16 °
Work starts on St. Catherine's lighthouse
Work starts on lighthouse | 1838 | Period: Victorian
Situated at the most southerly tip of the Isle of Wight at Niton Undercliff, St Catherine's lighthouse was built in 1838-40.
It was reduced in height in 1875 and then added to in 1932.
The white octagonal tower has 94 steps up to the lantern. It is 27 metres high. The main light, visible for up to 30 nautical miles in clear weather, is the third most powerful light operated by Trinity House. The main tower and the adjoining fog signal tower is known locally as 'The Cow and the Calf.'
Also in this Period:
- Queen Victoria Dies
- Marconi experiments with radio waves
- The Tennyson Monument unveiled
- Royal National Hospital for Diseases of the Chest opens
- Julia Margaret Cameron takes first photo's at Dimbola
- Cowes and Newport join the railway age
- Needles Old Battery built
- New Needles lighthouse planned
- Sailing race around the Isle of Wight won by America
- Charles Dickens writes David Copperfield
- Victoria and Albert buy Osborne House
- UK's first theme park opens at Blackgang Chine
- Work starts on St. Catherine's lighthouse
- Algernon Charles Swinburne