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Pendeen Lighthouse
Pendeen Lighthouse, also known as Pendeen Watch is an active aid to navigation located 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to the north of Pendeen in west Cornwall, England. It is located within the Aire Point to Carrick Du SSSI, the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the Penwith Heritage Coast. The South West Coast Path passes to the south.
Attached to the tower itself, there is an E-shaped building split into a terrace of four cottages. Three of the cottages were originally used to house the three resident keepers, their wives and families, with the fourth used as an office area and sleeping accommodation for the supernumerary keepers. They are now let as holiday cottages. Water was originally collected off the flat roof of the accommodation block and stored in an underground tank. Behind the cottages are three kitchen gardens (which soon fell into disuse as nothing would grow in such an exposed position). On the seaward side of the complex, the fog siren and its accompanying machinery is housed in a separate building.
The lighthouse, together with the attached keepers' cottages, are Grade II listed, as is the separate engine house (with its fog horn equipment), along with other associated buildings and the boundary walls. Pendeen's engine house is 'the only example in the country to have retained its 12" siren with associated machinery'.
Trinity House decided to build a lighthouse and foghorn here in 1891 and the building was designed by their engineer Sir Thomas Matthews. The 17 metres (56 ft) tower, buildings and surrounding wall were constructed by Arthur Carkeek of Redruth who had to flatten the headland before building could commence. The light was first lit on 3 October 1900.
A five–wick Argand lamp was initially provided, by Messrs Chance of Smethwick, near Birmingham; but this was replaced in 1906 by a Matthews 3-50mm dia. mantle lamp. (The original Argand oil lamp was initially retained as a standby lamp, and it was later put on display at the Trinity House National Lighthouse Museum in Penzance).
Chance Brothers also manufactured the lens system: a large (first-order) rotating optic made up of two sets of four panels (eight panels in all), which displayed a group of four flashes every fifteen seconds, (which remained in use until 2023); it had a range of 20 nautical miles (37 km; 23 mi).
In 1922 a 75mm Hood incandescent oil burner was installed in place of the earlier lamp; Pendeen was one of the first lighthouses to be fitted with this new type of mantle lamp, which increased the light's visible range to almost 28 nautical miles (52 km; 32 mi).
The fog signal was sounded from a detached engine house a little to the north-west. In 1900 it contained a pair of Hornsby oil engines providing compressed air for the twin 5-inch sirens, which sounded a seven-second blast every one-and-a-half minutes, through vertical curved trumpets (still in place) on the engine room roof.
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Pendeen Lighthouse AI simulator
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Pendeen Lighthouse
Pendeen Lighthouse, also known as Pendeen Watch is an active aid to navigation located 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to the north of Pendeen in west Cornwall, England. It is located within the Aire Point to Carrick Du SSSI, the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the Penwith Heritage Coast. The South West Coast Path passes to the south.
Attached to the tower itself, there is an E-shaped building split into a terrace of four cottages. Three of the cottages were originally used to house the three resident keepers, their wives and families, with the fourth used as an office area and sleeping accommodation for the supernumerary keepers. They are now let as holiday cottages. Water was originally collected off the flat roof of the accommodation block and stored in an underground tank. Behind the cottages are three kitchen gardens (which soon fell into disuse as nothing would grow in such an exposed position). On the seaward side of the complex, the fog siren and its accompanying machinery is housed in a separate building.
The lighthouse, together with the attached keepers' cottages, are Grade II listed, as is the separate engine house (with its fog horn equipment), along with other associated buildings and the boundary walls. Pendeen's engine house is 'the only example in the country to have retained its 12" siren with associated machinery'.
Trinity House decided to build a lighthouse and foghorn here in 1891 and the building was designed by their engineer Sir Thomas Matthews. The 17 metres (56 ft) tower, buildings and surrounding wall were constructed by Arthur Carkeek of Redruth who had to flatten the headland before building could commence. The light was first lit on 3 October 1900.
A five–wick Argand lamp was initially provided, by Messrs Chance of Smethwick, near Birmingham; but this was replaced in 1906 by a Matthews 3-50mm dia. mantle lamp. (The original Argand oil lamp was initially retained as a standby lamp, and it was later put on display at the Trinity House National Lighthouse Museum in Penzance).
Chance Brothers also manufactured the lens system: a large (first-order) rotating optic made up of two sets of four panels (eight panels in all), which displayed a group of four flashes every fifteen seconds, (which remained in use until 2023); it had a range of 20 nautical miles (37 km; 23 mi).
In 1922 a 75mm Hood incandescent oil burner was installed in place of the earlier lamp; Pendeen was one of the first lighthouses to be fitted with this new type of mantle lamp, which increased the light's visible range to almost 28 nautical miles (52 km; 32 mi).
The fog signal was sounded from a detached engine house a little to the north-west. In 1900 it contained a pair of Hornsby oil engines providing compressed air for the twin 5-inch sirens, which sounded a seven-second blast every one-and-a-half minutes, through vertical curved trumpets (still in place) on the engine room roof.