We are here on the end of Smeaton’s Pier at St Ives in Cornwall. On the right side of the pier some fishing boats are tied up, as witnessed by their waiting lobster pots. To the left is the open Atlantic. The lighthouse was established in 1890. Smeaton was the civil engineer in charge of the building of this pier, built in 1767. He was well known for being commissioned to build many canal, harbour and bridge works but for me his most famous work was ‘Smeaton’s Lighthouse’, later renamed Eddystone Lighthouse. In building that, he evolved the stone dovetailing method of keeping the tower immensely strong against raging seas and wind, a system that was to be employed in most rocky island lighthouses until the present day. An even older lighthouse still stands at the other end of this pier, established in 1830. See Pips.

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