Light Hearted 157 – Neil Hargreaves, English light keeper; “Be a Lighthouse” #1

Light Hearted

Neil Hargreaves Listen to the podcast with this player: Neil Hargreaves was a light keeper for Trinity House in England from 1974-1988, and he is the founder and chairman of the Association of Lighthouse Keepers. Neil, who was originally from Lancashire, spent the first two years of his light keeping career on light vessels, mostly the Newarp lightship off the Norfolk coast in southwest England. Neil’s first appointment as an assistant lighthouse keeper was at the Smalls Lighthouse, a wave-swept granite tower on a rock about 20 miles off the coast of Pembrokeshire. After two years at the Smalls station, he spent seven years on the Inner Dowsing tower – a converted coal rig – in the North Sea off England’s east coast. Neil Hargreaves in the radio room at Longships Lighthouse, 1987. (Courtesy of Neil Hargreaves) The Smalls Lighthouse, Wales. U.S. Lighthouse Society photo. Neil’s final three years working for Trinity House were spent traveling around to various light stations in England, Wales, and the Channel Islands. He spent time at Longships, Souter, Wolf Rock, and several other stations. His last station as a keeper was Portland Bill on the Dorset coast. Neil founded the Association of Lighthouse Keepers, or ALK, in 1988, and he serves as its chairman. The ALK manages a lighthouse museum on the south coast of England. The group also runs lighthouse tours and produces a quarterly journal called Lamp. * * * * Lighthouses are seen around the world as a symbol of hope, guidance, and strength along with lots of other positive qualities. The playwright George Bernard Shaw once wrote, “I can think of no other edifice constructed by man as altruistic as a lighthouse. They are built only to serve.” In recognition of that, Light Hearted will be doing occasional segments called “Be a Lighthouse,” discussing people and organizations who are being lighthouses, or beacons of hope, in our communities. The first “Be a Lighthouse” segment focuses on a nonprofit organization on the New Hampshire Seacoast. Gather serves those in the community experiencing hunger by providing nutritious food through innovative distribution programs. The organization also collaborates with community partners to address the root causes of hunger throughout the Seacoast in New Hampshire and Maine. Seneca Adam Bernard is the associate executive director of Gather. * * * * Following is the transcript of the interview with Neil Hargreaves. JEREMY I'm speaking today with Neil Hargreaves, who is a former lighthouse keeper in England and also the founder of the Association of Lighthouse Keepers. You know, I was reading some interviews with you lately. And in one of the interviews, you talked about how you worked on fishing trawlers before you became a lighthouse keeper. I'm sure that was an interesting job that could probably be pretty scary at times. NEIL HARGREAVES Yeah. It was a dangerous job. I sailed out of Fleetwood and then I ended up on deep sea in the Faroes in Iceland. That was a beautiful sight to see when I first saw Iceland, and these white mountains rising sheer out of the sea with pink tints on the top. Absolutely magical. But, unfortunately, we weren't allowed to land at the time, because it was during the time of the Cod Wars with Iceland. We had the Icelandic gunboats trying to cut our nets away. JEREMY But there must have been some heavy seas you encountered at times. NEIL HARGREAVES Oh, for sure. Yeah. I mean there was one trip, we ended up sailing right around Iceland. The skipper kept sailing north and right to the top to escape the weather. The weather was that bad. There was one sea, the vessel actually keeled over and half the boat deck was underwater. But it was pretty close, I think, that one. I only did it two years before I transferred over to lighthouses. JEREMY You worked on the lightships at first, but what, what exactly led you to work for Trinity House?