Southwold lighthouse

Image: © Evelyn Simak Taken: 4 Jan 2011

This view was taken from North Parade. The lighthouse has been operating since 1890 and was electrified and de-manned in 1938. It is 31 metres high and rhythmically flashes its red and white warning lights to shipping. It replaced three local lighthouses that were under serious threat from coastal erosion. The lighthouse is unusual in that the light itself is switched on and off in sequence (four flashes every 20 seconds), rather than using lenses to create a rotating beam. Southwold is a seaside town on the Suffolk Heritage Coast. Almost an island, it is being bounded by the North Sea to the east, by the River Blyth and Southwold harbour to the south-west and by Buss Creek to the north, and there is only one road leading into and out of Southwold. Despite the Great Fire of 1659, which destroyed much of the town, many buildings of interest can still be seen. The fire created a number of open spaces, now greens, within the town. The town had a narrow-gauge Southwold Railway that connected to Halesworth and ran from the 24 September 1879 to April 1929. It has a lighthouse, a pier, and a sand and shingle beach that is protected by a number of sturdy new groynes. Southwold was the home of a number of Puritan emigrants to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the early seventeenth century. In recent years an increasing number of houses have been bought as second homes, particularly by affluent Londoners.

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