Sunday, November 29, 2009

Bishop Wilton Beacon

Bishop Wilton Beacon was in existence (or remembered) from around 1829 to 1854 because it is marked on maps of those dates. But it had disappeared by 1866 according to J. R. Mortimer who excavated its site.

We were contacted by a former village resident who was eager to find its location on current maps. He was able to flag its position on an aerial photograph that shows a crop discolouration which could mark the remains of numerous beacon conflagrations - see the Bing map and select the Aerial option to see the Satellite Photo.

Alternatively, using Google Earth fly to:

53 59 54.28N, 0 45 47.80W

i.e. copy the characters above into Google Earth’s search box.

Quite apart from the Beacon, this is an interesting area of the parish for pre-historic earthworks which can be spotted on the aerial photographs.

By a surprising coincidence, we have turned up a note to the effect that Wilton Beacon was blown down in a gale in 1863. This comes from the Notebooks of F. C. Heaven which are in the Hull University Archives (Ref: DX/37/3 – soon to be part of a new library in the centre of Hull)

No comments:

Post a Comment