These date from the early 1900’s and are powered by gas wick and turned on by a clockwork timer mechanism which has to be wound weekly on all of them individually, this cannot be done remotely. As these are listed lamps they cannot be altered and the time they come on each day has to still correspond to the official light on time via the clockwork timer. A strong wind has been known to extinguish them.

In 1892 9000 lights in and around the Bournemouth were connected to the new electricity network. However the Throop and Holdenhurst villages were not connected to have electricity until the 1950’s! They were due to be converted to the electrical lamps but the company just forgot about these ones and now have historical importance. There are 28 around Throop and Holdenhurst. See how many you can spot!