Beacon

Fire has been hugely important throughout history in a whole variety of ways beyond it's use within the home. Fire was used for long distance communications and warning. The earliest lighthouses used open fires to warn ships of the presence of land. Open fires were replaced with braziers and then lamps and now many are electric. Certainly in the UK where Trinity House maintains all active lighthouses, many are now unmanned and automated. Each lighthouse has it's own signal pattern so that those at sea can identify which lighthouse they are seeing. The characteristics of the lights allow those at sea to identify their position and the height of the light above Mean High Water and the maximum distance it is visible at are also given.


Nearby Godrevy is now an LED light mounted on nearby rocks, flashing white/red every ten seconds but the iconic white tower is maintained as a daymarker. Bishop's Rock, situated 28 miles from Land's End and the western most part of the Scilly Isles flashes twice every 15 seconds. From Land's End you can see Longships, which flashes twice in white and red every ten seconds, and Wolf Rock, flashes every 15 seconds. Very close to Lands End, Pendeen Watch flashes four times every 15 seconds and Tater Du flashes three times every 15 seconds. These patterns have been handed down over time and originally the lighthouse keepers would have had to work very hard to maintain them throughout the night.


Beacons were also used on land to send signals over distances. The Brecon Beacons were used to warn the Welsh of English raiders and the Scottish also had beacons for the same reason. In England they were used to warn of Spanish raids. In Finland they were used to warn of Viking raids. The Great Wall of China is a fortification but also used beacons.


In Cornwall there are a few places associated with beacons. Up the hill from Camborne is a village called Beacon. The village of St Agnes by a large hill, known as St Agnes Beacon. Bodmin and Sancreed similarly have Beacon hills and others are known to have been used as beacons, although they do not carry that name. Devon has more information available and this includes a map of the beacon network across Devon and so many of the places include the name beacon. The only excavated beacon in the UK is at Culmstock and it's a little hut which would have had a pole beacon up through the roof.


In celebration of the millennium, beacon fires were lit across the UK on sites traditionally used. The Queen lit the first beacon on a barge in the River Thames. New Years 2000 was not a great Christmas in my family! A bug swept through us all and we didn't get to celebrate together and we all had it at some point over the holidays. By New Years I was well enough to go out but not to party. I went to Ampthill Park to watch the beacon being lit. It's twenty years ago and I don't remember too much about it. I am not sure if the beacon was lit at a certain time or in response to seeing other beacons in the network being lit. I remember that we could see other beacons. The locations chosen were historically used as beacons, the lines of sight already proven.

Beacons have been lit a few times since the millennium. Notably for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012 and in 2018, to celebrate 100 years since the end of World War 1. The Queen's Diamond Jubilee was celebrated with beacons in other countries too, including Tonga, New Zealand and Australia.


The word beacon now not only applies to the fires themselves used as signals and places where there were beacons, but also to warning devices such as lights and flares as well as to radio signals used to help fix the position of things. I think that the not only is the idea of fire and warning central to our underlying legacy with regards to beacons, but the fact that they were part of a network. Position is vitally important. Originally a beacon would have been understood as a warning fire in a particular place that was especially visible as an integral part of a network. Our use of the word beacon has evolved to cover each of those aspects.

Some pictures here!