A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
EDDYSTONE, a reef and a lighthouse in Devon; in N lat. 50o 11', W long 4o 15', and 10 miles SSW of Plymouth Breakwater. The reef consists of gneiss rock; is narrow, and about 100 fathoms long; lies at such elevation as to be quite covered by the sea at high water, and not very much above it at low water; and had long a mournful notoriety as the scene of shipwrecks. It probably got its name from the eddy or whirl occasioned by the sea-current striking against it. A question was debated, for many years, among engineers, whether a beacon or lighthouse could be raised upon it of sufficient character to possess stability and to guide mariners. A light-house, at length, in 1696-9, a polygon of wood and stone, 100 feet high, was built upon it by Henry Winstanley; but was swept away, together with its projector, by a furious storm in 1703. A second lighthouse, a conical structure of wood and stone, 92 feet high, was erected in 1706-9, by Mr. Rudyard; but was destroyed by fire in 1755. A third lighthouse, all of granite, modelled on the form of the trunk of an oak, 26 feet in diameter and 100 feet high, was built in 1757-9 by Smeaton; and still stands. This is so dovetailed into the rock as to be practically identified with it; and, as seen at almost any time, but especially in a storm, it looks very imposing. The light on it is a fixed one, at a height of 72 feet, visible over a radius of 13 miles. The reef extends from it 78 fathoms S, 65 fathoms E, and 150 fathoms NE. The sea on the W side is clear, with 12 fathoms water; and the reach thence to Plymouth has from 36 to 20 fathoms.
(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))
| Linked entities: | |
|---|---|
| Feature Description: | "a reef and a lighthouse" (ADL Feature Type: "reefs") |
| Administrative units: | Devon AncC |
| Place: | Eddystone |
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