Anvil Point Lighthouse

The Anvil Point Lighthouse is a lighthouse located near Swanage in Dorset, southern England.HistoryThe lighthouse is built of local stone and was completed in 1881. It was opened by Neville Chamberlain's father, then Minister of Transport. The lighthouse tower is twelve metres tall, the height of the light above the high-water mark is 45m. The light is positioned to give a waypoint for vessels passing along the English Channel coast.Originally the light was illuminated by a paraffin vapour burner (PVB). During 1960, the lighthouse was modernised and electrified. It was fully automated on 31 May 1991 and is now monitored and controlled from the Trinity House Operations Control Centre at Harwich.The lighthouse had a 1,000 watt filament lamp with an intensity of 500,000 Candela. The lights range was about, but was reduced to following a review of aids to navigation in 2010. The old fog signal was a 5-minute cannon. The fog signal was replaced during 1981 by new automatic equipment, but it has now been discontinued. In 2012, a LED lamp was installed above the rotating Fresnel lens to serve as the main light at Anvil Point; its character is, as it was previously, a white flash every 10 seconds. The old lens, though no longer in use, remains in place in the tower.The lighthouse is near a visitor centre and is sometimes open to the public for tours. This area is an Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Some of the old buildings have been refurbished as holiday cottages.