Orfordness Lighthouse lantern room removed as demolition continues

Orfordness Lighthouse's main artefacts are being carefully removed in a bid to "preserve them for future generations"

A coastal skyline has been changed forever with the removal of the glass lantern room from a lighthouse that has stood for more than 200 years.

Orfordness Lighthouse is being taken down because the sea is eroding the shingle beach on which it stands.

Work on the Grade II-listed structure on the Suffolk coast began on Thursday.

Orfordness Lighthouse Trust plans to recreate the top third of the 1792 structure as a permanent tribute at a safe distance from the sea.

The current Orfordness Lighthouse is the 11th - and final - warning beacon stationed on Europe's longest shingle spit

The Orfordness Lighthouse Trust hopes it will be possible to construct a tribute to the lighthouse, featuring a number of original features, at a new location nearly 1.5 miles (2.4km) from the sea

The lantern room, weighing nearly eight tonnes, is the second section of the lighthouse, designed by architect William Wilkins, to have been craned 30m (98ft) to the ground.

After 228 years on its vantage point on the Suffolk coast between Aldeburgh and Shingle Street, it took just 15 minutes for the steel and glass lantern room to be lowered.

At its most powerful, the lighthouse lamp shone through huge lenses which amplified the beam for 20 nautical miles (37km)

"It will be missed as it acted as a beacon to so many," said Orford-based photographer Carl Humphrey

Decommissioned from service in 2013, it has since been run by the trust.

"As much as we knew this was inevitable, it's still immensely sad for all of us involved with Orfordness Lighthouse," the trust said.

"As so many have said so eloquently, the light will live on in our memories and we hope something more tangible too, but that's for the future to decide."

The Orford Ness reserve, where the lighthouse sits, is currently closed to the public.