England has a lot of history. England also has a lot of lighthouses. And thus, a lot of England lighthouses have a lot of history.
As one might expect, a lighthouse that guides ships into the estuary of the Thames River (that's the one that flows through London) would have quite a bit of history. And it definitely does. In fact, according to the Web site I found about this one, the first year there was a light set up at this location was 1499. We just missed the 500th anniversary back in 1999.
This site is all about English lighthouses, so here's a whole page about the North Foreland Lighthouse.
Extracting a few morsels of information about this one:
"Later in 1636 the first lighthouse was constructed, a wooden octagonal tower, 2 storeys high with a Iron coal burning grate on the top. The timber tower structure was completed with lathes and plaster. This was destroyed by fire in 1683."
The new 1691 lighthouse burned coal. They switched to oil in 1793. They put a lantern house on it in 1890.
Stats:
"Octagonal cylindrical stone tower with lantern and gallery, painted white, attached to two 2-story keeper's houses."
The height of the tower is 26 meters.
Pictures also indicate that it is close to Kingsgate Castle, of which I have a picture below, too.
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| Kingsgate Castle. North Foreland lighthouse is at far right. |
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