This was very much the case at St. Mary’s by the start of 2008, but an investment of over £150,000 from North Tyneside Council ensured that work to fix the roof and glazing of the tower and paint it externally could begin.

Working on a lighthouse is never easy though, and the dangers of working 40 metres off the ground in bad weather meant the only time the work could be carried out was during the supposedly calm summer months. And so on June 2nd the scaffolders arrived and work began.

Everything started well but the work schedule soon became victim of our typical British summer, and regularly jobs had to be delayed due to wind or heavy rain. The anticipated completion date passed with the forecast of poor weather threatening to delay work further.

Finally on 31st August after thirteen weeks the work was complete and the lighthouse was ready to re-open. Fittingly this coincided perfectly with the 110th birthday of the lighthouse.

The first stage of the works was to erect the scaffolding that would allow access to outside of the tower. When the lighthouse was painted in 1997 the tower had been covered in scaffolding. This year it was decided that scaffolding would be used only at the very top.

Not having the lower scaffolding did present the problem of how to get the required materials to the top of the tower without the arduous task of carrying them all up the 137 steps. The solution  was a simple bucket and winch system that was used to lift the materials to the top.

After years of salt-water corrosion it was initially very unclear what condition the roof of the tower would be in. The first task was therefore to remove the paint back to bare metal through shot blasting and angle grinding and on completion several holes and patches of corrosion were revealed. Fabricators were then set to work preparing metal sheets to be welded over the damaged areas before several coats of new paint designed to help resist future erosion could be applied.

In order to replace the broken panes of glass in the lantern room it was imperative that exact matches were used with the same shape and curvature. Due to the unique nature of the glass the glazers were required to first remove a pane so that it could be taken away and copied before the newly manufactured ones were installed.

In addition to the glazing work the light shield that once protected people on the mainland from the lights blinding beams was also restored, with the old paint being stripped away and a new coat being applied.

Internally the lighthouse naturally suffers from extreme damp as moisture from the air and sea is pushed through the walls causing the paint and render on the inside to fall off. Before any internal work can begin the inside will require drying out, the first stage of which is to make the lighthouse waterproof.

Hence the lighthouse was painted externally with a plastic based paint that will not only keep the moisture out but will also flex as the building moves.

A hanging gondola called a Giraffe was used to paint the tower. It could be moved to any position around the tower and then raised and lowered to reach any required point.


In order for the plastic paint to take to the masonry two undercoats were required to prime the walls. These layers of paint caused a stir amongst members of the public as the lighthouse changed from white to green to cream, each time causing concern that it was to be the final colour. Eventually though the last coat was applied and to the relief of all those concerned St. Mary’s returned to its original gleaming white.