BUILDING THE BREAKWATER

Picture taken in the early 1880's

By John Hills

A picture taken in the early 1880's when our west pier breakwater was being built, a lot of the workers on this construction lived on north side of Denton island in a row of Huts built for there use.

My Great grandfather Joseph Pittam and his family was found living in number 8 The Huts in the census of 1891.

Photo: Illustrative image for the 'BUILDING THE BREAKWATER' page
This page was added by John Hills on 17/11/2007.
Comments about this page

When one considers what little they had to work with in those days (no HSE either) it should have been called one of the wonders of the world

By William Still
On 21/11/2007

My mum's name was Eva Ranger, and her father was the Lighthouse Keeper (Thomas Ranger). I remember my mother telling me that she had to take his dinner to him every lunchtime. They lived in Church Hill so this was quite a walk. This was probably in the early 1900's.

Mr Bailey (local historian) says that the arches were put in place on the breakwater to enable the keeper to walk along in all weathers to maintain the oil and wick to keep the light on.

By Alice Field
On 23/11/2007
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