Keeping Watch

Welcome to KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for anyone and everyone interested in lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.

This week I talk with researcher, lecturer, author and publisher Ken Trethewey, a descendant of the Knott family, one of the most famous names in the history of light keekept watchping.

Following Ken's magnificent book The Lighthouses of Cornwall and Devon, published in 2021, 2023 sees the publication of his new book Light on the Forelands, written by Ken and his brother Clifford.

Following the Knott family, together with keepers and families who served alongside them, it charts the history of some of our most famous lighthouses through the stories of the people who served at them.

Further reading:

The Lighthouses of Cornwall and Devon, by Ken Trethewey.

Light on the Forelands, by Ken and Clifford Trethewey. Available direct from the publisher at: www.jazzfusionbooks.co.uk/

KEEPING WATCH is brought to you in association with the ALK - The Association of Lighthouse Keepers - a charitable trust in the UK dedicated to keeping lighthouse heritage alive.

Visit the Association of Lighthouse Keepers: www.alk.org.uk

Welcome to KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for anyone and everyone interested in lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.

This week we turn our attention back to lightvessels - I talk with author Tony Lane, who probably has the largest archive of research available anywhere about the lightships around our own coast, as well as throughout Europe and America.

And we also hear about the experiences of a lightship keeper who served on the North Goodwin lightship during the 1940s, both during and after the war. His reflections include a brief history of the early lightships, an account of an invasion of starlings, relief days, hobbies, loneliness - but also the experience of being on an unpowered vessel out in the channel during the blitz and, later, on D Day.

Further reading:

Looming Lights: A true story of the lightships by George G Carter

Guiding Lights: The Design and Development of the British Lightship from 1732, by Anthony Lane. The South Goodwin lightvessel in 1930: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpw6Xchjrqo

Trinity House account of the 1954 South Goodwin disaster: https://trinityhousehistory.wordpress.com/tag/south-goodwin-lightvessel/

KEEPING WATCH is brought to you in association with the ALK - The Association of Lighthouse Keepers - a charitable trust in the UK dedicated to keeping lighthouse heritage alive.

Visit the Association of Lighthouse Keepers: www.alk.org.uk

Welcome to KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for anyone and everyone interested in lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.

This week we discuss the role of women in the lighthouse service. We ask why neither Trinity house nor the NLB ever formally appointed female lighthouse keepers, especially when other lighthouse authorities around the world were happy to do so. And yet several notable female keepers did exist in the UK. Other, smaller lighthouse authorities such as Liverpool's Dock Committee and the Lancaster Port Authority were more enlightened, shall we say.

We listen to a wonderful archive sound recording of a keeper talking about her role, and I speak with Shauna McDonald, associate Professor of Communication and Languages at Cape Breton University in Canada, about her extensive research into women in the Lighthouse service

Visit the Association of Lighthouse Keepers: www.alk.org.uk

Further reading:

Women Who Kept the Lights Mary Louise Clifford & J. Candace Clifford

Guiding Lights, the Extraordinary Lives of Lighthouse Women Shona Riddell

Audio recording of Peg Braithwaite, Principal Keeper, Walney Island Lighthouse With kind permission of Peter Halil Full interview by Peter Halil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9PoVNh8t5A

Peter Halil's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PeterHalil

KEEPING WATCH is brought to you in association with the ALK - The Association of Lighthouse Keepers - a charitable trust in the UK dedicated to keeping lighthouse heritage alive.

Welcome to KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for anyone and everyone interested in lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.

KEEPING WATCH is brought to you in association with the ALK - The Association of Lighthouse Keepers - a charitable trust in the UK dedicated to keeping lighthouse heritage alive.

We'll hear from former lighthouse keepers, authors of books about lighthouses, people born and brought up in lighthouses, archivists, historians and many others interested in lighthouses, their construction, history and service.

This week we turn our attention to Belfast, and specifically to the Titanic Quarter. I want you to picture a vast glass cylinder, right on the waterfront, a bit like a lighthouse lantern room. Inside is one of the largest lighthouse optics in the world, weighing 10 tonnes and measuring 7 metres tall.

I'm talking about the Great Light - which opened to the public in 2018 and is now one of Belfast's iconic monuments. The huge Fresnel Hyper-Radial lenses of the Great Light were the largest lenses ever made in the world - and came from the lighthouse on Mew Island, following modernisation by the Commissioner of Irish Lights.

But the optic's lenses were originally built not for the Mew Island light, but for the lighthouse on Tory Island on the opposite coast. In its original form, the Tory Island optic comprised 18 lenses, with three tiers of six lenses.

It was not until the 1920s that this vast optic was split, creating two separate optics, one to return to Tory Island, and the other for Mew Island.

How do we know all this? It's pretty much all thanks to the tireless research of one person, Dr Sally Montgomery, who is now on the board of the commissioner of Irish Lights.

I was lucky enough to meet up with her online last week, and she told me that the project started with a letter, in 2015, from the commissioner of Irish Lights. Could the Titanic Foundation find a new home for the Fresnel Hyper-Radial lenses from Mew Island.

Dr Montgomery soon discovered that parts of the chronology and recounted history of the optic didn't make sense - and so began more than two years of painstaking research to establish an accurate account of when and where the fresnel lenses were made, and how they came to serve two lighthouses.

It's a remarkable story - and I hope you enjoy it.

Find out more about The Great Light: https://www.greatlighttq.org

Read Dr Montgomery's own account of The Great Light research and rehoming: https://www.greatlighttq.org/about/history/the-great-light-unravelling-its-past/

Her book recommendation: A Short Bright Flash, by Theresa Levitt

Visit the Association of Lighthouse Keepers: www.alk.org.uk

Welcome to KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for anyone and everyone interested in lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.

KEEPING WATCH is brought to you in association with the ALK - The Association of Lighthouse Keepers - a charitable trust in the UK dedicated to keeping lighthouse heritage alive.

We'll hear from former lighthouse keepers, authors of books about lighthouses, people born and brought up in lighthouses, archivists, historians and many others interested in lighthouses, their construction, history and service.

This week, we hear from a number of former lighthouse keepers talking about their time in the lighthouse service - their training, their duties, the food they cooked, as well as how they were regarded by the communities they served.

Back in 2016 the ALK recorded and published an inspiring DVD called Keeping Light - a remarkable project that brought together dozens of former keepers to talk and share stories about their time in the lighthouse service.

The DVD is still available on the ALK website at alk.org.uk/shop. It costs just £5, including p&p, within the UK, or £8 overseas.

Visit the Association of Lighthouse Keepers: www.alk.org.uk

Welcome to KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for anyone and everyone interested in lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.

KEEPING WATCH is brought to you in association with the ALK - The Association of Lighthouse Keepers - a charitable trust in the UK dedicated to keeping lighthouse heritage alive.

We'll hear from former lighthouse keepers, authors of books about lighthouses, people born and brought up in lighthouses, archivists, historians and many others interested in lighthouses, their construction, history and service.

This week we turn our attention away from lighthouses and focus - no pun intended - on light vessels. Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to meet ELISE LIVERSEDGE & MARY HOOPER - who back in 2013 embarked on an arts project they called LAST STATION, which was inspired by Trinity House's light vessels around our coast.

It started with an artist residency onboard the decommissioned light vessel 21, then moored in Gillingham, Kent. But the scope of the project grew rapidly, with portable art installations, videos, photos and a unique choral piece entitled The Light Vessel, first performed by Harwich Sing community choir.

For me, the most exciting part of the project involved discussions both with and between former light vessel keepers, which were recorded for posterity. We hear from Mick Walker, a former crew member on the LV18, which was built in 1958, and served on the St Gowan station. Since decommissioning in 1995 it has been fully and authentically restored, and these days is moored permanently at Harwich where it is open to visitors between April and October. Mick talks about giving up on his education for a life at sea. We also hear about the various hobbies that light vessel keepers took up to occupy their downtime. But we begin with Elise and Mary explaining how the idea for the project came about.

Elise and Mary

eliseandmary.co.uk

Visit the Association of Lighthouse Keepers:

www.alk.org.uk

Welcome to KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for anyone and everyone interested in lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.

KEEPING WATCH is brought to you in association with the ALK - The Association of Lighthouse Keepers - a charitable trust in the UK dedicated to keeping lighthouse heritage alive.

We'll hear from former lighthouse keepers, authors of books about lighthouses, people born and brought up in lighthouses, archivists, historians and many others interested in lighthouses, their construction, history and service.

This week we meet Gerald Butler, a third generation lighthouse Keeper, who joined the Commissioners of Irish Lights in 1969. He spent most of his career as an assistant Keeper on Bull Rock, Fastnet Rock, the Old Head of Kinsale and Mizen Head lighthouses.

And he was serving on the Fastnet during the 1979 Fastnet Yacht Race, when severe storms caused havoc to more than 300 yachts and resulted in nineteen fatalities.

Gerald and I talked about that fateful weekend, as well as about his career in the lighthouse service.

Gerald's website: www.thelightkeeper.ie

Visit the Association of Lighthouse Keepers: www.alk.org.uk

Welcome to KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for anyone and everyone interested in lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.

KEEPING WATCH is brought to you in association with the ALK - The Association of Lighthouse Keepers - a charitable trust in the UK dedicated to keeping lighthouse heritage alive.

We'll hear from former lighthouse keepers, authors of books about lighthouses, people born and brought up in lighthouses, archivists, historians and many others interested in lighthouses, their construction, history and service.

This week I chat with Peter Smith - whose father was the fourth generation of lighthouse keepers in his family - about his childhood spent in lighthouses and keepers accommodation, including stints at Lynmouth Foreland, the Lizard and Hartland Point.

As lighthouses lovers, growing up in a lighthouse might seem idyllic. But what exactly was life like growing up in the lighthouse service? Meet Peter Smith, who did just that.

As you'll discover it wasn't always plain sailing, and it certainly didn't suit every member of his family. I started by asking Peter to tell us about how the family association with lighthouses started, back with his great great grandfather.

Visit the Association of Lighthouse Keepers: www.alk.org.uk

The Pathe News clip Peter mentioned: https://youtu.be/GtcUqt38OLk

Welcome to KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for anyone and everyone interested in lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.

KEEPING WATCH is brought to you in association with the ALK - The Association of Lighthouse Keepers - a membership organisation and charitable trust in the UK dedicated to keeping lighthouse heritage alive.

In this first season of twelve episodes, we'll hear from the ALK's founder, Neil Hargreaves, as well as from other former lighthouse keepers, authors of books about lighthouses, people born and brought up in lighthouses, archivists, historians and many others interested in lighthouses, their construction, history and service.

This week I chat with Sarah Kerr, who began visiting lighthouses back in 2012, having set herself the mission to visit every lighthouse in the UK, Isle of Man and Channel Islands.

In the intervening years she has visited more than 500 of them, organised countless ALK meet ups and events, got married, had two children … and even found time to write The British Lighthouse Trail, a brilliant book that provides details of every onshore and offshore British lighthouse.

I began by asking Sarah whether it was growing up on the Isle of Wight where the idea first came to her ...

Thank for joining us - and welcome to KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for anyone and everyone interested in lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.

KEEPING WATCH is brought to you in association with the ALK - The Association of Lighthouse Keepers - a membership organisation and charitable trust in the UK dedicated to keeping lighthouse heritage alive.

In this first season of twelve episodes, we'll hear from the ALK's founder, Neil Hargreaves, as well as from other former lighthouse keepers, authors of books about lighthouses, people born and brought up in lighthouses, archivists, historians and many others interested in lighthouses, their construction, history and service.

In this, our launch episode, we talk with founding member of the ALK - Neil Hargreaves - about his Trinity House career, and his reflections on the many lighthouses where he was stationed.

Now I should make clear that I chatted with Neil over dinner at his home - and you will hear the occasional knife and fork in the background - but I'm fairly confident that I have edited out every instance of when one or other of us spoke with a mouthful of food.

I started by asking Neil about how and where his career with Trinity House began …