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Orfordness lighthouse, Orford Ness, Suffolk, England
Orfordness Lighthouse is a decommissioned lighthouse on Orford Ness, in Suffolk, England. The 30 metres (98 ft) tower was completed in 1792. The light had a range of 25 nautical miles (46 km; 29 mi). It was equipped with an AIS transmitter with MMSI 992351016. The first lights in this area were constructed in 1637: a pair of wooden leading lights. These were replaced in 1780 by a pair of brick octagonal towers. Scarcely a dozen years later the lower light of the two was precariously close to the sea due to shore erosion; it collapsed not long afterwards. In 1792, anticipating this inevitability, the landowner Lord Braybrooke built a new 'high light' in a different position. This is the lighthouse which still stands today. The old high light then functioned as the new 'low light'. Both were fitted with Argand lamps and reflectors (there were fourteen burners in the high light, later increased to sixteen). In 1837 the lease of the Orfordness lighthouses (held together with Winterton Lighthouse to the north) was purchased by Trinity House. The following year, the low light was fitted with a fixed array of dioptric lenses and mirrors by Isaac Cookson & co. of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (the mirrors were replaced by prisms in 1850). In 1839 a novel Bude light was installed in the low lighthouse on an experimental basis, to test its appropriateness for use as a navigational light (ultimately the high cost of operation prevented further development in this regard)
Size: 4806px × 3205px
Location: Orford Ness, Suffolk, England
Photo credit: © TONY LOCKHART / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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