About Whiteford Point Lighthouse

This is an unusual cast-iron lighthouse built in 1865, by the Llanelli Harbour and Burry Navigation Commissioners to mark the shoals of Whiteford Point, replacing an earlier piled structure of 1854, of which nothing remains. It is the only wave-swept cast-iron tower of this size in Britain. The tower is 44 feet high and stands just above low-water level. The base is about 24 feet in diameter and rises gracefully to a diameter of 11 feet six inches at lantern level. Around the base of the Lighthouse lies a pitched stone apron.

The Lighthouse sits on 88 wooden piles driven into glacial moraine. These are linked horizontally by walling pieces, using 500 cast-iron plants and bolts. These would have formed a box, probably square or octagonal, which would have been excavated and partially filled with concrete. The materials were delivered by boat and, work undertaken during low tide. The structure of the shell is formed from 105 bent and tapered cast-iron plates, each about 32mm thick, with an upstand flange on each side, and bolted with cast-iron bolts, each weighing 2lbs. There are eight levels of panel tapering to the sixth 'course'. The first three horizontal joints are covered by iron bands supported on brackets and topped with fillets of concrete.

Throughout the 1870s vertical cracks developed in the plates of the lowest three rings. A local blacksmith, called Mr Powell, made wrought iron straps, which were then bolted to the flanges on each side of the cracked plates. At the time, the cracks were put down to lateral pressures, arising from the settlement of the inner masonry being composed of rough beach stones and 'bad' mortar. By 1884, 150 straps had been fitted. The compaction of the fill may have been compounded by movement (swaying) of the tower, reported in 1884 by the lighthouse keeper to have been 'several inches'. In 1885, the ground around the tower was strengthened with the addition of a concrete skirt 18" deep, bound by a 2" wide iron band, effectively anchoring the skirt to the base of the tower.

The equipment for the Lighthouse is listed in an inventory of 1888 and indicates that provision was made for two lighthouse keepers, although each of the census returns of 1871, 1881, 1891, and 1901, name one keeper. The working pattern was two weeks at Whitford Lighthouse alternating with two weeks at Llanelli Harbour Lighthouse.

The Lighthouse was discontinued in 1920, when responsibility for the light was transferred to Trinity House, who decided to establish a new beacon at Burry Holms. However, after pleas from local yachtsmen, the light was relit in the 1980s. This gave an additional point of reference when navigating the waters between Gower and Burry Port: on dark nights, boat crews often found themselves on top of Whiteford Point before realizing the fact. The cost was £1,300, with £1,000 being funded by the Harbour Commissioners, and the balance by Burry Port Yacht Club. The new light was fully automatic and switched on when daylight faded to a pre-determined level. Two nautical almanacs, published in 1987, Reeds, and Macmillan and Silk Cut, listed the Lighthouse as flashing every five seconds. After a failure of the solar unit, the light was removed and not replaced. However, the Lighthouse still has navigational value in daylight. The Lighthouse is now owned by Carmarthenshire County Council.
[edit]Historical significance

The first known cast-iron British lighthouse was at Swansea Harbour and was built in 1803. The architect was Jernegan, and the plates were cast at the Neath Abbey Ironworks. Cast-iron was also used for Maryport Lighthouse, Cumberland, in 1834. In 1836, the lighthouse at the Town Pier, Gravesend, Kent, was built from cast-iron. In 1842, two cast-iron leading lights were erected at Aberdeen, with elegant tapering octagonal towers, and a smooth external face. At Sunderland, another well-known example was built on the pier head in 1856.

The first 'solid' rock or wave-washed cast-iron tower was erected on the exposed Fastnet Rock in 1854, but this cracked and was replaced by a masonry tower in 1904.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, the engineer Alexander Gordon designed a number of fine cast-iron towers for colonial waters. These were cast at Pimlico and shipped out to be erected by comparatively unskilled labour. Some still survive in Jamaica and Bermuda, and a cast-iron tower at Tiri-tiri, New Zealand, built in 1920, is one of the last in this material.
Whiteford Lighthouse is the only cast-iron lighthouse in Britain which is wave-washed, although it can be reached at foot at low tide. The remaining handful of lighthouses of this type stand well clear of the water either on harbour piers or reefs.