Pharos Lighthouse, Fleetwood
The Pharos Lighthouse (also known as the Upper Lighthouse) is a 93-foot (28 m) tall Runcorn red sandstone
Pharos of Alexandria
.
The lighthouse was designed and constructed in conjunction with the much shorter (34 feet (10 m)) Lower Lighthouse (also known as
Beach Lighthouse) which stands on Fleetwood sea front. The lighthouses are designed to be used as a pair to guide shipping through the treacherous sandbanks of the Wyre estuary. The light from the Pharos should be kept immediately above the light from the Lower for safe passage down the channel. Both lighthouses were first illuminated on 1 December 1840. Each was run off the town's gas supply, with a single parabolic reflector placed behind the burner;[4] later they were converted to electricity.[5] The lamp is approximately 104 feet (32 m) above sea level,[2]
giving a range of about 12 nautical miles (22 km).
For many years, the lighthouse was painted a striking cream and red colour, but in the late 1970s, the original sandstone was again exposed. The Fleetwood terminal loop of the
Blackpool tramway
runs past the foot of the lighthouse. The lighthouse is managed by the Port of Fleetwood. The interior is closed to the general public.
See also
References
- Footnotes
- ^ Radcliffe, Joan. Fleetwood's Three Lighthouses. Fleetwood Civic Society.
- ^ a b Hartwell & Pevsner (2009), p. 296
- ^ Historic England. "Upper Lighthouse or Pharos (1072397)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
- ^ "Lighthouse management : the report of the Royal Commissioners on Lights, Buoys, and Beacons, 1861, examined and refuted Vol. 2". 1861. p. 306.
- ^ "Pharos, Fleetwood". Engineering Timelines. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
- Bibliography
- Hartwell, Clare; ISBN 978-0-300-12667-9
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Upper Lighthouse, Fleetwood.
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