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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Eddystone lighthouses
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The Eddystone Rocks, at the western end of the English Channel (23km/14m from Plymouth), were sufficient hazard to prompt the construction of the world's first offshore lighthouse. This was a wooden tower (1696–9); it was swept away in a storm in 1703 together with its designer, Henry Winstanley (1644–1703), and his crew. A replacement of wood and iron was completed in 1708 but destroyed by fire in 1755. The third attempt, designed by John *Smeaton in a technique of dovetailed stones which was to become standard, lasted from 1759 for more than a century, until the rocks below it began to crumble. In 1882 it was replaced by the present lighthouse, designed by James Douglass (1826–98).
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