I bought a lighthouse book the other day ‘Lighthouses of England -The South East’, and while reading through it, I recognised a lighthouse. At the end of October 2015 we went to visit our daughter and her family in Kent……looking back now, the weather was amazing for the end of October. Anyway we had gone to do Halloween with our youngest grandson and he wanted to go to the beach, like they all do at 6.5 years old. So we arrived at Margate, a seaside town and the place was packed, there was some kind of bike race on. I know nothing about this sport, but I took loads of photos because I liked the way the bikes moved on the sand. I’m glad I did, because I got the lighthouse in a few of them.
A little history……Margate’s first lighthouse was built in 1828 to mark the town’s newly built breakwater. The original lighthouse was a round Doric column. It had a square gallery and cylindrical lantern, but this tower became a victim of the Great Storm of 1953. Strong seas pushed the old tower over, leaving it leaning at a precarious angle for several hours, prior to it collapsing, along with a large section at the end of the pier. In 1955, the current octagonal concrete tower was built, topped by a copper lantern housing a fixed red LED light.
Echoes of the Past 
I find lighthouses fascinating and I’m unfamiliar with Kent so I enjoyed your post.
Thank you, it is a little different than some of the other lighouses, being in a seaside town, but Margate is a nice busy little place, and starting to come up market now, which is good for everyone 🙂
I too enjoy watching dirt bikes like these. This lighthouse looks like some we have around here.
Thank you, I couldn’t remember what they were called and of course it’s dirt bikes, or in this case sand bikes 🙂 We saw some lovely lighthouses when we went to Cape Cod etc, I really must try and find the photos, I only posted one. Anyway how is your back, hope its getting better now 🙂
My back is doing much better,thank you!! I never been up north that far for along time.. the last was when I was a very young girl traveling with my parents… Hubby and brother used to have dirt bikes ,I enjoyed watching them although at times I thought they were going to break their necks.
Glad to hear its getting better. I like watching the bikes, but like you I think that someone will get hurt.
This lighthouse is so close to seashore.
Yes 🙂
You have been very prolific while I was away in Texas visiting family. It looks like I will have many lovely photos and interesting posts to keep me busy while I drink a cup of something warm 🙂
Hope you had a lovely visit, my niece lives in Huston. Yes we have been busy and at the moment we are in France, lots more lovely place to post about, hopefully 🙂
Our oldest son lives in Houston with his family. Other family is near Corpus Cristi. I do hope your niece stayed safe through the hurricane. We actually left two days before it hit. Funny how while we were there we barely paid attention to the weather. It was hot. That was all I noticed lol.
Yes she was quite safe thank you, although they had the bad weather, but they live higher up or something that they didn’t get the flooding. Yes sometimes you just never notice these things or the build up to them. When we were on Martha’s Vineyard in 2015 we were caught in the tail wind of a hurricane and stayed in our hotel room, never seen wind like it and that was just the end of it 🙂 I guess your son and family were ok 🙂
Reblogged this on Wonderwall and commented:
Good pictures but a relatively ugly concrete lighthouse.
Enjoyed your article on the Margate Lighthouse. Have visited the Margate Harbour Arm several times but didn’t know the full lighthouse history. Have you been to the North Foreland lighthouse?
Thank you glad you enjoyed the post. I have North Foreland on my list and hopefully we will visit next year, also a few more in Kent 🙂 Lynne