Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2008 | Page 35

ISLAND HISTORY

life

Photo: On the Isle of Wight we can claim to
have the only surviving medieval lighthouse
in Britain. St. Catherine’s Oratory, known
locally as the Pepper Pot, stands at the
southern tip of the island on Chale Down,
or ‘Montem de Cheal’, and though the
exact date of its building is not known,
records show it was there in 1312.

three people were saved from drowning
when the Clarendon, a three-masted West
Indiaman coming from St. Kitts with 17
crew and ll passengers on board, went
aground on the rocks. Trinity House
commissioned James Walker to build
a three-storey castellated octagonal
white-painted stone tower in 1838-40 but
it’s light was often hidden by fog and in
1875 the lantern was lowered by taking
6 metres out of the top section of the
tower and 7 metres out of the middle tier.
The missing piece from the lighthouse
staircase is reputed to be the metal
staircase used today between Madeira
Road and Spring Gardens in Ventnor.
In 1932 the fog signal house at St.
Catherine’s near the cliff edge developed
cracks due to erosion and the fog signal
was moved and attached to a lower
tower in front of the lighthouse tower
earning the lighthouse the nickname of
‘The Cow and the Calf ’. The fog signal
was discontinued in 1987. There are 94
steps up to the lantern and the light
is visible for up to 25 nautical miles,
making it the third most powerful light
in the Trinity House Service. Michael
Faraday, the famous scientist, solved
the problem of condensation on the
light’s lens by inventing a ventilation
system, a system that was later used at
Buckingham Palace. At the lighthouse
there’s a plaque to the three keepers
who were killed during World War 11
when the engine house was bombed.
St. Catherine’s lighthouse was automated
in 1997 but is open for guided tours at
certain times of the year and volunteers
Mike Kirby and Vera Hancock give guided
talks on the history of the lighthouse. The
view from the top of