Lighthouse: Maryport Lighthouse

The old lighthouse was constructed around 1856 (some say 1846), and is an octagonal cylindrical cast iron tower with lantern, mounted on a 1 storey octagonal stone base. Base unpainted, the tower is painted white and lantern on the top black. So we have an unusual design, a slender column supporting the lantern and stands on a broader base. The small lighthouse was converted to acetylene operation in 1946.

In 1996 a new aluminium tower was built by Trinity House, who had taken it over in 1961, and the lighthouse was connected to mains electricity. The square pyramidal white aluminium tower has no lantern. This light had been maintained by Trinity House, but in May 2010 it was announced that the light would be transferred to local management. At the point of writing this (June 2010) it is still listed as a site run by Trinity House on their website.

Both lights can be seen, but you can't get into either, they are very close together on a breakwater. The old one being on a bend in the breakwater and the new one just beyond at the end of the breakwater. The marinas.com aerial photos

allow you to see both. Google has a satellite view

covering both.

The name was changed by Humphrey Senhouse as he began developing the town as a port, following the example of Whitehaven. In 1749 an Act of Parliament was passed to allow the creation of the present town. Humphrey Senhouse named the new town after his wife Mary. The Senhouse family were landowners in the area and responsible for the development of the town and excavation of its Roman past. It is thought that this was as a part of this development that the first lighthouse was built.

"In 1791 the ships, of which there were some 90, averaging about 120 tons each, merely ran into the creek, and were laden as well as it were possible with coal, brought on the backs of pack horses. Lighthouse there was none, a lamp placed by the William Curry above-named, in his shop window, being the only beacon to guide the mariner to port. As times improved, a few planks placed on piles driven into the ground formed pier and quay, whilst the above-named lamp was superseded by one placed on a post. The "business of the harbour was vested solely in the lord of the manor . . . . . and the harbour-master was collector of the dues from the shipping, as well as rates from the town . ." In the year 1833, however, an Act was got placing Maryport under the government of Trustees. The trade having rapidly increased after "the abandonment of the pack-load system of shipping and the substitution of horse and cart," the Trustees felt the necessity of increasing the harbour accommodation. The result was that in 1836 a tidal dock - now the clock basin - was formed, with a swing bridge across the entrance. It had an area of a little over 2 acres."

So from this we might say that the original Maryport light was a light in a shop window, but then once a wooden pier was created, a lamp was hung on part of that structure and this could well be the 1796 light. It may be therefore that was all that existed until the 1856 Old Lighthouse.

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