On a recent outing to Lavernock beach, looking for geocaches, we stumbled upon an odd little building, like a castle tower, standing alone on the cliff edge just north of Lavernock point. The door had been booted in so we had a quick nose around; there is only one room inside and it’s been quite badly smashed up.
I’ve been trying to decide what the purpose of this tower could have been. Originally, it may have been used by the Italian scientist Guglielmo Marconi to house the equipment used in his experiment to transmit the first radio signal over open sea. This was between Lavernock point and Flat Holm island on 13th May 1897, and most pages with information on this experiment report that “the stone shed used to house his equipment can still be observed”. If this is the case, it’s great to have unknowingly visited one of the birthplaces of the communications age, but also sad that it’s in such a state now.
Whatever the original purpose for the tower may have been, at some point it was used to house penstock control valves, as a sign inside reads LAVERNOCK PENSTOCK CONTROL. A penstock is a gate or sluice used to control water flow, or a conduit used to deliver water to machinery. In this case, I would guess that the valves would be used to open some kind of drainage or overflow system up to the sea to discharge, although that’s speculative. Anyone with information on the history and use of this small tower, please contact me!
Pictures
Ivy grows up the old tower
Inside, it’s a bit of a mess
Big Vavles!
Penstock control panels
Detail of the plaque on the panel
A bleak outlook
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