Durlston Castle and Anvil Point on Jurassic Coast of Dorset
John Mowlem (1788-1868), a Swanage-born man, was a stonemason and builder. He was the founder of the quarrying and construction company Mowlem. He and his nephew and business partner George Burt (1816-1894) wanted to give something back to their home town (Swanage, UK), which was the source of their Portland and Purbeck limestone, popular for building at the time. John Mowlem built the Mowlem Institute, a reading room and public library, in 1862. George Burt purchased an undulating tract of land covering Durlston Head during the same year. This estate, the Durlston Estate, included quarries that supplied their firm with limestone. Burt developed this estate as a tourist attraction.
Burt established the Durlston Estate upon the crest of the hill and here he built his folly Durlston Castle. The castle was designed by the Weymouth architect G.R. Crickmay (1830-1907) and built by W.M. Hardy in 1886-87 entirely of local stone. The 'castle' was never a real castle: it was purpose-built by Burt as a restaurant for the visitors to his estate.
The castle played a part in the evolution of radio and telecommunications. A team of Marconi's engineers used the roof of the castle in the 1890s for some of their early wireless experiments to transmit to the Isle of Wight.
The side wall of the castle features a sundial and two stone tablets inscribed with various statistics such as clock times and tides around the world. South of the castle is the Great Globe, built by Burt in 1887.[3] The footpaths around the Castle and Great Globe are lined with cast iron bollards that were brought from London. All around the estate there are further stone plaques carved with quotations from Shakespeare and the Bible, maps showing the English Channel and the United Kingdom, and further facts about the natural world. These surrounds were placed during the period 1887 to 1891.
Also within the Durlston Country Park and within walking distance of the Globe are Durlston Bay, the Tilly Whim Caves and the Anvil Point Lighthouse. The Park is part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.
The lighthouse is built of local stone and was completed in 1881.[3] It was opened by Neville Chamberlain's father, then Minister of Transport. The lighthouse tower is twelve metres tall, the height of the light above the high-water mark is 45 m (148 ft). The light is positioned to give a waypoint for vessels passing along the English Channel coast.
Originally the light was illuminated by a paraffin vapour burner (PVB) set within a large (first order) revolving 14-panel dioptric optic by Chance Brothers & Co.[4] It was the first example of a significant new design of lighthouse optic, whereby (through the use of dense flint glass in the upper and lower portions) the height of a Fresnel lens could be significantly increased, dispensing with the need for additional reflective prisms above and below.[5]
During 1960, the lighthouse was modernised and electrified (with a new lamp, powered by mains electricity, replacing the PVB). At the same time a smaller optic replaced the original lens array, which was removed and donated to the Science Museum.[6]
Anvil Point Lighthouse was fully automated on 31 May 1991 and is now monitored and controlled from the Trinity House Operations Control Centre at Harwich.
The lighthouse had a 1,000 watt filament lamp with an intensity of 500,000 Candela. The lights range was about 19 nautical miles (35 km; 22 mi), but was reduced to 9 nautical miles (17 km; 10 mi) following a review of aids to navigation in 2010.
In 2012, a LED lamp was installed above the rotating Fresnel lens to serve as the main light at Anvil Point; its character is, as it was previously, a white flash every 10 seconds (The old lens, though no longer in use, remains in place in the tower.)
The old fog signal was a 5-minute cannon. In 1960 this was replaced by an electric emitter. In 1981 new automatic equipment was installed, but the fog signal was discontinued in 1988.
Music: Snowfall by Scott Buckley |
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Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Dorset: Durlston Park to Anvil Point Lighthouse
The short drive/walk from Durlston Park (Swanage) to Anvil Point Lighthouse. Was filmed on a glorious Friday, 22nd June 2016. We had booked a portion of the lighthouse on this fantastic point on the Jurassic Coast, thus had permission to drive down to the lighthouse. The South West Coast Path runs right infront of the Lighthouse.
Dorset Guided Walks: Durlston Country Park & Anvil Point
This is a guided walk from Durlston Country Park to Anvil Point and part of the South West Coast Path. Tilly Whim Caves and the Great Globe are also visited along the route. The walk takes in the very end of the Jurassic Coast UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Please like and subscribe for more walks all around the country.
lakedistrict-walks.co.uk
Anvil Point near Swanage UK - St Jude Storm 27. Oct 2013
via YouTube Capture
UK Lighthouses From The Air ( Part Three ) Anvil Point
Created with Wondershare Filmora
Durlston Country Park
A Rizbo Rotors Film............................Some shots above durlston country park, Swanage, Dorset, Isle of Purbeck, England , shot with a DJI Phantom. contains anvil point lighthouse, Durlston Castle & Tilly Whim Caves.
Always fly to the drone code -
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MUSIC
Blizzard (PON I) by Kai Engel
ANVIL POINT, DORSET
A view around Anvil Point and Tilly Whim on the Dorset coast, near Swanage.
Durlston Walk
A winter walk around Anvil Point Lighthouse, Great Globe and Tilly Whim Caves at Durlston Country Park in Swanage.
Prawle point and Gammonhead
Phantom 3 advance
Swanage , Aerial bay , Dorset coastal town,
Swanage is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is situated at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck, approximately 6 1⁄4 miles (10 km) south of Poole and 25 miles (40 km) east of Dorchester. In the 2011 census the civil parish and two electoral wards had a population of 9,601.[1] Nearby are Ballard Down and Old Harry Rocks, with Studland Bay and Poole Harbour to the north. Within the parish are Durlston Bay and Durlston Country Park to the south of the town. The parish also includes the areas of Herston, just to the west of the town, and Durlston, just to the south.
The town, originally a small port and fishing village, flourished in the Victorian era, when it first became a significant quarrying port and later a seaside resort for the rich of the day. Today the town remains a popular tourist resort, this being the town's primary industry, with many thousands of visitors coming to the town during the peak summer season, drawn by the bay's sandy beaches and other attractions.
During its history the bay was listed variously as Swanawic, Swanwich and Sandwich,[2] and only in more recent history as Swanage.[3]
The town is located at the eastern end of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site. The town contains many listed buildings and two conservation areas – Swanage Conservation Area and Herston Conservation Are
Guillemots and Shag at Durlston
view from the coast path at Durlston (Swanage, U.K).
Lighthouses of England, Needles Lighthouse at Christmas.
This film (in 2 parts) was filmed in 1992 on board the Needles Lighthouse, Isle of Wight, England. I was sent with about 2 days notice, when the Keeper who should have gone, said he was too ill to go. I had been hoping to record for posterity, Christmas on a Lighthouse, so this is my recording of that trip.
If you don't like Christmas, New Year celebrations or Lighthouse Keepers humour
or life in a Lighthouse, then perhaps this isn't for you!....In any case, Merry Christmas to you, and a Happy New Year.
PS. If you have an interest in Lighthouses, then check out the Association of Lighthouse Keepers
at the following
It's not only for Lighthouse Keepers.
Durlston Light House
A jet at sunset at Durlston Lighthouse
Swanage, Dorset, England
Photos taken in 2008.
Anvil Point Lighthouse Feb 2011 - THE LIGHT IS DIMMED
Anvil Point Lighthouse before and after the change from a rotating optic with 35watt lamps to static light emitting diodes. This took place in February 2011
Incredible Journeys
Really into climbs at the moment, Durdle door, lulworth cove, tilly whim caves and some roof tops
Isle Of Purbeck HD - Peveril Point to Durlston
I took a quick day-trip to Swanage and found some spectacular sights awaiting me from Peveril Point to Durlston.
Durlston Country Park Swanage
My most favourite place to be!
Wildlife of The Jurassic Coast
From feracious ants and vivid lizards, to killer kestrels and stunning landscapes. Follow Tom and Tim as they spend a day exploring South Dorset's Jurassic Coast.
Presented by: Tom Young
Directed by: Tom Young & Tim Precious
Camera by: Tom Young & Tim Precious
Music & Editing by: Tom Young