Trinity House

Trinity House, founded by Royal Charter in 1514, is the General lighthouse authority for England, Wales, the Channel Islands, and Gibraltar. It maintains navigational aids such as lightvessels and buoys, as well as communications services and pilotage for ships in the North Sea. These are financed by dues levied on commercial vessels calling at ports in the British Isles.

In addition, Trinity operates a registered charity, which provides welfare services for retired seamen, education, and promoting safety at sea. Funding for this is generated separately.

Trinity House was established as a result of a petition dated 19 March 1513 from a group of mariners based in Deptford, who wanted to regulate pilotage services on the River Thames. On 20 May 1514, Henry VIII granted a Royal Charter to "The Master, Wardens, and Assistants of the Guild, Fraternity, or Brotherhood of the most glorious and undivided Trinity, and of St Clement in the Parish of Deptford Strond in the County of Kent."

Their general business was listed as "to improve the art and science of mariners; to examine into the qualifications, and regulate the conduct of those who take upon them the charge of conducting ships; to preserve good order, and (when desired) to compose differences in marine affairs, and, in general, to consult the conservation, good estate, wholesome government, maintenance and increase of navigation and sea-faring men; and to relieve decayed seamen and their relatives."

The Sea Marks Act 1566 further authorised the Corporation to set up and maintain "beacons, marks, and signs for the sea" along the Thames, and in 1594 this was expanded to all public buoys in England.

With the increasing number of ships lost along the Newcastle to London coal route, in 1609 Trinity House established the Lowestoft Lighthouse, a pair of wooden towers with candle illuminants. Until the late 18th century, candle, coal, or wood fires were used as lighthouse illuminants, improved in 1782 with the circular-wick oil-burning Argand lamp, the first ‘catoptric’ mirrored reflector in 1777, and Fresnel’s ‘dioptric’ lens system in 1823. The Nore lightship was established as the world's first floating light in 1732. In 1803, the corporation established the Blackwall Depot as a buoy workshop, and six district depots were later established at Harwich, Great Yarmouth, East Cowes, Penzance, Holyhead and Swansea.

Under the 1836 Lighthouses Act, Trinity became the sole governing body for all British lighthouses, and any remaining private owners bought out. By 1847, revenue collected from this source was £11,000 to £12,000 per year.

During the First World War, the corporation served a number of functions: it buoyed shipping lanes and naval operations, moved lightvessels, and laid hundreds of buoys. During the Second World War, Trinity House kept sea lanes marked and lighted for Allied convoys. The Pilotage Service guided ships to their ports under hazardous conditions; at the time of the Dunkirk evacuation, a number of pilots helped in piloting vessels to and from the beaches.