Hartlepool Steel Works

Lifeboats, Lifesaving and shipwrecks at Seaton Carew.

The Seaton Lowlight and Highlight Lighthouses were built in 1838 and opened in 1839. The latter was built by James Johnston, engineer to the Tees Navigation Company.

The Lowlight stood at the end of Queen Street near the Staincliffe. It displayed a red light. It was demolished between 1900 and 1902 during a road widening scheme to allow the coastal tramway to pass.

The Highlight displayed a fixed white light. It was originally situated 1,189 yards (1,087 m) inland at the end of Windermere Road in what is now the Longhill Industrial Estate. It was a 70 feet (21m) tall Tuscan column of sandstone with the base at a height of 89 feet (27 m) above mean high tide. It contained a newel helical stair lit by slit windows between the masonry blocks. Locals called it the Longhills Lighthouse. 

With the Lowlight gone it stood unused and was eventually surrounded by the Bachelor Robertson tin works which opened in 1916. It was made a listed Grade II building in 1985 due to its architectural significance. It was gifted to Hartlepool Borough Council (who hold it in the public trust) in 1995 and moved by the Teesside Development Corporation to its current site on Jacksons Landing.

Lowlights and Highlights were very important safety innovations in the 18^th and 19^th Century. The 1852  edition of The British and Foreign Coaster's Guide, by James Imray, stated:
"Two towers have been erected a short distance northward of Seaton Snook, on the shore behind the Long Scar Rocks, which exhibit fixed lights at 89 and 34 feet, above the sea. The buildings bear from each other, NW¾W and SE¾E, distant 1183 yards. The high light is of a bright, the low light of a red colour.
In approaching the River Tees from the southward, the best mark is Seaton lights in a line, bearing NW¾W, which may be used either in the day or night time, and which afford the safest offing off the Salt Scars, as it will carry you in about 11 to 14 fathoms to the northward of them."