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SRW | profile | all galleries >> Southern/Middle England >> Hampshire >> Isle of Wight >> To the 'Pepperpot' >> The Pepperpot tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Chale village | The Pepperpot

The Pepperpot

From the BBC Legacies website:
"You could be forgiven for thinking that the 'Pepperpot' lighthouse, perched some 750ft above the most southerly point of the Isle of Wight, is a rocket.
The origin of this primitive beacon of light for distressed sailors is as murky as the mists that often shroud St Catherine's Point, its precarious hilltop location.

"The 10.67m (35ft) tall octagonal building has four massive support buttresses, the causes of its rocket resemblance.
The ruins of an adjacent oratory or chapel remain on its north side. Predated by the Roman lighthouse at Dover, it is the second-oldest lighthouse in Britain.
Intriguingly, the lighthouse tower was octagonal, but with a square interior. The light beacon was simply a fire set in the roof of the tower,
which would glow through each of the eight beacon slits.

"The lighthouse had four interior stages and archways over two entrance doors. Within the pyramidal roof,
wood fuel was always retained, ready for firing. The monks tended the beacon from the adjacent oratory and a priest would say mass
for the hapless sailors braving the hazardous coastline."

Tennyson Down
Tennyson Down		 First sight
First sight		 Planted
Planted
Up
Up		 Graffiti
Graffiti		 Rocket
Rocket
Silhouette
Silhouette		 Skyline
Skyline		 Mast
Mast
Two towers I
Two towers I		 Two towers II
Two towers II		 Gore down
Gore down

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