St Catherine's Lighthouse is a Grade II listed building in the Isle of Wight local planning authority area, England. First listed on 18 January 1967. Lighthouse. 3 related planning applications.
St Catherine's Lighthouse
- WRENN ID
- kindled-lime-gold
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Isle of Wight
- Constituency
- Isle of Wight West MP: Richard Quigley (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 18 January 1967
- Type
- Lighthouse
- Address
- St Catherine's Lighthouse, St Catherine's Road, Niton and Whitwell, PO38 2NF
- OS grid reference
- SZ 498 753
- Coordinates
- 50.57567, -1.29788
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
St Catherine's Lighthouse is a lighthouse located in Niton and Whitwell, built between 1838 and 1840. It was designed by Walker and Burgess and underwent alterations in 1875 when its height was reduced to 86 feet due to mist, which involved removing the upper stage and part of the middle stage. The lighthouse features a stuccoed octagonal tower with two stages, machicolations, and a castellated parapet topped with a conical light, ball finial, and weathervane.
In 1932, a lower two-storey tower was added to the south side to house a foghorn, designed to match the shortened main lighthouse, but with an open arcade on the ground floor. These two towers are locally referred to as the Cow and the Calf. To the west of the main tower, there is a doorway with the date 1838 above it and a ground floor projection with a gable above. Attached to the east is the Head Lighthouse keeper's house, which is a single storey with a curved front and a round-headed window facing east.
This lighthouse was one of the first in the world to be illuminated by electric light, which was installed in 1888. It is the third lighthouse built on this site; the first was an old medieval pharos connected to St Catherine's Oratory, and the second was an unfinished lighthouse started in 1785 that was abandoned due to dense mists. St Catherine's Lighthouse was constructed following the wreck of the 'Clarendon' in Chale Bay on October 11, 1836.
Local climate
St Catherine's Lighthouse receives an average of 800 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 54% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 87% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 7 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 95% of listed buildings. Of these, 3 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 3 applications
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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