New Brighton Lighthouse or Perch Rock Lighthouse, is a decommissioned lighthouse situated at the confluence of the River Mersey and Liverpool Bay on an outcrop off New Brighton known locally as Perch Rock. Together with its neighbour, the Napoleonic era Fort Perch Rock, it is one of the Wirral's best known landmarks. The name comes from a Perch; a timber tripod supporting a lantern, first erected in 1683 as a crude beacon to allow shipping to pass the rock safely. As the Port of Liverpool developed in the Nineteenth Century, the perch was deemed inadequate as it required constant maintenance and only produced a limited light. Construction of the present tower began in 1827 by Tomkinson & Company using blocks of interlocking Anglesey granite using dovetail joints and marble dowels. It was designed to use many of the same construction techniques used in the building of John Smeaton's Eddystone Lighthouse 70 years earlier.[4] Modelled on the trunk of an oak tree, it is a free standing white painted tower with a red iron lantern. It is 29 m (95 ft) tall. It was first lit in 1830 and was in continuous use until decommissioned in October 1973 having been superseded by modern navigational technology.
Dark skies of Anglesey
