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To the west is the small headland of Bull Point there has been a lighthouse since 1879. It was originally built in response to a petition after a series of storms, and the notorious activities of wreckers, had caused much loss of life along the North Devon coast. The present building dates from 1972, when a rockfall made it necessary to re-build further inland. It was once tended by three families but is now fully automatic.
Bull Point Lighthouse - position 51° 11'.95 N 4° 12'.05 W - gives a guide to vessels navigating off the North Devon Coast with a red sector light marking the Rockham Shoal and the Morte Stone off Morte Point.
The light was first established in 1879 on the headland near the village of Mortehoe, North Devon, and operated without undue incident for 93 years, but on 18th September, 1972, the Principal Keeper reported ground movement in the area of the engine room and the passage leading to the lighthouse, and that 2" fissures were opening up. In the early hours of Sunday morning, 24th September, 15 metres of the cliff face crashed into the sea and a further 15 metres subsided steeply causing deep fissures to open up inside the boundary wall. Walls cracked and the engine/fog signal station partly collapsed, leaving it in a dangerous condition and putting the fog signal out of action.
The lighthouse at Bull Point
As a temporary arrangement, an old Trinity House light tower, which had been in use at Braunton Sands and had been given to the Nature Conservancy, was borrowed back and the optic installed on top of it. This tower was used at the Bull Point Lighthouse for nearly two years. A make-shift hut was constructed for the 3 diaphone fog signals. Construction work on the new lighthouse began in 1974 at a cost of £71,000. The lighthouse was designed and built so that all the equipment from the old lighthouse was utilised and after some modification made. All the equipment dates from 1960, and was reinstated in the new lighthouse, the plant from the collapsed engine room/fog signal house is back in use, and the optic is in its third site at Bull Point. The station is now fully automatic and the equipment comes into operation at pre-set times. The fog signal was discontinued in 1988.
Contributed by: John James
Community Section
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