Trust Created to Buy Belle-Toute Lighthouse
By Sue Clark on Aug 3, 2007 in Lighthouses For Sale 
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According to the BBC News, a trust has been set up to raise funds for the purchase of Belle-Toute Lighthouse, a 175 year old beacon in East Sussex, UK. In May, the lighthouse, which has been decommissioned since 1902, and has served a multitude of purposes since, including as a tea shop, a setting for a British TV show, and a private home, went up for sale at Strutt and Parker Realty for £850,000 ($1,733,724 USD).
The property description at Strutt and Parker describes the lighthouse as having:
- Entrance hall, sitting room, dining area, kitchen, utility room, 2 tower rooms, lantern room.
- Principal suite comprising bedroom, shower and dressing room, 4 further bedrooms, bedroom /sitting room, 2 garden stores.
- Parking, walled garden.
“Believed to have been constructed in about 1834, Belle Toute Lighthouse offers a rare opportunity to purchase a famous and important landmark lighthouse with uninterrupted views over some of the most spectacular coastal scenery in southern England. Internally, the lighthouse provides deceptively spacious, well proportioned and bright accommodation, principally over three floors. On the first floor there is a magnificent open plan living space which benefits from large picture windows, which take full advantage of the magnificent views. Other features include wood and stone floors, an open fireplace in the sitting room, a spaciousprincipal suite with circular bedroom, high ceilings, a circular bathroom with central bath and a spiral staircase which leads up to the lantern room on the third floor, from which there are spectacular 360 degree views. The lighthouse is approached over a long downland track, which leads to a pair of wrought iron gates, opening on to a wide parking area to the south of the property, with two store rooms to one side.”
It also has a distinctive history as being moved back from crumbling chalk cliffs in 1999. When the current owners, Mark and Louise Roberts purchased it in 1996 and used it as a bed and breakfast, it was in imminent danger of falling into the sea. Denied grant funding in time to prevent its collapse, the Robertses “threw everything they had at it” and in November 1998, hired twelve engineers to plan the move. In February and March of 1998, using four large hydraulic jacks along four steel-topped concrete beams, lubricated with grease pumped in under pressure, the lighthouse was moved back fifty feet further in from the cliff’s edge. The building’s new foundations have been constructed in a way that will make future moves much easier to perform.
When the cliffs collapsed, the Roberts were living in the lighthouse, and fled with their nine month old daughter Haven and their dog Nessie. Besides moving the edge of the cliff to within 15 feet of their home, the collapse also dumped a 200 yard section of the rocks into the sea near Beachy Head. The unmanned Beachy Head Lighthouse suddenly ended up being just eight feet from land, filling in the channel that tour boats used.
There are several videos at the BBC site detailing the lighthouse move, in Real Video format. If you don’t have Real Player, I strongly suggest you get Real Alternative.
Videos (all will open on a new page):
- A Race Against Time
- Robert Hall: “It should float like a hovercraft”
- MegaLab’s Craig Doyle Reports From the Lighthouse
- Robert Hall Reports on the mammoth operation to move the house
For further information on the Trust, and how you can help, visit their website at www.belletoute.org.uk
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More About Belle Toute Lighthouse
September 9th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
[…] has been given to the trust created to purchase Belle Toute Lighthouse, in East Sussex, UK, to go ahead with plans to turn the decrepit, but expensive, lighthouse into a […]