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© Mr Ben White
IoE Number:
99957
Location:
START POINT LIGHTHOUSE,
STOKENHAM, SOUTH HAMS, DEVON
Photographer:
Mr Ben White
Date Photographed:
11 August 2002
Date listed:
25 March 1991
Date of last amendment:
25 March 1991
Grade
II
The Images of England website consists of images of listed buildings based on the statutory list as it was in 2001 and does not incorporate subsequent amendments to the list. For the statutory list and information on the current listed status of individual buildings please go to The National Heritage List for England.
STOKENHAM
SX83NW Start Point Lighthouse
10/173
26.1.67
GV II
Lighthouse 1836 by James Walker engineer, with minor alterations of 1871.
Tarred and white-painted granite ashlar with cast-iron lantern roofed in
copper.
Tall circular tower of about 28 metres high with moulded plinth and pedestal
stage and 2 diminishing stages above that, the top stage with a corbelled
embattled parapet and a cast-iron lattice lantern with a copper canopy
surrounded by weatervane.
Rectangular and small round-headed window openings with plain raised
architraves and blind panel on west side under the parapet.
On the north and south sides there are 2 entrance porches, that on the south
side blocked an with a 4-centred arch hoodmould; the doorway to the north
porch has a Tudor arch and botn have raised parapets with Trinity House
arms.
Interior: There is a cantilevered granite staircase around the inside well
of the tower with an iron balustrade with a cast-iron newel. The lighthouse
originally had the keepers' living accommodation on the ground and first
floor but the floor was taken out in 1871 when new keepers' houses were
built nearby.
The lens is developed from the dioptic system designed by Alan Stevenson,
the first of this kind to be used by Trinity House.
The light was powered by oil until 1959 when it was electrified.
Originally the fog-sounder was a bell mounted outside, but this was soon
replaced, in about 1851, because the new steam ships could not hear the
bell.
Source: Trinity House. Douglas B. Hague and Rosemary Christie,
"Lighthouses".