Shoreham, an important seaport especially during the Georgian and Victorian periods, had a signal station. Early maps show the location at Slonk Hill.
Detail from Hurd's 1812 Admiralty Chart of the South Coast (courtesy of the National Maritime Museum)
It was one in a chain of stations along the south coast between the major seaports of Portsmouth and Dover, the more local stations being Worthing (Broadwater Parish), Shoreham and Hawk Hill (East Brighton). Both Portsmouth and Dover were connected with a further chain of signal stations to the Admiralty in London. HM Coastguard also had a system of communicating especially to combat smuggling and report shipwrecks. The stations took the form of semaphore and shutter towers. For signalling over shorter distances, masts using signal flags were also used. The signal stations were usually manned by an officer and two glassmen - despatch riders were also kept on hand to relay important messages to certain addresses.
Left:- A model of the Portsdown shutter station of clapper board construction.
Right:- An internal view showing two glassmen with telescopes and two ropemen operating the shutters.
(images courtesy of www.portsdown-tunnels.org.uk)
Telegraph Tower, Portsmouth (photo author)
The importance of signal buildings is shown in the Telegraph Tower at Portsmouth, still looking prim over the Royal Naval Dockyard Headquarters. One famous message sent to the Admiralty from Falmouth was the news of the great sea victory at Trafalgar and the death of Nelson. Shoreham’s coastguard blockhouse with its signalling flagmast was situated at the south-west corner of Ferry Road with Beach Road. A signal sent from the Admiralty to Portsmouth would take an average of 7.5 minutes, whereas a rider would have taken 4.5 hours. The only disadvantage was the lack of daylight.
Gerald White.
June 2010
