The History of St. Mary's Island and Lighthouse
The Shields Daily News
Wednesday, March 10, 1897
A LIGHTHOUSE FOR ST. MARY'S ISLAND
Recently the little island has been quite transformed in appearance. On its crest the approaching visitor may descry the lines of a crane and walls of heaped up earth. When he had crossed the sands which form the connecting link with the mainland he will come across a noisy steam engine, enclosed in a shed and keeping a pug mill in motion. Higher up the slope are the little cabins which accompany most building operations, and on reaching the top the visitor will find two gangs of men busy, one body with a great oblong hole to the north of the island, the other energetically excavating a large circular cavity.
The meaning of this unusual activity at St. Mary's is that a lighthouse and two cottages for the lighthouse men have to be erected, and that when the work is completed the islet will play a part in the national scheme of Trinity House for lighting the coast, and the familiar red glow of the Tynemouth Priory light will be seen no longer.
The new lighthouse will practically mark the half-distance between Blyth and the Tyne, and will occupy on the north of Tynemouth a position analogous to that of the Souter light on the south.
Inclusive, the St. Mary's Island Lighthouse will entail an expenditure of some £8,000. The contract for building it and the cottages has been given to Mr. J. L. Miller, of Tynemouth, and the work is to be accomplished two years hence.
A beginning was made with the foundations last autumn, but adverse weather has considerably interrupted operations. Some twenty feet of earth and rock has to be excavated before building can be commenced, and up to yesterday the major portion of this had been done.
The building proper will in all probability start in a fortnight's time. The lighthouse, which will be 35 feet in diameter at its base, and of the familiar trumpet shape, is to to a height of 100 feet, which should be sufficient to make its light a prominent object for a good distance. The foundations will be of stonework and cement; the tower will be of brickwork. Trinity House machinery, it is understood, will be introduced for working powerful oil lamps, the lenses of which are to be supplied by Chance, of Birmingham.
Extract from The Shields Daily News March 10, 1897
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