![]() They own and maintain all the aids to navigation on the River Lune, including the lighthouses at the mouth of the river and on Walney Island. Here in Morecambe Bay, the Local Light Authority is the Lancaster Port Commission. Liverpool has had a number of female lighthouse keepers from 1797 onwards. ![]() In Chester, Mrs Cormes was appointed as keeper of the Point of Ayr lighthouse as early as 1791. Some areas of the country have their own Local Light Authorities, which seem to have been more flexible than Trinity House. Over four centuries or so, the organisation never once appointed a woman as Principal Keeper of a lighthouse, although the contributions of the keepers’ wives were sometimes acknowledged with the title of Female Assistant Keeper. By the end of the 1990s all of their lighthouses were automated, but until then then they were responsible for hiring full-time keepers. Most lighthouses in England and Wales are under the authority of Trinity House. All these keepers are men, but it’s likely some would have shared the work with unnamed wives or daughters. List of Lighthouse Keepers at Walney Island, 1790-1937, from the Walney Lighthouse visitors book in our collection. The public interest in her life revealed that along with her mother and sisters, Grace was quite used to taking an active part in maintaining the lighthouse that was nominally kept by her father. Only occasionally did it come to light, as with Beatrice Parkinson or in the better-known case of Grace Darling – a lighthouse keeper’s daughter who became famous in 1838 for her part in the rescue of survivors from a shipwreck. The work of these women went largely unrecorded and unrewarded, taken for granted as part and parcel of the official positions of their menfolk. But there’s no doubt that in reality, most of these men would have shared the work not only with their sons but also with their wives, daughters and sisters. It’s true that lists of lighthouse keepers everywhere are filled with male names, the job often passing from father to son through many generations of a single family. The Parkinson family was far from alone in this arrangement. (The mention of the Mersey is a mistake – the lighthouses are on the River Lune.) In short, he makes it clear that far from being ‘reserved for men only’, lighthouse keeping was a family affair.Īrticle about Beatrice Parkinson from the Picture Post, 1948 – copy in our collection. In the middle of the day it was his mother’s job. ‘Me father used to sell all t’fish and he’d to knock off to do t’light’ouse so me mother said, “If I can do it – I‘ll go and see if I can get up that light,” and that’s when it started yer see, “If I can get up there,” she says, “I’ll do it for you so as you ”’īob goes on to add that from the age of eleven he too had been helping with the lighthouses, cleaning and refilling the lamps with paraffin before starting school and after he came home. ![]() But a recent oral history project gave their son Bob the chance to explain how his mother soon took over much of the work on the lights, allowing Thomas more time for his other occupation as a fisherman: When the Parkinson family moved into the keeper’s cottage at Cockersands in 1945, it was Beatrice’s husband Thomas who’d been appointed as Keeper. Just what was needed amid the grim realities of post-war Britain. Hers was an inspiring story about perseverance in the face of unique hardships. With this appearance, and with articles in the national press, Beatrice Parkinson briefly shot to fame as ‘the only woman lighthouse keeper in Britain’. ![]() ‘But it isn’t’, he continues, and goes on to show us the work of Beatrice Parkinson, ‘a lighthouse keeper in her own right’ for the twin lights of Cockersands Abbey and Plover Scar at the Mouth of the River Lune. So says the Pathe News reader at the start of this short film from 1948. ‘Of all the unusual occupations of today, lighthouse keeping is one field you might legitimately expect to be reserved for men only.’ ![]()
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