Flamborough Head Lighthouse, follies and folly towers at follytowers.com (original) (raw)

F l a m b o r o u g h
O l d L i g h t h o u s e

Photo Submitted by, and Copyright of :- Matt Waite.

This is not a folly you cry, its a lighthouse, get away with you !
Well before you hit the 'Back' key, yes I suppose you are right. It is called the "Old Lighthouse", yet recent restoration did not reveal any evidence of beacon fires being lit atop. So in reality we have a tower with a sea view, and there are plenty of follies that have been built to that specification.
This site is not branching into Lighthouses though, this being an exception, and with such a wonderful blue sky that Matt has captured, you can see why I wish to include it.

Seriously though it has been referred to as a lighthouse in documentation from both the 1680's and 1750, and was most likely built around 1674. Documents in existence tell of "a grant from the King" being given for several lighthouses to be built around the coastline, one being situated on land owned by a Robert Crompton at Flamborough.
A much later letter of 1925 from the Secretary of Trinity House London (the body responsible for lighthouses in the UK) states the old lighthouse had a coal fire beacon. Whether this was just conjecture is not known, but we now have the benefit of investigations done when the tower was restored in 1996 at a cost of �100,000, and no evidence of fires was actually found, so the jury is still out on that issue.
The tower is octagonal in shape with a trap door in each floor to allow winching of material (coal or wood maybe?) from the bottom to the top.

Restoration
This was due to the determination of Councillor Norman Hall MBE who tried for twenty years to get funding. Eventually when work started it was found that the north face needed twenty tons of chalk replaced, and because the restorers wished to use only authentic material, great care was taken to ensure it was of a similar type. The floors and the roof were also replaced, and tie bars are now in situ to stop any movement of the structure in the future.

The lighthouse for Flamborough that is actually in service nowadays, was built in 1806 and is a much larger affair. This nearby lighthouse is 85 feet tall and has been situated closer to the shore on a 170 foot tall cliff.

Footnote:

Flamborough Head was called 'Flaneburg' in the Doomsday Book. 'Flane' being the Norse word for an arrow or sword to which the head bears some resemblance. View the Stairwell Inside.

Co-Ords: 525005 470805 / TA 250708

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