There have been lighthouses on Orford Ness, in Suffolk, England, since 1637 when a pair of leading lights was established; the 1792 tower built as the “high light” became an icon of the area. After its decommissioning in 2013 because of the encroaching sea, the lighthouse became the property of the Orfordness Lighthouse Trust and was opened for public tours.
Storms in late 2019 and early 2020 destroyed a bungalow next to the lighthouse and undermined the base of the lighthouse, to the point that it has been decided that the tower is unsafe and that it will be demolished. A date for the demolition has not been confirmed, but the Trust expects it to begin “in the next few weeks.”
On Facebook, the trust wrote, “We committed to defend Orfordness Lighthouse where it stood for as long as possible, and if possible to preserve the artifacts after that. We are proud that, through the application of the ‘shingle sausage’ defenses, we kept the Lighthouse standing for years longer than anyone envisaged.”
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U.S. Lighthouse Society Historian Jeremy D’Entremont is the author of 24 books and hundreds of articles on lighthouses and maritime history. He is a past president of the American Lighthouse Foundation and founder of Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouses, and he has lectured and narrated cruises throughout the Northeast and in other regions. He is also the producer and host of the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s weekly podcast, “Light Hearted.” He can be emailed at Jeremy@uslhs.org
That is sad about the Orfordness Light…so many stories of the sea and boats and the light still in history, but no more to be of the old light to be.
New member just reading this
Delores Haugland
Edmonds Wa