Lighthouse

[Tony Figueira]

Hello everyone.

This La Corbiere Lighthouse one of the most recognizable and photographed landmarks of Jersey (Channel Islands), La Corbiere Lighthouse, designed by Sir John Coode, it was Britain’s first reinforced concrete lighthouse and it was completed in 1874, standing at 135ft above mean sea level.

When La Corbiere lighthouse first became operational (and until 1965) the light was provided by a vaporised paraffin lamp, with an huge crystal encasing (still in use today) which magnifies the light rays so they are visible from up to 18 miles away. With the advent of electricity the paraffin flame was extinguished for the final time in 1965, nowadays a 1000 watt bulb is in its place.

During the German Occupation the light was switched out for the majority of the time, only turned on when German’s wanted to guide their own ships around the treacherous rocks. The lighthouse was relit for good on 19 May 1945.

The many lighthouses which are built from stone require complex arrangements of interlocking blocks to prevent the sea from eroding and finally demolishing man’s handiwork.

Corbière, on the other hand, has no chinks and fissures for the sea to probe in search of weaknesses, so it has withstood the test of the past 130 years without apparent difficulty.

I thought just dropping in a few lines about the subject history and facts, rather than just posting a picture, making this thread hopefully a bit more interesting.


Thanks for looking in, and feel free to post your own lighthouse picture in this thread.

[Dave Smith]

Awesome shot. The clouds ... the colors ... the composition.

Very nice narrative of the subject also.

[GB1]

Nice shot (a little dark in the rocks area, but moody), informative writeup too. I knew the Germans occupied many of the islands between France and England during WW2. It's nice that it wasn't destroyed by the fighting. I have a few lighthouse pix that I can post at home... Till then,

G

[Lori11]

Beautiful shot! I like the contrast between the sky and water. Thanks for the write up too!

[Didache]

A very pleasant picture indeed - and the sky is a winner. Actually, me and Mrs Didache had our honeymoon in Jersey (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth! ) - very happy memories of a fascinating place. Shame I didn't take many photos in those days. One day we'll go back.

Cheers
Mike

[Grandpaw]

Nice photo, but without the perspective of the writeup I might have thought this was a saltshaker setting on the rocks. I think this would work better in a closer shot so the lighthouse doesn't get lost in the picture, Jeff