Beachy Head, 1912

Photo ref: 64982

More about this scene

Although there have been several references to a light that was exhibited from Beachy Head in around 1670, the records state that this was not for maritime purposes but as a fire beacon which would warn of any threatened invasion. The first official record of a petition for a navigation light appears in the Parliamentary Papers of the Lords of the Privy Council for Trade, written during the reign of William III and Queen Mary in 1691. The proposer of a light near Beachy Head was a Thomas Offley. However, even though the Privy Council requested that the Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strand should investigate the need for a light, nothing was formally activated until the latter part of the 18th century. During the early part of the 18th century, a local parson named Jonathan Darby from the parish of East Dean unofficially displayed a candle-burning lantern hung in a hollow carved out of the chalk headland. This cave became known as Darby's Hole. It is recorded in the Sussex archives that Parson Darby carved out a deep shaft through the headland, which ended at a gallery-shaped hollow about 20ft above the highest spring tides. According to the records of the Eastbourne Natural History Society, Darby's Hole was in fact part of a cave system which had formerly been used by the local smugglers. Parson Darby died in 1729 at the age of 59, and was buried in the East Dean churchyard. His headstone salutes this exceptional parson by calling him 'the sailor's friend'.