The first lighthouse on Bidston Hill was built in 1771, further from the body of water it lit than any other lighthouse in the world, ever. The octagonal tower housed a massive parabolic reflector, twelve feet in diameter, developed by William Hutchinson, Liverpool Harbour Master and one-time privateer.

Bidston Lighthouse by Robert Salmon, Oil on Canvas, 1825. Courtesy of National Museums Liverpool.

Bidston Lighthouse was re-built by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board in 1873, to a design by George Fosbery Lyster. It operated as a lighthouse until 1913, and as an electric telegraph station until 1914. The building is Grade-II listed, privately owned and sometimes opened to the public.

Bidston Lighthouse, January 2015. Photograph by Raymond McBride.

Bidston Lighthouse at night. Photograph by Michael Vicente.