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St Mary's Lighthouse
	The lighthouse in 2007
Location	St Mary's Island; Tyne and Wear; England
OS grid	NZ3525075397
Coordinates	55°04′18″N 1°26′58″W / 55.071656°N 1.449444°W
Tower
Constructed	1898
Construction	brick tower
Automated	1982
Height	46 metres (151 ft)
Shape	tapered cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern
Markings	white tower and lantern
Operator	North Tyneside Borough Council
Heritage	Grade II listed
Light
Deactivated	1984
Range	17 nmi (31 km; 20 mi)
Characteristic	Fl(2) W 20s.

St Mary's Lighthouse is on the tiny St Mary's (or Bait) Island, just north of Whitley Bay on the coast of North East England. The small rocky tidal island is linked to the mainland by a short concrete causeway which is submerged at high tide.

History

The first light here was in the priory - an 11th-century monastic chapel, whose monks maintained a lantern on the tower to warn passing ships of the danger of the rocks. A lighthouse was built here in 1664 using stone from the priory. This was demolished^[2] when the current lighthouse and adjacent keepers' cottages were built in 1898 by the John Miller company of Tynemouth, using 645 blocks of stone and 750,000 bricks. A first-order 'bi-valve' rotating optic was installed by Barbier & Bénard of Paris, very similar to the one they had provided the previous year for Lundy North Lighthouse;^[3] it displayed a group-flashing characteristic, flashing twice every 20 seconds. The lamp was powered by paraffin, and was not electrified until 1977; St Mary's was by then the last Trinity House lighthouse lit by oil.^[4]

As part of the electrification process the fine first-order fresnel lens was removed by Trinity House (it was later put on display in their National Lighthouse Museum in Penzance). Its place in the tower was taken by a four-tier revolving sealed beam lamp array, manufactured by Pharos Marine;^[5] it was powered by two 12-volt batteries, charged from the mains electricity supply.^[6]

Decommissioning

The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1984^[7] (two years after its conversion to automatic operation). The revolving sealed beam array was reused two years later (in reduced form) on the Inner Dowsing light platform in the North Sea, as part of its conversion to become 'the first major lighthouse to be run using solar power'.^[5] In 1986 a blue plaque was created to record its early history.^[2]

A few years later, St Mary's was opened as a visitor attraction by the local council. In place of the original optic, Trinity House offered a smaller one from their decommissioned lighthouse at Withernsea, and this can still be seen at the top of the tower.^[8]

Following closure of the Penzance lighthouse museum, the original lens was returned to St Mary's in 2011 to be put on display.^[9]

The lighthouse today

Since 2012 St Mary's lighthouse has been grade II listed.^[10] While it no longer functions as a working lighthouse, it is easily accessible (when the tide is out) and regularly open to visitors; in addition to the lighthouse itself there is a small museum, a visitor's centre, and a café. The cottage was upgraded with a wood pellet boiler in 2014.^[11]

In 2017 a renovation plan for the site (including roof-top viewing platforms and various glass-covered extensions) was rejected by the local planning authority due to environmental concerns. A new refurbishment proposal (to include rebuilding the original optic) was presented in 2018;^[12] however the Heritage Lottery Fund later turned down North Tyneside Council's £2.1m funding application.^[13]

Another Victorian lighthouse may be found a few miles to the south of the River Tyne. Souter Lighthouse is also now decommissioned, and open to visitors. Souter Lighthouse can be seen with the naked eye from the top of St Mary's Lighthouse.^[14]

References

^ Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of Northeastern England". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
^ ^a ^b Bolckow (27 February 2010), Site of Tynemouth Lighthouse plaque,Tynemouth Coastguard Station, retrieved 25 February 2022
^ s:1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lighthouse
^ Jones, Robin (2014). Lighthouses of the North East Coast. Wellington, Somerset: Halsgrove.
^ ^a ^b "Inner Dowsing Goes Solar". The Dock and Harbour Authority. 67 (785): 195. December 1986.
^ "Briefing". The Electrical Review. 23 (6): 103. 11 August 1978.
^ Communications, North Tyneside Council Marketing and. "North Tyneside Council". Government of the United Kingdom. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
^ World Lighthouse Society Fall 2004 Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 3
^ "St Marys Lighthouse | Worldwide Lighthouses". worldwidelighthouses.com. Archived from the original on 3 January 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
^ Historic England. "ST MARYS LIGHTHOUSE (1038989)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 17 November 2011.
^ "St Mary's Island Cottage". News Guardian. Whitley Bay. 25 April 2014. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016.
^ "St Mary's Lighthouse new £2m revamp plans unveiled". BBC News. 24 February 2018. Archived from the original on 11 April 2018. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
^ "Whitley Bay's St Mary's Lighthouse revamp plans are dealt a huge blow". Chronicle Live. 10 October 2018. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
^ Personal observation