Location SwanageDorsetEngland Focal height 45 m (148 ft) Opened 1881 Phone +44 1929 422146 | Construction stone tower Height 12 m Automated 1991 Year first constructed 1881 | |
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Tower shape cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern Markings / pattern white tower and lantern Original lens 250mm 6 panel fourth order rotating optic Similar Lynmouth Foreland Lighthouse, Hilbre Island Lighthouse, Berry Head Lighthouse, Anvil Point, Cromer Lighthouse | ||
Anvil point lighthouse
The Anvil Point Lighthouse is a lighthouse located near Swanage in Dorset, southern England.
Contents
Dorset durlston park to anvil point lighthouse
History
The lighthouse is built of local stone and was completed in 1881. It was opened by Neville Chamberlain's father, then Minister of Transport. The lighthouse tower is twelve metres tall, the height of the light above the high-water mark is 45 m (148 ft). The light is positioned to give a waypoint for vessels passing along the English Channel coast.
Originally the light was illuminated by a paraffin vapour burner (PVB). During 1960, the lighthouse was modernised and electrified. It was fully automated on 31 May 1991 and is now monitored and controlled from the Trinity House Operations Control Centre at Harwich.
The lighthouse had a 1,000 watt filament lamp with an intensity of 500,000 Candela. The lights range was about 19 nautical miles (35 km; 22 mi), but was reduced to 9 nautical miles (17 km; 10 mi) following a review of aids to navigation in 2010. The old fog signal was a 5-minute cannon. The fog signal was replaced during 1981 by new automatic equipment, but it has now been discontinued. In 2012, a LED lamp was installed above the rotating Fresnel lens to serve as the main light at Anvil Point; its character is, as it was previously, a white flash every 10 seconds. The old lens, though no longer in use, remains in place in the tower.
The lighthouse is near a visitor centre and is sometimes open to the public for tours. This area is an Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Some of the old buildings have been refurbished as holiday cottages.