Wyre Light Explained

Location:offshore Fleetwood
Lancashire
England
United Kingdom
Coordinates:53.953°N -3.027°W
Yearbuilt:1840
Yeardeactivated:1979[1]
Foundation:wrought iron piles
Construction:cast iron screw-pile lighthouse
Shape:hexagonal frustum structure with platform, keeper's quarter and lantern
Height:4.9m (16.1feet) (piles)
Focalheight:14m (46feet) (above half tide level)
Range:[2]

thumb|The derelict Wyre Light in 2007The Wyre Light was a 400NaN0 tall iron screw-pile lighthouse marking the navigation channel to the town of Fleetwood, Lancashire, England.[3]

History

The lighthouse was designed by Alexander Mitchell, an Irish engineer who developed the screwpile concept. It was the first screwpile lighthouse ever to be lit. Although construction of the Maplin Sands Light on the northern bank of the Thames estuary had started before Wyre Light, the latter was completed in a much shorter period of time.[4] These lights inspired other similar constructions such as the Thomas Point Shoal Light in the United States.

The Wyre Light stood 2nmi offshore on the 'North Wharf Bank', sandbanks which mark the 'Lune Deep' and the navigation channel of the Wyre. The Wyre Light along with a pair of on shore lighthouses, the Beach Lighthouse and the Pharos provided a navigational guide to shipping entering the Wyre estuary.

The Light's base consisted of seven wrought iron piles embedded in the sands. Each was 16feet long with cast-iron screw bases 3feet in diameter. The six corner piles formed a hexagonal platform of 50feet diameter. (The seventh pile served as a centre pillar.) The platform supported the lantern and a two-storey building to house the keeper. Construction began in 1839 and the lantern was lit on 6 June 1840. The building was destroyed by fire in 1948 and not replaced. After the fire, the beacon was made automatic and eventually replaced by a lighted buoy in 1979, leaving behind a derelict structure.

On 25 July 2017, the lighthouse partially collapsed into the sea.[5]

See also

Sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=624 Wyre Light, Fleetwood
  2. http://www.mycetes.co.uk/a/page37.html Wyre Lighthouse
  3. 2016-06-06.
  4. Book: Tomlinson's Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts . 1852–54 . Virtue & Co. . London . 177 . Tomlinson . 20 December 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160323020352/https://archive.org/details/cyclopdiaofuse02tomlrich . 23 March 2016 . live.
  5. Web site: PICTURES: Fleetwood's ruined lighthouse partially collapses . Blackpool Gazette. 26 July 2017 . 26 July 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170727162350/http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/pictures-fleetwood-s-ruined-lighthouse-partially-collapses-1-8670375 . 27 July 2017 . live.