Fleetwood is unique because it is the only town in the United Kingdom to possess three lighthouses.

Two are actually located within the town itself, and are still fully operational.

The third - Wyre Light - is unique since it was the first screw pile lighthouse to be built and lit in Great Britain. 

The Lower Lighthouse was designed in 1840 by Sir Decimus Burton, the architect responsible for much of early Fleetwood.
 
The light from the Lower Lighthouse is 30 feet above the watermark and can be seen for 9 miles

 

The Upper Lighthouse, usually referred to as the Pharos Lighthouse (after the wonder of the Ancient World), was also built in 1840. There are107 steps and a 10 foot ladder to the top.
 
The Upper Lighthouse is 90 feet above the high water mark and visible for 13 miles.
 
It is still in operation today.

 

Wyre Light was built in 1840 by Alexander Mitchell, a blind engineer, and rests upon 7 screw piles sunk into the seabed at the northern edge of North Wharf, the sandbank stretching from Fleetwood to the edge of Lune Deeps in Morecambe Bay. Unfortunately, Wyre Light has been allowed to fall into a state of disrepair with no-one wanting to take responsibility for such an important piece of early Victorian engineering. A very similar lighthouse exists in the United States

As can be seen from this picture the Upper Lighthouse can be seen behind the Lower Lighthouse. The relationship between the two lighthouses was quite deliberate.  The nature of the channel into Fleetwood is such that when the Upper Lighthouse is seen directly above the Lower Lighthouse by any approaching ship the captain knows that the ship is safely in the channel.

 


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