Orfordness Lighthouse is a decommissioned lighthouse on Orford Ness, in Suffolk, England. The tower was completed in 1792. Work began on demolition in July 2020. The light had a range of. It was equipped with an AIS transmitter with MMSI 992351016.
History
The first lights in this area were constructed in 1637: a pair of wooden leading lights. In 1720 the patent rights were acquired by Henry Grey, Esq.; he replaced the decaying wooden lighthouses with a pair of brick towers at a cost of £1,850. The lower light, however, went on to be beset by a series of problems: the tower was washed away in 1724; it was replaced by a timber hut, it was likewise washed away, in 1730. Its replacement, a timber tower, was destroyed by fire that same year, as was a second replacement the following year. A new tower was built in 1733. In 1746 the high light was coal-fired, the low light was oil-lit. 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 afterward. 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. In 1837 the lease of the Orfordness lighthouses 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. 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. In 1864 both lighthouses were painted with red and white horizontal bands. The high light retained its Argand lamps and reflectors until 1868, when they were replaced by a multi-wick lamp and a large fixed optic, engineered by James Chance. At the same time a red sector was added to the low light and to the high light. In 1887 the low light was again lost to erosion; this time it was not replaced. Instead, in 1888, red and green sectors were added to the high light, which was made occulting. A subsidiary white light was also introduced, shining "north-eastward from a window 60 feet below the high light, visible over an arc of about 25°, covering Aldborough ridge, and to assist vessels in rounding Orfordness". The lighthouse was further modernized in 1914: a new revolving optic was installed, and a new additional light was installed along with fixed lenses at a level below the lantern, so the sector lights now shone from windows on the tower. The lighthouse was electrified in 1959, and in 1964 it became the first lighthouse to be monitored by telemetry from Harwich, ushering in a process of lighthouse automation which continued around England over the next 35 years. The keepers were withdrawn from Orfordness the following year.
Decommissioning
The lighthouse was decommissioned on 27 June 2013, because of the encroaching sea. The modern electrical equipment and hazardous materials have been removed. Trinity House has increased the power of the light at Southwold Lighthouse to compensate for the closure of Orfordness lighthouse. Unless demolished, the Orfordness tower was expected to survive for seven to eight years before falling into the North Sea. In September 2019 however, high tides and harsh weather damaged the lighthouse's ancillary bungalow, originally an outbuilding of the lighthouse keeper's cottages, causing it partly to collapse, requiring it to be demolished, and brought the shoreline only feet from the lighthouse itself. In July 2020 work began to dismantle the structure. The 1913 optic has been removed and is now displayed at the London headquarters of the International Maritime Organization.
Orfordness Lighthouse Trust
After decommissioning, the lighthouse was purchased by the Orfordness Lighthouse Trust, a registered charity established 'to preserve the Lighthouse for as long as possible and its legacy after that'. Under the Trust's stewardship the lighthouse was opened to the public on certain specified days each summer between 2013 and 2019. In the winter of 2013–14 10 metres of the surrounding beach was lost to erosion; Trust volunteers then installed a sea defence, in the form of gravel-filled bags, to help protect the low cliff in front of the lighthouse. Notwithstanding these measures, it remained "at imminent risk of falling into the sea". In 2019 the Trust said it was committed to keeping the Lighthouse standing for as long as possible. In the longer term, it aspires 'to dismantle the Lighthouse and rebuild a replica elsewhere on the Ness'. With this in mind the optic was removed in 2014. Storms in September 2019 undermined the bungalow beside the lighthouse, causing it to collapse, and erosion of the beach in front of the structures and to either side of them prevented any further work to repair its foundations and the deployment of any more sea defences. After winter storms in early 2020, only the tower remained undamaged. The lighthouse's oil store was swept away. The Times reported on July 18, 2020 that work on demolition had begun. It quoted Nicholas Gold of the Trust as saying "In recent months the building has become a hazard."
