Our beacons of hope

Jul 10 2007 by Laura Davis, Liverpool Daily Post

The lighthouses of Liverpool Bay have a unique history, so fascinating that they deserve a book all to themselves. Laura Davis reports

THE lighthouse keeper’s world was one of solitude, but these protectors of vessels at sea were never lonely.

The sharp cries of the gulls and the thump of the waves formed a natural symphony that filled their ears as they topped up the lamp with oil and trimmed the wick.

There was too much to do to feel the loss of company – tending the tiny vegetable garden in summer, brushing the snow from the glass panels in winter.

Even the comfortable routine of making a cup of tea involved climbing down hundreds of steps to the low-level kitchen and back again.

Usually there would be someone else to help, a wife maybe or an assistant, who would take it in turns to turn the light every four hours throughout the night.

It was a simple life, one that is extinct today, but it is surrounded by as much mystique as that of a fifties film siren or an astronaut in space.

“I think people are drawn to lighthouses because of the romance,” says Diane Robinson, who has co-authored a new book, Lighthouses of Liverpool Bay, with her husband John.

“It’s a way of life that we would like to have but can’t achieve. When Trinity House automated the last of their lighthouses, it was the end of an era.”

Set up in Elizabethan times to look after pilotages and seamen’s charities, Trinity House later oversaw the operation of lighthouses across the country.

But Liverpool, as it often does, worked differently. The city, through the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board and its predecessor the Dock Trust, ran all the lighthouses covering the Mersey, including those at Leasowe and New Brighton that are still standing. Keepers in the region even had their own vocabulary that wasn’t the same as the standardised terms used by Trinity House.

“That’s the way Liverpool liked to do things. They ran their own lifeboats, too. We’ve been lucky because if we had to rely on archives from Trinity House we wouldn’t have found as much out. They lost a lot of their records during the war,” explains Diane.

“The Merseyside Maritime Museum and the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board collection is one of the best in the country. From 1857, they kept wonderful ledgers with information on all the keepers.”

The creation of Liverpool’s first enclosed dock in 1715 and the rapidly increasing traffic on the Mersey over the next half century caused the town’s merchants and ship owners to fear for the loss of their cargo.

The Liverpool Dock Act of 1762 allowed the erection of four lighthouses to prevent vessels from meeting their fate on the rocks – a pair of brick towers at Mockbeggar, to the west of Leasowe Castle, and a third brick tower and a wooden structure near the shore of Hoyle Lake, where the town of Hoylake is now.

During the 18th century, lighthouses were built at points all along the Mersey and into the Irish Sea, including at New Brighton, Formby, Crosby and Point Lynas, on Anglesey, where ships involved in the slave triangle were at risk of running aground. One was constructed on the North Wall, near Gladstone Dock, with a powerful foghorn that became known as the Bootle Bull.

Of all these, Point Lynas is the only one still used today and is automated. There is also a small lighthouse – more of a light-mast – on Hilbre Island in Wirral.

Diane and John began their research as an off-shoot to studying their family tree. Diane discovered that one of her ancestors may have lived in Leasowe lighthouse and became fascinated by the history of the illuminated towers of the Mersey.

They were invited to become a “friend” of the Leasowe building and eventually decided to write a book together. The highlight of the research, Diane says, was visiting New Brighton lighthouse, the only one in the area to be separated from the mainland by the sea.

“We had to wade through the water, which came up to the top of my legs because I’m only small, and then climb up a wooden ladder that’s vertical with the lighthouse up against your face. I was so frightened,” she recalls.

“You read about how cramped the conditions were but until you go in you can’t really tell properly what it’s like.

“It has all the original fittings, the benches, the mechanism and fantastic views of the Mersey.”

Inside, a central weight tube runs down the middle of the tower and all furniture had to be fitted around this. In the living quarters, a table has been drilled through to allow the tube to pass through it.

These were on one floor, with the kitchen, shower and the bedroom quarters spread over other levels.

“For a lot of people, becoming a lighthouse keeper was a good career progression because they had been away to sea and then worked on a lightship. This was a step up for them because it was land-based,” says Diane.

“A traditional lighthouse like New Brighton is so elegant and such a beacon of hope, it’s no wonder people are so fascinated by them.”

LIGHTHOUSES of Liverpool Bay, by John and Diane Robinson, is produced by Tempus Publishing, priced £15.99.

lauradavis@dailypost.co.uk

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