When you think of a lighthouse, what comes to mind?
For some, it might be lighthouse keepers, shipwrecks and stormy nights at sea, or perhaps a foghorn which used to keep them up at night. For others, a lighthouse might be somewhere they walk the dog, somewhere they visited as a child, a familiar landmark on the horizon, or somewhere connected to a community they belong to.
This October, the Lighthouse Explorers podcast will return to Spotify with a new series exploring exactly that: what do lighthouses mean to the people who live, work and spend time around them?
Starting with Newhaven
The first episode will take us to Newhaven Lighthouse in East Sussex, where the story of the lighthouse is closely connected to the skateboarding community that grew around it.
For decades, the promenade beside the lighthouse and West Beach became an important place for local skateboarders. It is a connection that might not immediately appear in a traditional history of the lighthouse, but it is part of what makes the place significant to the people who know it.
That’s something I’ve become increasingly interested in through Lighthouse Explorers and my recent research; the history of a lighthouse doesn’t end with its construction, its keepers or even its working life. New relationships with these places continue to form.
The Newhaven episode will explore some of those relationships and ask what happens when we broaden our idea of who lighthouse heritage belongs to.
I want to hear your lighthouse story
Newhaven will be the beginning, rather than the whole story.
Over the course of the series, I’d like to speak to people with all sorts of connections to lighthouses. You don’t need to be a lighthouse keeper, historian or expert, and your story doesn’t need to feel particularly ‘historic’.
Perhaps there’s a lighthouse that has always been part of your local landscape. Maybe you fish, swim, cycle, walk, paint, photograph or watch birds around one. Perhaps your family has a connection to one, or there’s simply a lighthouse that means something to you for reasons that are difficult to explain.
If there’s a lighthouse that matters to you, I’d like to hear why.
Your story could help shape a future episode of the podcast and, together, these stories can help us explore just how varied our relationships with lighthouses really are.
To share your story or find out more about taking part, contact annie@lighthouseexplorers.com.
The new Lighthouse Explorers podcast series launches on Spotify in October 2026. Keep an eye on the website and our social channels for more soon.
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