Maps

Aerial Photo by Marinas.com More images are available

Photo by Martin Norman

Photo by Gaz Watts

Photo by Paul Glazzard

The first reference to a lighthouse on Spurn Head dates back to 1427 when a hermit, William Reedbarrow, was granted dues from passing ships to complete a lighthouse he was building there.

In the late 17th century high and low lights were erected on what was then the tip of the spit, probably about two miles north of the present tip. The low light had to be rebuilt several times but the high light lasted until the late 18th century when John Smeaton, the celebrated engineer who had built the Eddystone Lighthouse   in 1759, designed and built two new lighthouses at Spurn under the direction of the Hull and London Trinity Houses.

In 1852 a new low lighthouse was built on the Humber foreshore and in 1895 the high one was also replaced because there was evidence that the foundations of Smeaton’s lighthouse were giving way. The low lighthouse then became redundant, since lights shone out at several levels from the new one, and it was used to store explosives for a while before being topped by a water storage tank. The high lighthouse shone out over Spurn until 1985 when modern technology meant that it too became redundant.

The inside Photo by Charles Reispin

Photo by Andy Beecroft giving an idea of size

Please let us know any other information that we can add to the Grid or page and any errors that you discover. Before making a long trip to any location it is always wise to double check the current information, websites like magazines may be correct at the time the information is written, but things change and it is of course impossible to double check all entries on a regular basis. If you have any good photographs that you feel would improve the illustration of this page then please let us have copies. In referring to this page it is helpful if you quote both the Page Ref and Topic or Section references from the Grid below. To print the planning grid select it then right click and print the selected area.

Please submit information on locations you discover so that this system continues to grow.

By: Keith Park	Section:  Lighthouses Section	Key:
Page Ref: Spurn_Head	Topic: Lighthouses	Last Updated: 06/2010

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