial Revolution bigger ships carried payloads that mariners would at one time have barely dreamed possible. Advances in structural engineering and new and efficient lighting equipment paved the way for bigger and more powerful lighthouses to be built, including ones that could stand everything the sea could throw at them.

Today, improvements in maritime navigation and GPS have all helped to make lighthouses redundant. But the public love lighthouses. They are popular with photographers, painters and even poets, and the whole of Britain and way beyond was inspired by keeper’s daughter Grace Darling who defied tempestuous seas to rescue survivors from an 1838 shipwreck in the Farne Islands.

Britain is a great seafaring nation, and lighthouses are an essential part of its proud national tradition and heritage, on its picturesque yet savage North East coast, more than anywhere. These magnificent structures, from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Whitgift, are celebrated in this fascinating book by Robin Jones, with a hugely informative text and a stunning collection of historic and contemporary images.