Marsden
Souter Lighthouse
Last Updated:
9 Jan 2025
Marsden
This is a
Lighthouse
54.970465, -1.364118
Founded in
Current status is
Extant
Designer (if known):
James Douglas
Listed Grade II*
This is the gorgeous Souter Lighthouse, opened in 1871 and at that time the most advanced lighthouse on the planet being the first to be purpose built for electric illumination.
It was built to give further protection to the swelling commerce which hugged the coast to arrive into both the Tyne and the Wear. This location was chose on Lizard Point as it was relatively free from the smog and smoke of industry north and south and 150ft above high water. It features a revolving electric white light captured in intervals of 30 seconds, perfectly culminated and calculated by Mr James Chance and specifically engineered for this lighthouse. There was also a lower light 22ft below the main one to make dangers in Sunderland Bay. The electricity was generated by a "magneto-electric" machine, worked by a steam engine of 6 1/2 horse power.
The complex next door, from opening, comprised of dwellings for 5 lighthouse keepers (the largest for the principal, who had to be a qualified mechanical engineer), an engine house, boiler house, coke store, workshop and store room all specifically arranged for efficiency.
The site was designed by Sir James Douglas of Trinity House, whose work prevails across the coast but mainly in the south, with another northern example at St Bees in Cumbria. The steam engines and boilers were built by Joseph Whitford, who later partnered with Armstrong.
It was decommissioned in 1988 and now serves as a tourist spot ran by the National Trust.
Listing Description (if available)
Both of these Ordnance Survey maps from the turn of the 20th century and the middle of it detail Marsden pit village and the lighthouse complex at the bottom of the plans. The well planned estate shows the almost manorial site with gardens, ponds and a flagstaff.
We can also assess the site of the original Marsden village, established by the Whitburn Coal Co. to provide housing to the men working at the nearby pit and their families. Houses started popping up here from the late 1870s to the 1890s, when the colliery employed over 1000 people. That meant the majority of them lived right next door to the pit, reducing any chance of truancy!
The properties were single storey cottages very reminiscent of Sunderland cottages in half a dozen rows of all sorts of lengths. They had their own allotments next to the lighthouse as well as a post office, Primitive Methodist chapel and tin mission room on the main lane to Whitburn. Only the post office survives.
Today, we still find the earthworks of the gardens and houses - knocked down around the same time as the closure of the pit in 1968 and just after the map above.
We also notice the Coast Road was modernised in the 20s allowing a proper laid between Sunderland and South Shields.
The 1839 tithe award of Whitburn (held by Durham University) shows the area was absent of development pre-quarry and colliery. It consisted only of farmland and pasture owned by Thomas Baines Esq, occupied by both himself from Lizard House and part leased to William Dunn of Hope House. Both Lizards and Hope House still exist, these being the only recognisable features of this land pre-1860s.
The waters must have been incredibly treacherous at this stage given the splintering of the coastline and the outcrops.
The Souter Lighthouse complex in December 2024
Mid 20th century postcard of the lighthouse. Unknown original source
The lighthouse and Marsden village from above in 1947. Source: © Historic England. Aerofilms Collection EAW006043 flown 21 May 1947