Graham Hall on Navigation

Everything’s been automated since I started there. Nothing was automatic except us going out and doing it, you know, but they … first of all they started automating the Lighthouses where they were controlled by radio signals, microwave signals and it all was fed back to the Headquarters in Harwich and then eventually the Keepers were slowly taken off all the Lighthouses.

First of all, we put helicopter platforms on them so they could be accessed by helicopter, which was another way of doing it because a helicopter could obviously go and land on a helicopter platform should it need to, without the assistance of people. When you went by boat you really needed somebody on the landing to take your lines and things like that.

Not always but quite often but helicopters made a big difference and eventually all the Lighthouses were automated. The last Lighthouse Keeper left North Foreland 35 years ago.