History of Plymouth Page 4

Plymouth Hoe and The Eddystone Lighthouse

Another famous part of Plymouth is Plymouth Hoe, from where the Spanish Armada was first sighted while Sir Francis Drake was playing his famous game of bowls. On a clear day the Eddystone Lighthouse is fourteen miles out to sea, and can be seen from The Hoe.

The Eddystone Lighthouse has evolved into four different designs over the centuries, eventually being built in its present form in 1882. The first attempt to make the area safe for local shipping came from the eccentric owner of five ships called Henry Winstanley. This was because after his second ship was wrecked on the rocks, he decided to rid the area of their danger. He commenced work on a wooden structure on the rocks in 1696, and work was still progressing in 1697 when disaster struck. England was at war with France and the Navy gave Winstanley protection out on the rocks each day while he was working on the structure, by patrolling the area with a ship.

One morning in June however, the protecting ship did not arrive and Winstanley was carried off to France by French privateers. When Louis XIV heard of this however, he ordered his release saying that France was at war with England and not with humanity. Winstanley eventually lit the first light on his Eddystone Lighthouse on 14th November 1698. The structure did survive the winter but needed urgent repairs by the following spring. Winstanley finished these by the following winter of 1699 stating that it was his wish to actually stay in the lighthouse during a great storm. His dream tragically came true in November 1703 when he had arrived in the lighthouse the evening before to carry out urgent repairs. In the morning however, the lighthouse and Winstanley had both totally disappeared.

Later Eddystone Lighthouses

The second attempt to build a lighthouse came a few years later. Captain Lovett took out a 99-year lease on the rocks and was then allowed to charge ships a penny each time they passed the site. This money went into the cost of building the new lighthouse, which was completed in 1709. This structure proved much more serviceable and stood up to the sea well. On the 2nd of December 1755 however, the top of the lantern caught fire, probably caused by a spark from the candles. The two keepers were eventually pulled from the rock eight hours later when daylight made a rescue possible. The fire burnt for five days and the structure was completely destroyed. One of the two keepers died twelve days later and during the post mortem the doctor found an oval piece of lead in his stomach. This was thought to have come from the roof of the lighthouse, which melted during the fire. This same piece of lead, which weighs 7oz, is now in a museum in Edinburgh.

The next tower was built by John Smeaton who built the structure out of stone using quick drying cement, which he had invented. The lighthouse or Smeaton's Tower, as it was called, was lit on 16th October 1759. This stood until 1877 but was dismantled and rebuilt on Plymouth Hoe when its foundations became unsafe.

The present Eddystone Lighthouse which replaced Smeaton's Tower out on the rocks is an amazing feat of 18th Century engineering which was commissioned by Trinity House and opened in 1882. By this time the design of modern lighthouses had improved so much that the structure is still perfectly sound today. A helicopter-landing pad is now planned for the top of the tower as part of an overall modernisation package.

Plymouth Hoe

Plymouth today has grown far beyond its original boundaries, partly due to the steady population growth over the centuries and also because much of the population moved outside the city in order to avoid the enemy bombing in the Second World War.

After the war much of the city was destroyed so a great deal of the population never moved back. These population movements have led to the city now swallowing up the three towns of Devonport, Stonehouse, and Plympton and the group of villages known as Plymstock.

Today the city of Plymouth has a population of 250,000 people.