Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II listed building. Main construction periods 1793 to 1843 South Foreland Lighthouse stands was built in 1843 on the white cliffs near Dover. It was the site of Faraday's work in pioneering the use of electricity in lighthouses, and as such was the first to display an electrically powered signal. It was from the South Foreland lighthouse, on 28th December 1898, that Gugliemo Marconi made the world's first ship to shore radio transmissions and subsequently the world's first international transmission to Wimereux, in France, 28 Miles away

Images

Monument Types

• LIGHTHOUSE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1793 AD to 2050 AD)
• RADIO STATION (Post Medieval - 1899 AD (occasionally) to 1899 AD (occasionally))

Full description

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Description from record TR 34 SE 15:
|(TR 35904331) Lighthouse (NAT) (1) TR 34 SE ST MARGARET'S AT CLIFFE THE FRONT (South Foreland) 6/58 South Foreland Lighthouse II Lighthouse and outbuildings. Built 1793, rebuilt 1843. Rendered, with slate roofs. Irregular octagon with flanking wings, The tower is of 3 storeys on a plinth, with machicolations and battlemented parapet. Lantern with ball finial and weather vane. Single storey outbuildings with plinth and parapet and low hipped roof with 2 cast iron chimney pots. Projecting canted bay window on main facade, and projecting return wing both with pediment-shaped parapets and Trinity House emblems. Linked to tower by short wing with four centred arched doorway. Main entry to tower with pointed arch on attached shafts. With the first permanent electric lamp in the country (installed 1872, only the Lizard Light is more powerful on the south coast).

In Juanuary 2020 an archaeological watching brief was undertaken at South Foreland Lighthouse in association with cable trenching.

“The watching brief has provided further evidence relating to the history and development of the lighthouse complex. The archaeological sequence within the new service was formed by features of mid-late nineteenth-century date or later. The most notable discovery was an iron pipe that potentially relates to an early power supply.

Presently the available evidence would seem to suggest that significant archaeology relating to the lighthouse complex as identified in test-pits 5 and 6 survives only in areas closest to the present buildings.” (3)

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
TR 34 SE ST MARGARET'S AT CLIFFE THE FRONT (south Foreland) 6/58 South Foreland Lighthouse
II
Lighthouse and outbuildings. Built 1793, rebuilt 1843. Rendered, with slate roofs. Irregular octagon with flanking wings. The tower is of 3 storeys on a plinth, with machicolations and battlemented parapet. Lantern with ball finial and weather vane. Single storey outbuildings with plinth and parapet and low hipped roof with 2 cast iron chimney pots. Projecting canted bay window on main facade, and projecting return wing both with pediment-shaped parapets and Trinity House emblems. Linked to tower by short wing with four centred arched doorway. Main entry to tower with pointed arch on attached shafts. With the first permanent electric lamp in the country (installed 1872, only the Lizard Light is more powerful on the south coast).
Listing NGR: TR3591143305 (4)

<1> OS 1:10000 1976 (OS Card Reference). SKE48161.

<2> DOE (HHR) Dist of Dover 1987 25 (OS Card Reference). SKE40252.

<3> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2020, South Foreland Lighthouse, St Margaret’s Bay, Dover, Kent, Archaeological watching brief report (Unpublished document). SKE53601.

<4> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

Sources and further reading