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.