Fishquay Old High Light - North Shields, Tyne and Wear
Lighthouse category: range Position: 55° 0' 33.5" N; 1° 26' 12.4" W Status: inactive Date: 1727 Designer: not known Tower height: not known Construction: square brick tower with circular lantern Colour scheme: white Focal plane height: not relevant Characteristics: not relevant Foghorn: none Google map view: google maps link |
North Shields, for its size, is remarkably well equipped with lighthouses - four in total (or five if you include Tynemouth Castle which I have added to this site for historical interest). Three of the lights, the "Fishquay" group, are related (if somewhat tenuously) by history and function. The appropriately named "Old" light is the oldest of the three. Constructed in 1727, its illumination was originally provided by candles, but it was re-equipped with an oil lamp in 1773. It is (or was) of course, a range light and the low light of the pair was situated on the site of the present low light. Shifts in the navigable channel meant that, by 1807, the original alignment had been rendered valueless and, at that point, the high light was discontinued and a new low light constructed on the same site as the original. Probably the most accessible vantage point to photograph the North Shields Lights is actually in South Shields where there is ample public parking and from where the light is friendly for most of the day.