Smalls Lighthouse
Encyclopedia
St Davids Head
St Davids Head is a headland in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, in southwest Wales. This headland is considered the southern limit of the Irish Sea in Wales....
in Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. It was erected in 1861 by engineer James Douglass
James Nicholas Douglass
Sir James Nicholas Douglass, FRS, , was an English civil engineer, a prolific lighthouse builder and designer, most famous for the design and construction of the fourth Eddystone Lighthouse, for which he was knighted....
to replace a previous lighthouse which had been erected in 1776 on the same rock. The lighthouse is the most remote lighthouse operated by Trinity House
Trinity House
The Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond is the official General Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales and other British territorial waters...
.
Previous lighthouse
The original Smalls Lighthouse was erected over 1775 and 1776, on the plans of Liverpool musical instrument maker Henry Whiteside. It stood on nine oakOak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
pillars, allowing the sea to pass through beneath. Although it suffered from some rocking, it stood for 80 years. During its life a significant number of extra struts were added beyond the original nine. The pillar-based design has since been used successfully in many sea structures.
The old lighthouse was the home of an unusual level of intrigue. The first message in a bottle
Message in a bottle
A message in a bottle is a form of communication whereby a message is sealed in a container and released into the sea or ocean...
was successfully sent from the small island, reaching its addressee over the miles of sea, and allowing a rescue of stranded repair workers, including Whiteside himself.
More disturbingly, the old lighthouse brought about a change in lighthouse policy in 1801 after a gruesome episode. The two man team, Thomas Howell and Thomas Griffith, were known to quarrel, and so when Griffith died in a freak accident, Howell feared that he might be suspected of murder if he discarded the body into the sea. As the body began to decompose, Howell built a makeshift coffin for the corpse and lashed it to an outside shelf. Stiff winds blew the box apart, though, and the body's arm fell within view of the hut's window and caused the wind to catch it in such a way that it seemed as though it was beckoning. Working alone and with the decaying corpse of his former colleague outside Howell managed to keep the lamp lit. When Howell was finally relieved from the lighthouse the effect the situation had had on him was said to be so extreme that some of his friends did not recognise him. Until the automation of British lighthouses in the 1980s lighthouse teams were changed to rosters of three men. In 2011, the affair was the subject of a BBC radio play called "The Lighthouse".
Current lighthouse
In 1859 Trinity House, having brought out the previous leaseholders in 1836, began the construction of a new tower. The tower was completed in 1861.In 1978 a helideck
Helipad
Helipad is a common abbreviation for helicopter landing pad, a landing area for helicopters. While helicopters are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard surface away from obstacles where a helicopter can safely...
was erected above the lantern and the lighthouse was automated in 1987. This is the first wind and solar powered lighthouse in the UK. It has only a 35 watt bulb but with the aid of lenses, this can be seen up to 21 miles (33.8 km) away. It was the first lighthouse in the UK with a flushing toilet installed.
The story of this lighthouse was presented in the BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
program Coast
Coast (TV series)
Coast is a BBC documentary series first broadcast on BBC Two television in 2005. A second series started on 26 October 2006, a third in early 2007 and a fourth in mid-2009...
series 1 episode "Bristol to Fishguard".