Cromer Lighthouse - Difficult Times

Difficult Times

The cost of maintaining the lighthouse proved to be very high and this, plus reluctance on the part of ship-owners to part with their voluntary payments lead to a situation were Clayton and Blake could not afford to keep the fire kindled at the top of the Cromer tower. Nevertheless the Cromer Lighthouse was still of some use as a beacon and was marked on Admiralty charts as “a lighthouse but no fire kept in it”. With the Clayton tower falling into disrepair, the owner of the land at Foulness, Nathaniel Life, was convinced that a Lighthouse repaired and maintained was essential at the site. In 1719 a new patent was granted. Dues were set to shipping at the rate of a farthing per ton of general cargo and a halfpenny per chaldron (25 cwt) of Newcastle coal. Nathaniel Life and Edward Bowell jointly received a 61 year lease from Trinity House at a rental of £100 on the undertaking that Nathaniel Life would pass the lighthouse plus one acre of land in to the ownership of Trinity House at the end of the 61 years. The lighthouse now maintained a coal fire enclosed in the Lantern.