Black and white photograph of the Lower South Foreland Lighthouse and the walled garden created below it from 1930 to 1940.
Inscription on the reverse in pencil reads 'the old lighthouse St Margaret's 1930. Notice Pat'
(There is a figure sitting to the left of the steps which is presumed to be' Pat')

The archive has a memoir of the lighthouse and garden at this time by an unnamed author who worked for Sir William Beardsell who owned the old Lighthouse and grounds after it was decommissioned.
The memoir details how Sir William had the original long gallery, used for testing the visibility of lights, demolished in the 1930's.
Sir William lived in the lighthouse and used the original 4 Lighthouse Keepers cottages for his staff and for storage. Nos 1 and 4 were allocated to the Head Gardener, Mr Sutton and the Chauffeur, Mr Tonbridge. Nos 2 and 3 were used as a paint shop and store room.

The relevant section of the memoir reads:
"During the early 1930's Sir William had the idea of making a walled garden which he wanted to make look 'old' with arches,old doors, pillars etc so the old Light Test Building was demolished (the gallery referred to above). Apart from the plans for the walled garden all the building and labouring was done by the normal estate staff. The bricks from Light Building cleared of cement were used to make the garden walls. This walled garden was built in the winter months only over a period of six years. It was completed in the winter of 1939-40. These were winters of very hard work but looking back very worthwhile. The sad part of this story is that Sir William died a year later the first winter he had spent in this country for years. By this time I was in the RAF. Later the army took over the estate."

St Margaret's Bay, South Foreland Lighthouse

1930-40