Orford Ness Lighthouse.

[Old Bumbulum]

With the second big storm in a week threatening I wonder how much longer this much-loved landmark will remain?

I know the wind direction is far from the worst but even so scouring seas from the WSW presumably can rake out the supporting shingle and even at the end of last season the foundations were becoming visible.

It'll be a sad day that sees the end of that lighthouse, even unlit it's a seriously useful and reassuring landmark when transiting that coast.

 

[johnalison]

I agree that it would/will be sad to see it go, but as I grow older I take comfort, and find a certain fascination, in observing the effects of entropy increasing around me.

 

[Kukri]

The Danes moved a similar but younger lighthouse inland to save it.

It is a pity that we British can’t be bothered with a lighthouse that was still useful to the yachtsman and inshore fisherman if to nobody else.

 

[Old Bumbulum]

I fear there is no profit to be made in such a move, which thus condemns it to the 'clearly impossible' bin in UK.

 

[johnalison]

Someone found it worthwhile moving the old Beachy Head lighthouse, presumably using private contractors for a private dwelling. To move Orford by public works would probably cost a fortune, and mean changing all the charts to boot.

 

[dolabriform]

Someone found it worthwhile moving the old Beachy Head lighthouse, presumably using private contractors for a private dwelling. To move Orford by public works would probably cost a fortune, and mean changing all the charts to boot.

But the charts will have to be changed when it goes anyway !

 

[johnalison]

But the charts will have to be changed when it goes anyway !

You're spoiling my argument.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

Why not dig a nice big crater round it and fill it up with concrete while you can still get at it.

Wouldn't cost much. Would be a nice dwelling for someone who vants to be alooone ...

 

[Kukri]

 

[Gargleblaster]

Brilliant, never saw the movie 'Clockwork Orange' and presume it is from that.
Saw an Australian movie on a plane in the last year or so about a lighthouse keeper and his wife kidnapping a child which I really enjoyed for the loneliness of their existence. Called something like the 'The Light at the end of the World'

 

[Seashoreman]

Long Keeler's suggestion wont work against the power of the sea and the shifting shingle. A friend walked down to lighthouse two weeks ago and took photos, the Aldeburgh Lifeboat has been down there on exercise recently. The foundations are exposed to the elements and it is inevitably going to fall in to the sea. This is the policy of the National Trust with regard to all the buildings on Orford Ness. They will gradually decay and collapse.
It seems a shame that the light seems too difficult to dismantle and save.
There is an active group called the Orfordness Lighthouse Company Limited that has been trying to raise funds to move the whole thing and rebuild it across the water from Orford Quay. I fear its all a bit too late to do anything now. It seems that some people are more concerned about the resulting debris and possible pollution of the sea.
This has never been a manned Lighthouse.
I am no expert on this issue but it is known and loved by many locals as well as seafarers.

Will 2020 be your last chance to visit the iconic Orford Ness lighthouse?

 

[Stork_III]

Long Keeler's suggestion wont work against the power of the sea and the shifting shingle. A friend walked down to lighthouse two weeks ago and took photos, the Aldeburgh Lifeboat has been down there on exercise recently. The foundations are exposed to the elements and it is inevitably going to fall in to the sea. This is the policy of the National Trust with regard to all the buildings on Orford Ness. They will gradually decay and collapse.
It seems a shame that the light seems too difficult to dismantle and save.
There is an active group called the Orfordness Lighthouse Company Limited that has been trying to raise funds to move the whole thing and rebuild it across the water from Orford Quay. I fear its all a bit too late to do anything now. It seems that some people are more concerned about the resulting debris and possible pollution of the sea.
This has never been a manned Lighthouse.
I am no expert on this issue but it is known and loved by many locals as well as seafarers.

Will 2020 be your last chance to visit the iconic Orford Ness lighthouse?

Not since the mid 1960s anyway, but was for first 170 odd years of its life.

 

[Seashoreman]

Not since the mid 1960s anyway, but was for first 170 odd years of its life.

There is no accommodation within the actual Lighthouse, this is what I meant by not being 'manned'.
This was simply in response to the humour of Kukri. Pre electrification I imagine the keepers slept in the now demolished
annexe building.
Don't mean to be argumentative about such a minor issue, as I said I am no expert.

(I have the books on my shelf, must find the time to do some study.
One of which is: Most secret - The hidden history of Orford Ness by Paddy Heazell, a man I knew well.
Sadly he and his wife were killed in a car crash in USA).

 

[Old Bumbulum]

Imagine the pollution from a pile of bricks and mortar in the sea! What an ecological catastrophe that would be.
And not a mention of the navigational hazard such large boulders off the point might present in years to come.
Some people have very strange priorities!

 

[pioneer]

If the debris becomes a hazard will we need something to mark the position, like a lighthouse?

 

[dolabriform]

If the debris becomes a hazard will we need something to mark the position, like a lighthouse?

Err... my brain hurts

 

[Aquaboy]

4 years ago now

 

[Seashoreman]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...dp2Y8yeAISfqElPFg6LS6WuYq18KHQMrLWQzRG1plTtDN
Two weeks ago.
Sorry cant upload recent picture.

 

[pvb]

If you look on Google Earth, you can see imagery from earlier times, showing how the coast has eroded over the years. It looks like about 50 metres has disappeared since 1945.

 

[Seashoreman]

Its a tricky science PVB. There are distinct lines on Orfordness showing how the spit has built up and grown southwards over history. Orford was once Orford-On-Sea of coarse. We experience long shore drift most winters along this part of the coast. Thousands of tons of shingle moving overnight. Beaches growing and disappearing.
I guess the Lighthouse is on a vunerable point of erosion. The Environment Agency removed the groins along a long stretch of Slaughden beach and Aldeburgh saying they were in a state of decay. They had to be quickly replaced by expensive imported rock boulders. Altering any section of the shingle shoreline has repercussions further along the coast. I sometimes think the Victorians knew more about sea defences than modern day 'experts'.