North Foreland

North Foreland Lighthouse

North Foreland Lighthouse
Kent
Coordinates	51°22′30″N 1°26′42″E / 51.37490°N 1.44510°E / 51.37490; 1.44510
Year first constructed	1636 (first)
Year first lit	1691 (current)
Automated	1998
Construction	stone tower
Tower shape	octagonal prism tower with balcony and lantern attaches to a 2-storey keeper's house
Markings / pattern	white tower and lantern
Height	26 m (85 ft)
Focal height	57 m (187 ft)
Current lens	1st order catadioptric fixed lens
Light source	4 x 230V 500W halogen lamps
Intensity	60,800 candela
Range	19 nmi (35 km; 22 mi)
Characteristic	Fl (5) RW 20s.
Admiralty number	A0966
NGA number	1364
ARLHS number	ENG-087
Managing agent	Trinity House

North Foreland is a chalk headland on the Kent coast of southeast England.

North Foreland forms the eastern end of the Isle of Thanet. It presents a bold cliff to the sea, and commands views over the southern North Sea.

Trinity House

The necessity for a lighthouse at this place must have become apparent when the Goodwin Sands became dangerous and when it was found that in directing their course so as to keep clear of this land which extends so far into the sea ships were extremely liable to strike on the sands at night before they were aware.

There was probably some sort of a beacon at an earlier period but the first distinct intimation concerning a lighthouse on the North Foreland is in the year 1636 when Charles I by letters-patent granted to Sir John Meldrum licence to continue and renew the lighthouses erected on the North and South Forelands.

It seems that the lighthouse erected by Sir John consisted merely of a house built with timber lath and plaster on the top of which a light was kept in a large glass lantern for the purpose of directing ships in their course. This house was burnt down by accident in the year 1683 after which for some years use was made of a sort of beacon on which a light was hoisted. But near the end of the same century a strong octagonal structure of flint was erected on the top of which was an iron grate quite open to the air in which a good fire of coals was kept blazing at night.

About the year 1732 the top of this lighthouse was covered with a sort of lantern with large sash windows and the fire was kept bright by bellows with which the attendants blew throughout the night. This contrivance is said to have been for the purpose of saving coals but it would seem more probable that it was in order to preserve the fire from being extinguished by rain. However the plan did not work well and great injury resulted to navigation as many vessels were lost on the sands from not seeing the light and so little was it visible at sea that mariners asserted that they had often in hazy weather seen the Foreland before they could discover the light. They added that before the lantern was placed there and when the fire was kept in the open air the wind kept the fire in a constant blaze which was seen in the air far above the lighthouse. Complaints of this sort were so loud and frequent that the governors of Greenwich Hospital to whom the lighthouse belonged sent Sir John Thomson to examine and make arrangements on the subject. He ordered the lantern to be taken away and things to be restored to nearly their former state the light to continue burning all the night until daylight.