Beachy Head: Lighthouse building images sold at auction

Beachy Head lighthouse sits about 165 metres from the base of the cliffs

A collection of images showing the Beachy Head lighthouse during its construction has been sold at auction.

The 71 slides of the East Sussex lighthouse show workers scaling rickety ladders down the cliffs, as well as taking a cable car to the site.

It is thought the images were taken by an engineer working on the construction between 1900 and 1902.

They were bought for £4,400 by the East Sussex Record Office at The Keep, in Brighton, at the auction in Penzance.

Beachy Head lighthouse was designed and built by the Cornish-born Sir Thomas Matthews.

Men and materials were winched down to the construction site from the cliff top in a cable car or aerial ropeway.

The lighthouse was built from 3,660 tons of Cornish granite under the direction of Sir Thomas Matthews, the Trinity House Engineer-in-Chief.

The dovetailed blocks were numbered to help with construction and lowered to an iron platform next to the lighthouse from the cliff top.

A coffer dam was built to protect the groundworks and construction workers from the sea during building of the lighthouse.

The 148ft (33m) lighthouse took two years to build and was completed in February 1902.

Beachy Head was automated in 1993 when the last of the keepers left the lighthouse.

The lighthouse at Beachy Head replaced the Belle Tout lighthouse on the cliff top nearby which had often been shrouded in mist and fog.

The lighthouse is now controlled from Trinity House's planning centre in Harwich in Essex.

Beachy Head lighthouse was brought into service by Trinity House in October 1902

The images were sold at the Penzance Auction House on 30 November.