New Brighton, The Lighthouse 1887
Photo ref:
20069
More about this scene
Tradition says that a lighthouse was built on the sands here in the early 1700s, but it collapsed into the sand. A ship carrying cotton bales was shipwrecked off Wirral, and the bales washed ashore. Wood and parts of the ship soon sank into the sand, but the bales of cotton did not. Then grass started to grow on the cotton bales, and this held firm in the sand. Bales of cotton were then deliberately sunk into the foreshore, and a wall was built on them. They did not sink, and the two lighthouses on this coast were built on this same principle: Leasowe first, then New Brighton in 1827 at a cost of £27,000. We can see that the entrance is 40ft up the lighthouse, and can only be reached by climbing an iron ladder fixed to the outside of the 90ft structure.
An extract from Liverpool and Merseyside Photographic Memories.
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Lighthouses
An evocative selection of images of lighthouses - iconic structures standing lonely sentinel on craggy headland or razor-sharp rocks, all around Britain’s coast.
Britain's Coasts
Gorgeous archive photos of Britain's coastal towns & villages.
Liverpool and Merseyside Photographic Memories
The photo 'New Brighton, the Lighthouse 1887' appears in this book.
View BookA Selection of Memories from New Brighton
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