Flamborough Head Lighthouse facts for kids

The Flamborough Head Lighthouse is an important lighthouse located at Flamborough, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It helps ships find their way safely along the coast. The lighthouse guides large ships and smaller boats, showing them the way to places like Scarborough and Bridlington.

Old Lighthouse

The very first lighthouse at Flamborough was built a long time ago, in 1674, by Sir John Clayton. It's one of the oldest lighthouses still standing in England! This old lighthouse was made from chalk. Interestingly, it was never actually lit to guide ships. Today, it is a special historic building, known as a Grade II* listed building.

Current Lighthouse

The lighthouse around 1890

The lighthouse you see today was designed by Samuel Wyatt. It cost about £8,000 to build, which was a lot of money back then! It first shone its light on December 1, 1806.

The lighthouse had a special way of flashing its light. It would show two white flashes, then one red flash. This unique pattern helped sailors know it was Flamborough Head. The lighting system was designed by George Robinson, an expert in lighthouse optics. It used 21 special lamps called argand lamps, which had parabolic reflectors to make the light brighter. Seven lamps were on each of the three sides of a spinning frame. On one side, the reflectors were covered with red glass. This was the first time red glass was used in a lighthouse to create a specific light pattern! It helped sailors tell Flamborough's light apart from the one at Cromer.

In 1872, the lighthouse got an upgrade. A new lamp that used paraffin oil was put in. Flamborough was the first lighthouse run by Trinity House (the group that manages lighthouses in England) to use paraffin. After this, many other lighthouses also switched to paraffin.

Along with the new lamp, a new and powerful Fresnel lens was installed. This special lens, made by Chance Brothers, helped keep the lighthouse's unique pattern of two white flashes and one red flash. The lens spun faster than before, so a flash appeared every 30 seconds instead of every two minutes. The red-flashing parts of the lens were made extra wide to make sure they were as bright as the white flashes, even with the red filter. These changes cost £7,000 and made the light visible from about 21 nautical miles away. In 1907, the light spun even faster, giving a flash every 15 seconds.

The expanded lantern containing the lens

In 1925, the top part of the lighthouse, called the lantern, was made taller. This was to fit a new, very large 15-foot lens. This new lens shows four white flashes every 15 seconds. The old lens was sent to the Bahamas to be used in their lighthouses. In 1940, the light was changed from oil to electricity.

The last lighthouse keepers, who lived and worked at the lighthouse, left on May 8, 1996, when the lighthouse became automated. This means it runs by itself now. The light is still used today. The East Riding of Yorkshire Council offers tours of the lighthouse at certain times of the year. It is now a Grade II listed building, meaning it's a protected historic site.

In 2022, the lighthouse was updated again. The old spinning lens was removed. Now, two modern LED lights are used instead. The distance the light can be seen was changed from 24 nautical miles to 18 nautical miles.

Fog Signal Station

The fog signal station: former signalmen's cottage (left) and engine house (right).

A fog signal station was built in 1859, a little distance from the lighthouse, near the edge of the cliff. A fog signal is used to warn ships when it's foggy and they can't see the light.

At first, an 18-pound gun was fired every 15 minutes as the fog signal. A small house was built nearby for the people who fired the gun. In 1878, explosive rockets replaced the cannon. These rockets were fired every 10 minutes when it was foggy, and they went up about 600 feet into the air. From 1896, they were fired every five minutes.

In 1908, an engine house was built next to the cottage. A loud siren replaced the rockets. It made one long blast and one short blast every 90 seconds. The sound came out of two large trumpets on the roof of the engine room. The siren used compressed air, which was made by two powerful oil engines.

In 1924, the siren was replaced by two diaphones. These are special horns that make a very deep, loud sound. They were placed in a metal tower on the front of the engine house. In 1975, an electric fog signal took over. In 2022, the signal was changed to one long blast every 90 seconds.

The fog signal area is still owned by Trinity House. Besides the modern fog signal, it also has a special system called DGPS that helps ships find their exact location.

See also

In Spanish: Faro de Cabo Flamborough para niños

• List of lighthouses in England