KEEPING WATCH is a podcast for anyone and everyone interested in lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessel, 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.
The podcast Keeping Watch is created by Edward Peppitt. The podcast and the artwork on this page are embedded on this page using the public podcast feed (RSS).
In this episode of Keeping Watch, Melanie talks about her recent trip to Tenerife and her review of the local lighthouses. The main highlight, however, is a wonderfully candid conversation with Lou Medlicott, wife of former lighthouse keeper Gordon Medlicott, who recounts her experiences and challenges of raising a family while married to a lighthouse keeper.
The episode also features exciting news about potential access to Dungeness (new) Lighthouse for ALK members, and a brief nod to Anna B Savage's achingly haunting new single called Lighthouse.
Key moments
01:33 Melanie's Tenerife Lighthouse Adventures 06:59 The Ugliest Lighthouse in the World 08:37 Exciting Lighthouse News 12:37 Interview with a Lighthouse Keeper's Wife 17:28 Life on the Lighthouse Station 25:55 Life with the Fog Signal 26:43 Challenges of Living Above the Engine Room 28:03 Moving Back to Society 29:09 Children's Perspective on Lighthouse Life 31:30 Female Lighthouse Keepers 37:33 Rumors of Death and Acts of Heroism 44:27 Concluding Reflections and Farewell
KEEPING WATCH is a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.
We’re keen to talk with other former light vessel and lighthouse keepers and crew - as well as others currently working in the lighthouse service. Again, you can email me at [email protected].
Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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
KEEPING WATCH is a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.
We’re keen to talk with other former light vessel and lighthouse keepers and crew - as well as others currently working in the lighthouse service. Again, you can email me at [email protected].
Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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
KEEPING WATCH is a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.
We’re keen to talk with other former light vessel and lighthouse keepers and crew - as well as others currently working in the lighthouse service. Again, you can email me at [email protected].
Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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
KEEPING WATCH is a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.
We’re keen to talk with other former light vessel and lighthouse keepers and crew - as well as others currently working in the lighthouse service. Again, you can email me at [email protected].
Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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
KEEPING WATCH is a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.
We’re keen to talk with other former light vessel and lighthouse keepers and crew - as well as others currently working in the lighthouse service. Again, you can email me at [email protected].
Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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
KEEPING WATCH is a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.
We’re keen to talk with other former light vessel and lighthouse keepers and crew - as well as others currently working in the lighthouse service. Again, you can email me at [email protected].
Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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
This week we close Season 2 with a tribute to the Royal Sovereign Lighthouse, off the Sussex coast, which following decommissioning was largely dismantled during September and October 2023.
I meet and talk to the Royal Sovereign's last Principal Keeper, we'll hear archive recordings of other Keepers who served on Royal Sovereign, and I catch up with ALK member Richard Evans, who shares his own memories of the lighthouse, including the time he attempted to interview the principal keeper during thick fog.
On Friday, I drove down to the Ibstock Brickworks in Bexhill, where the Royal Sovereign Lighthouse lantern tower is in temporary storage, awaiting a bright new future as part of a maritime centre on Bexhill's seafront. While there, I met and spoke with Raymond Konyn and Gordon Smith from Bexhill Maritime, the newly formed charity that has been working closely with Trinity House to save the lantern tower from demolition.
But we start with a reflection on this second season of Keeping Watch.
01:06 Recap of Season 2 11:48 Interview with Dave McGovern, the last PK at Royal Sovereign 31:08 Interview with Tom Whiston, the first PK at Royal Sovereign 38:08 Stormy weather: Experiencing the Royal Sovereign 40:14 The Royal Sovereign fog horn 40:50 Reflections on Duty: A Keeper's Experience by Peter Halil 43:06 Attempting to interview the last keeper in thick fog 45:50 Richard Evans: Visiting the Lighthouse 57:00 The Lighthouse's New Home: Bexhill Maritime 01:09:57 The Future of the Lighthouse: Plans and Challenges
KEEPING WATCH is a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.
We’re keen to talk with other former light vessel and lighthouse keepers and crew - as well as others currently working in the lighthouse service. Again, you can email me at [email protected].
Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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
Just before Christmas, I was lucky enough to meet up online with music writer, journalist and broadcaster Jennifer Lucy Allen. I first encountered Jennifer as a presenter of Radio 3's Late Junction. If you've never listened to the programme, it's well worth staying up for. I defy you to find a more interesting, diverse and eclectic mix of sounds and music in one programme anywhere!
It won't come as a surprise, then, that Jennifer takes such an interest herself in non mainstream and experimental music. As a writer for The Wire magazine in 2013, she received an invitation to attend Foghorn Requiem, an open air performance on the cliffs at Souter Point Lighthouse, involving three brass bands, a flotilla of more than 50 ships in the North Sea and, of course, the almighty Souter Point foghorn.
It triggered what we lighthouse enthusiasts are only too happy to call an obsession, and a personal journey into the history of foghorns and the sound they make - something she so beautifully calls the disappearing music of the coast.
2021 saw the publication of her first book, The Foghorn's Lament. Naturally, I wanted to ask Jennifer all about the performance at Souter Point and how it led to her book, but I started by asking her where she first recalls hearing the sound of a foghorn.
KEEPING WATCH is a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.
We’re keen to talk with other former light vessel and lighthouse keepers and crew - as well as others currently working in the lighthouse service. Again, you can email me at [email protected].
Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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 Episode 10 of the second season of KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.
This week, we’re talking books. I meet with artist and author Roger O’Reilly - who has spent the last few years researching and illustrating nearly 350 lighthouses around the UK and Irish coast.
Roger’s new book - Legendary Lighthouses of Britain - will be published in early Spring by Watkins Publishing, and it’s available for pre-order now on Amazon.
First, I caught up with prolific author and historian Ken Trethewey to talk about his new book about the breakwater lighthouse in Plymouth. Called Plymouth Breakwater and its lighthouse, it’s the most wonderfully detailed history of the lighthouse, with documents and artefacts reproduced in full colour, along with the photographs of the inside (and outside) of the lighthouse that Ken took himself when he was able to take a group of ALK members onto the breakwater earlier in the year.
Copies of Plymouth Breakwater and its lighthouse are available from the publisher’s website: www.jazzfusionbooks.co.uk
Ken’s other lighthouse books are also available from the website, including The lighthouses of Cornwall and Devon and Light on the Forelands.
To view (and perhaps buy) mounted and/or framed prints of Roger’s lighthouse illustrations, go to:
Roger’s book - Legendary Lighthouses of Britain - will be published by Watkins Publishing in April 2024. It is available for pre-order now - on Amazon, or from wherever you buy your books.
We’re keen to talk with other former light vessel and lighthouse keepers and crew - as well as others currently working in the lighthouse service. Again, you can email me at [email protected].
Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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 Episode 9 of the second season of KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.
This week Mel and I tracked down former Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) keeper, John Boath. We discovered John was the last ever keeper on the Bell Rock.
What inspired John to join the lighthouse service? Believe it or not, it was an episode of Blue Peter!
John turned out to be a natural and very accomplished public speaker, and the conversation flowed so freely that Mel’s and my questions barely seemed necessary. So I took the decision to edit out almost all our input, except where absolutely necessary. Personally, I think It’s a lot better as a result.
So settle down with a mug of tea or coffee and enjoy hearing about John’s rich and enjoyable career.
We’re keen to talk with other former light vessel and lighthouse keepers and crew - as well as others currently working in the lighthouse service. Again, you can email me at [email protected].
Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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 Episode 8 of the second season of KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.
This week our new co-host Mel makes her full podcast debut, when she talks with Russian born Vasily - a lighthouse lover and ALK member who moved to Europe with his family several years ago. He had been involved in a number of lighthouse projects in Russia, and so was particularly excited when the chance came to take part in a worldwide lighthouse research and mapping project organised by the Chance Heritage Trust.
The project focused on the work of the Chance Brothers Glassworks in Smethwick, a pioneer of British glass-making technology, which operated between 1824 and 1976, before finally closing its doors in 1981. The company became a production hub for lighthouse lenses, which were used in over 2,500 lighthouses around the world.
As you can imagine, records are lost, and of course lighthouse optics are modernised, replaced or installed in other lighthouses - so the project’s aims were to map where the Chance Brothers lighthouse lenses ended up, and discover what they are doing now. Are they still in working lighthouses? Have they been decommissioned? How many can be visited today?
With around 2,500 lighthouses to map, the project pulled together lighthouse enthusiasts and willing volunteers throughout the world to explore these connections, and locate them all.
From the Cape Race lighthouse that received the SOS call from the Titanic, to the Longstone lighthouse from where Grace Darling and her father William launched one of Britain’s most courageous rescues, the lenses that were made at the Chance factory in Smethwick ended up in some interesting places, and in close to eighty countries around the world.
Vasily was one of a number of ALK members who took part - and the result is an explorable online map that shows exactly where these lighthouses were located, along with photos, technical details, and the key information about their history that brings each one to life
Mel caught up with Vasily last week, who starts by describing his twin passions - of sailing yachts and lighthouses.
Link to the Chance Brothers Map: https://new.opengreenmap.org/browse/maps/6241b7a8d63fa5010056589b/map-view
Link to the list of the lighthouses on the Chance Brothers Map: https://new.opengreenmap.org/browse/sites?map=6241b7a8d63fa5010056589b This is one exciting story about Tory Island Lighthouse (see the Chance Brothers Map): https://new.opengreenmap.org/browse/sites/62ce053e88d2b90100788882 Link to the video with Vasilisin Lighthouse (with English subtitles) on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xYtvxzRFh-A?feature=shared Location of the Vasilisin Lighthouse on Google maps: https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=8bf09de0-1fcf-47f7-90e3-a05056a33594&cp=61.806144%7E35.686432&lvl=18.0&style=h&v=2&sV=2&form=S00027 LAMP Issue 103 with the Kurbatova lighthouse which I’ve mentioned (copy is here http://www.mayachnik.ru/node/1230 English text at the end of the page)
We’re keen to talk with other former light vessel and lighthouse keepers and crew - as well as others currently working in the lighthouse service. Again, you can email me at [email protected].
Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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 Episode 7 of the second season of KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.
At the beginning of October I attended the Association of Lighthouse Keepers AGM and annual dinner just outside Cromer, in Norfolk. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to two former Trinity House lightvessel keepers - Terry Bullard and John Beamish. After the meal, the three of us headed to the hotel bar to talk about life as a light vessel keeper. We were joined by ALK founder, Neil Hargreaves, who had also served on the lightvessels.
I also introduce Keeping Watch's new co-host!
We’re keen to talk with other former light vessel and lighthouse keepers and crew - as well as others currently working in the lighthouse service. Again, you can email me at [email protected].
Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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 Episode 6 of the second season of KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.
This week we meet David Fraser, who served for the Northern Lighthouse Board - the NLB - at a number of Scottish lighthouses in the 1970s. In fact, his career spanned three services, David having joined the army on leaving school, and he then spent 30 years in the Northern Constabulary, serving across the Highlands and Islands, after he left the lighthouse service.
Now David has published his memoirs, the profits from which he uses to support people and families affected by motor neurone disease - the brutal condition that David’s wife Isabel sadly died from.
So having completed tours of duty in Germany and Northern Ireland, David left the army at the age of 23, and joined the NLB in 1973, which is where we pick up the conversation.
Just a quick heads up - We spoke over the phone, and the mobile signal deteriorated from time to time. I have edited out most of the interference, but there are a handful of patches where I’d like you to fill in a missing word or two.
Listen to David talking about where and when the lighthouse service fitted in to his career.
We’re keen to talk with other former light vessel and lighthouse keepers and crew - as well as others currently working in the lighthouse service. Again, you can email me at [email protected].
Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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.
To purchase a copy of David's book, please contact me at [email protected]. Copies are £10 each, and all profits support MND sufferers and their families.
Visit the Wick Heritage Museum: www.wickheritage.org
Visit the Association of Lighthouse Keepers: www.alk.org.uk
Welcome to Episode 5 of the second season of KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.
If you are based in the UK, you’ll be aware that Royal Sovereign lighthouse - off the Sussex coast - has been decommissioned and is in the process of being removed. You may have seen footage or images this week of its red and white lantern tower dismantled and standing on a temporary platform ready to be brought ashore to Shoreham in the next few weeks.
Later in this season, we have a special episode dedicated to Royal Sovereign, with a look back over its 50 year life span, and we’ll be talking about how the lantern tower itself has been saved, and about the exciting plans for its future.
This week though we are indebted once again to former keeper Peter Halil, for allowing me access to his wonderful audio and video archive. I’ve chosen Peter’s interview from the early 1990s with Tom Whiston, who served as a keeper between 1949 and 1986.
As well as some wonderful memories of his career, including the colleagues he worked with, the hobbies that keepers took up, and some of the treacherous storms he endured, Tom was also - I believe - the penultimate Principal Keeper at Royal Sovereign - and was first posted there even before it was lit, whilst the platform and tower were being constructed at Newhaven.
We’re keen to talk with other former light vessel and lighthouse keepers and crew - as well as others currently working in the lighthouse service. Again, you can email me at [email protected].
Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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 Peter Halil's YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/peterhalil
Visit the Association of Lighthouse Keepers: www.alk.org.uk
Welcome to Episode 4 of the second season of KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.
If you listened to Episode 3, you’ll remember we heard a lovely BBC Radio Kent interview from 1988 with Jim Bowling, who was then principal lighthouse keeper at North Foreland lighthouse.
We were able to listen thanks to Jim’s son Colin, who lent the recording to us. A few weeks ago I met up with Colin and his wife Lin in Ramsgate, and he shared his memories of his childhood and upbringing in various lighthouses - including a stint at St Mary’s lighthouse, near Whitley Bay, where he could only get to school at low tide.
He also shared his own memories of his father - including when Jim and assistant keeper Arthur Holmes were paid a visit from a Page 3 glamour model for a Daily Star article about people who have to work over Christmas.
Believe me, you’re in for a treat. I hope you enjoy it.
The full interview on YouTube: Part 1: https://youtu.be/Z6WLXUbXwhE Part 2: https://youtu.be/_sizpJiv4Lo Part 3: https://youtu.be/3Xgw2NcXfVA
If you haven’t had the chance to listen to the radio interview with Jim Bowling, then do go back to Episode 3 and listen to it.
It makes me wonder just how many other sons and daughters of keepers there are out there with stories of their own. If you know one, or are one yourself, then I’d love to hear from you. You can get in touch at [email protected].
We’re also keen to talk with other former light vessel and lighthouse keepers and crew - as well as others currently working in the lighthouse service. Again, you can email me at [email protected].
Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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 Episode 3 of the second season of KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.
This week I’m really pleased to be able to share with you a wonderful BBC Radio Kent interview from 1988 with Jim Bowling, who was then principal lighthouse keeper at North Foreland lighthouse.
This was Jim’s final posting before he retired, following a 47 year career as a lighthouse keeper with Trinity House. It was Jim’s son Colin who got in touch to lend us a recording of the interview, and he also managed to find a separate recording of Jim giving a guided tour of North Foreland at around the same time.
The full interview on YouTube: Part 1: https://youtu.be/Z6WLXUbXwhE Part 2: https://youtu.be/_sizpJiv4Lo Part 3: https://youtu.be/3Xgw2NcXfVA
I don’t know what you think, but to me Jim sounds like such an honourable and gentle man - and I would have loved to have met him. I mentioned that his son Colin also found me a recording of Jim conducting a guided tour of North Foreland some time in the late 1980s.
Although the quality of the recording itself isn’t great, it’s still a fascinating record of how the lighthouse operated at that time. So please bear with the echo and background noise, and listen to Jim showing visitors around his lighthouse.
Since he got in touch I met up with Colin and his lovely wife Lin - and we talked about his childhood and upbringing in various lighthouses - including a stint at St Mary’s lighthouse, on the north east coast, where he became a national news story as the boy who could only attend school when the tide was out. He also shared his own memories of his father - including when Jim and assistant keeper Arthur Holmes were paid a visit from a Page 3 glamour model for a Daily Star article about people who have to work over Christmas.
You’ll be pleased to learn that I recorded our conversation, and you can hear it in the next episode of the podcast.
Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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 Episode 2 of the second season of KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.
This week we meet Scott Tacchi, a Trinity House Lighthouse Technician based in south west England - I guess in many ways Scott is the modern day equivalent of a lighthouse keeper, although by his own admission his role is a far cry from that of the full time keepers in the days before solar power and automation.
So what does a Lighthouse Technician do? And how did Scott become one? I met up with him online to find out, but I started by asking him about his unusual surname.
Scott's Instagram Page: https://www.instagram.com/keeping_a_lighthouse/
Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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 Season 2 of KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.
Now following the final episode in our first Season, we were contacted by David Jones, a former lighthouse keeper who lives just a couple of miles away from me at Dungeness, in Kent. David was born and brought up in Dungeness, and it turned out also to be the first lighthouse where he was stationed, following his National Service and then training at the Trinity House depot in Harwich.
Yes ... National Service - believe it or not, David began his Trinity House career back in 1956 - and after Dungeness he went on to serve at the Hanois, Casquets, Portland Breakwater, the Needles, Beachy Head and North Foreland.
We pick up our conversation from where I asked David how he came to consider a career as a lighthouse keeper in the first place.
Dungeness Old Light website: https://dungenesslighthouse.com
If you have a family connection with any of the names David mentioned then he would love to hear from you - you can contact me at [email protected], and I’ll forward your details on to him.
Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story we could cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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.
In this final episode of Season 1, we meet two former lighthouse keepers - Barry Hawkins, who served at many of the best known lighthouses in Wales and the South West of England between 1980 and 1997 - including Wolf Rock, the Skerries and St Anns Head. And Jack Hayes, whose career with Trinity House started shortly after the war, and included terms at Souter Point, Longships, Round Island, the Nab Tower, Orfordness and Bishop Rock.
His recordings form a unique and personal archive of film footage and audio recordings that together illustrate the nature of the work and the life of a lighthouse keeper.
We also listen to an extract from a wonderful interview Peter made with Sid Squib, who served as a keeper on the Nab tower before and during the war.
Barry Hawkins' website: https://www.lighthouseart.co.uk/
Peter's YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/@PeterHalil
Peter’s full interview with Jack Hayes was captured on film, and is almost an hour long: https://youtu.be/C8G0hr1EvCc
Jack Hayes in Anglia Television documentary c.1960: https://eafa.ehost.uea.ac.uk/work/?id=892150®enerate=true
That’s it for the first season of Keeping Watch. We’ll be back with another 12 episodes after a short break - Look out for season 2 at the beginning of May.
Until then, do please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do subscribe or follow this podcast so that you are notified when we return. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.
If you have an idea for a story we could cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?
You can contact me at [email protected].
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 I talk with Peter Halil, who was a Lighthouse Keeper between 1974 and 1997. We talk about his time in the lighthouse service, and about the remarkable archive of interviews he recorded with other keepers throughout the 1990s - as the rollout of automation was gradually making the lighthouse keeper's role redundant.
His recordings form a unique and personal archive of film footage and audio recordings that together illustrate the nature of the work and the life of a lighthouse keeper.
We also listen to an extract from a wonderful interview Peter made with Sid Squib, who served as a keeper on the Nab tower before and during the war.
Peter's YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/@PeterHalil
Peter's full interview with Sid Squib:
Part 1 https://youtu.be/x6qDvoD4_YM
Part 2 https://youtu.be/AUPM4ejC4PM
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 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
Visit the Association of Lighthouse Keepers:
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 …
En liten tjänst av I'm With Friends. Finns även på engelska.