Maritime History
Burnham-on-Sea
Burnham-on-Sea is a seaside town in Somerset, England, at the mouth of the River Parrett, upon Bridgwater Bay. Burnham was a small fishing village until the late 18th century when it began to grow because of its popularity as a seaside resort. Burnham-on-Sea forms part of the parish of Burnham-on-Sea and Highbridge and shares a town council with the neighbouring small market town of Highbridge, with which it has become a contiguous built-up area. At the 2021 census, the population of Burnham-on-Sea (which the Office for National Statistics defines as that part of the built-up area west of Pepperall Road and Newtown Lake) was 16,320. Burnham-on-Sea is famous for its low lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in 1832 and is a grade II listed building with a red and white striped facade. The position of the town on the edge of the Somerset Levels and moors where they meet the Bristol Channel, has resulted in a history dominated by land reclamation and sea defences since Roman times. Burnham was seriously affected by the Bristol Channel floods of 1607, with the present curved concrete wall being completed in 1988. There have been many shipwrecks on the Gore Sands, which lie just offshore and can be exposed at low tides. Lighthouses are hence prominent landmarks in the town, with the original lighthouse known as the Round Tower built to replace the light on the top of the 14th-century tower of St Andrew's Church. The 110-foot (34-metre) pillar or High Lighthouse and the low wooden pile lighthouse or lighthouse on legs on the beach were built to replace it. The town's first lifeboat was provided in 1836 by the Corporation of Bridgwater.
Also on this shelf
Batticaloa.
Joshua Slocum.
See also
Uncatalogued shelfText from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.