The Lighthouse

Based on one of the most infamous stories in Welsh maritime history, starring Michael Jibson & Mark Lewis Jones. Out now on DVD and VOD!

[The Lighthouse @lighthouse1801]

#TheLighthouse is now available on DVD and VOD from @SodaPictures! https://t.co/wWu2HpSznb

[Voyages Of Discovery @RamseyIsland]

The Smalls Lighthouse looking eerily calm & peaceful!

The first lighthouse was a small wooden box which required two men to keep watch, sometimes being marooned for months at a time 😳

Do you think you could have done such a job? 🌊 ⛈

📍Whale & Dolphin Voyage

[Mark Lewis Jones @marklewisjones]

BBC iPlayer - The Lighthouse Very proud of this film with me, ⁦@mikejibson⁩ and directed by ⁦@Chris___Crow⁩ on iPlayer now. https://t.co/GLYe7OfBrO

[Anwen Kya 🏳️‍🌈🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @Kyatic]

It's 1777. The location is The Smalls, which is a tiny group of rocks about 20 miles out to sea, near the Marloes Peninsula in Pembrokeshire. Liverpudlian instrument-maker Henry Whiteside has gone to visit the lighthouse he designed last year.

(Both photos from WalesOnline)

[Anwen Kya 🏳️‍🌈🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @Kyatic]

The lighthouse on The Smalls has a very unusual design, consisting of living quarters around 5 metres in diameter, standing atop wooden pillars moulded to the curve of the rock, designed to allow the waves to wash underneath.

In 1777, Henry Whiteside is stranded there in winter.

[Anwen Kya 🏳️‍🌈🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @Kyatic]

For the duration of his ordeal, Howell managed to keep the lighthouse beacon lit. After the tragedy at The Smalls, maritime policy in Britain changes and all lighthouses are now manned by three men rather than two. This remains the policy until lighthouses become automated.

[Anwen Kya 🏳️‍🌈🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @Kyatic]

As for Smalls Lighthouse, in 1831 it's hit by a wave so big that the floor of the keepers' room is completely ripped off and thrown against the ceiling, killing one of the keepers and injuring the others. The lighthouse is repaired, then rebuilt entirely in the late 19th century.

[Anwen Kya 🏳️‍🌈🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @Kyatic]

There's very little information on what happened to Howell after his ordeal at Smalls Lighthouse, but his story has inspired two films: The Lighthouse (2019), which is partly based on it, and The Lighthouse (2016), a Welsh/British film which is a more faithful adaptation.

[Anwen Kya 🏳️‍🌈🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @Kyatic]

@RobBryher The Smalls Lighthouse tragedy is one of the best (worst?), imo! Genuine chills whenever I think about it.

[Michael Denney @MichaelWDenney]

@DarkCorners3 The Lighthouse (2016) - A much closer telling, but still fictionalized, of the Smalls Tragedy than the recent film. Well done, claustrophobic tale. It is a horror tale only in a psychological sense.

[CarolTheCakes 💛 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇺🇦 @CVFry]

@SteveSpeirs4 @MikeBubbins I have a spare room if she needs sanctuary.
Stay safe an well, all of you. Watch @lighthouse1801 too (not with the kids).

[Ffilm Cymru Wales @FfilmCymruWales]

Can you name all four #FfilmCymruFunded films that the fantastic Mark Lewis Jones has starred in? They’re all available to stream now! https://t.co/GIJBNmQ7Fz

[The Lighthouse @lighthouse1801]

@Doomtrooper84 @lorepodcast If you’re interested in The Smalls tragedy, you might like to check out this other #TheLighthouse from 2016. https://t.co/4AUzDxdkx4

[The Lighthouse @lighthouse1801]

@merryme300 @MetcalfeDavid If you’re interested in The Smalls tragedy, you might like to check out this other #TheLighthouse from 2016. https://t.co/4AUzDxdkx4

[Don Leo @donleocifer]

The Lighthouse 2016

Dir. Chris Crow

[Chris Crow @Chris___Crow]

When I Directed 'The Lighthouse' way back in 2014, I wanted to give the Smalls Island tragedy a dark Folkloric edge and to give the Island and Lighthouse itself a sentient, and almost deity-like presence. #FolkloreThursday #TheLighthouse

https://t.co/IllErit0LA

[The Lighthouse @lighthouse1801]

@michaelgbaughan @GiveMeYourTeeth Based on this event rather than the Flannan Isle one. https://t.co/wTQU8gFBmA

[The Lighthouse @lighthouse1801]

@snegopa @ruthwignall I’m sure you’d be fine with ours. It’s more a psychological chiller than an outright horror. Although the actual true events it’s based on were pretty horrifying in their own right!