Withernsea Lighthouse

Withernsea Lighthouse stands in the centre of the East Yorkshire town of Withernsea, more than 400 metres from the sea. Built between 1892 and 1894, the 38-metre tower was designed to guard a stretch of coast threatened by erosion. Its lantern and lens came from the old North Lighthouse at High Whitby after it closed. The light first ran on a paraffin lamp, then on electricity from 1936, and was one of the first in the north to use mains power with a battery back-up. A two-ton lens floated on mercury and turned by clockwork until the station closed in 1976. The lighthouse now houses a small museum with exhibits on local shipwrecks and the RNLI crews who saved 87 lives between 1862 and 1913. A room displays Victorian and Edwardian photographs of the town, including the pier and railway, and there is a memorial to the film star Kay Kendall. Visitors can climb 144 steps to the lamp room for views across the town and coast. The tower and its adjoining keepers’ cottages are Grade II listed buildings. The site also has antennae for local mobile phone coverage. A mile away at Thirtle Bridge, J. R. R. Tolkien once stayed and later drew on the landscape for his stories. Some believe the lighthouse and the nearby Black Mill inspired his description of the Two Towers in Middle-earth. The white lighthouse and the dark mill appear in Tolkien’s rejected cover for The Two Towers, where their shapes and windows resemble his drawings.