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Local historyYou are in: North Yorkshire > History > Local history > Lead kindly light  Scarborough Lighthouse Lead kindly lightBy Adam Holmes Richard Oakes was one of the last full-time lighthouse keepers at Scarborough. He worked there from 1969 to 1997. He's been telling us about the history of the building, including the persistent rumour that it is haunted by a former harbour-master. Scarborough LighthouseBuilt in 1804. Harbour master's house added in 1843. Destroyed by a shell from a German warship during WWI. Rebuilt in 1931. Now just manned in the summer.  Richard Oakes Every North Yorkshire landmark seems to have its own ghost story and Scarborough Lighthouse is no exception. This tale dates back to the 1870s. Richard Oakes explains: “One of the old Harbour-masters, Captain Appleyard, fell into the harbour, and several people have seen him in his office. At odd times you can smell his pipe smoke.†Richard says the Captain has been seen to go through the wall where the yacht club door used to be.
“One lad saw it one morning and has never been back on the pier since. I once reported someone going into the yacht club at 2 o’clock one morning and we finished up with police coming down and sniffer dogs and we never found anything. That was him going through the door.† Light ChangesLeaving aside matters supernatural, Richard has certainly seen some changes during his time at the lighthouse. It ceased to be manned all-year-round shortly after he left, mainly because of the decline of the fishing industry. Even in the early 1970s, the harbour was very busy. "We used to average about three or four cargo boats a week and the height of the time, and we had some big trawlers. A lot of fish was landed here in those days.† Lighthouse stairs But from the late 1980s the number of boats using the port fell dramatically, as European quotas and catch restrictions made life harder for fishermen. “The harbour is like a ghost town now. This time of year, years ago, you’d have 10, 12, 14 cobbles going winter fishing. There was something happening all through the night, and it was lit up like a town down here."  Lighthouse tower Richard became a watchman after spending 20 years as a trawlerman. He came ashore after injuring his back. He says it could be a complicated job: "if you had a couple of cargo boats laid at the jetty in bad weather and all your fleet coming back in you had to scratch your head at times about where to put lads when you got them into safe berths. It was pretty hectic then.†He still lives very near to the lighthouse and often visits the building, which is now home to Scarborough Yacht Club last updated: 28/03/2008 at 14:34 You are in: North Yorkshire > History > Local history > Lead kindly light |
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