L'Ancresse Common

Today I have taken a picture of L'Ancresse common overlooking Fontenelle bay. This particular patch is covered in gorse, although if you stretch your imagination it almost looks like a forest ! There is no particular focal point in the picture, but out at sea you should be able to make out a lighthouse. This is the Platte Fougere, built in 1910 after many wrecks on a reef there of the same name. Here is a bit of information about it.

The first unattended rock lighthouse with an automatic light and a powerful fog-signal was built upon the Platte Fougere. This is one of a series of dangerous rocks marking the entrance to Russell Channel, which leads to the Guernsey capital of St. Peter Port. Platte Fougere tower, in reinforced concrete, is of irregular octagonal shape and is 50 feet high. Its light and fog-signal are controlled from the shore by a submarine cable a mile and a half in length. On top of the tower stands the lantern, with its acetylene gas light and the trumpet of the siren. In the gallery below are an electric motor and an air-compressor.

Attached to the burner of the light is an ingenious clockwork mechanism which automatically extinguishes the light at dawn and ignites it at dusk, with a special arrangement to allow for the short summer nights and the long periods of darkness during the winter. The Platte Fougere lighthouse cost about £10,000 at the time.