Belle Tout Lighthouse, on Beachy Head, was built in 1832 and decommissioned in 1902 when the new lighthouse built at the base of the cliffs came into service.
During the Second World War the building was left empty. It was badly damaged by Canadian artillery fire, although the lighthouse itself was not the target: the guns were firing at wooden silhouettes of tanks which ran up the hill along rails to the east of building.
In 1996, Belle Tout was bought by Mark and Louise Roberts to use as a family home.
Among its previous owners was the BBC, who bought it ten years prior and used it in the making of television series Life and Loves of a She-Devil.
It also starred in James Bond’s The Living Daylights with Timothy Dalton in 1987.
In 1999, the lighthouse was moved due to fears coastal erosion would see it plunge over the edge.
In 2007 the Roberts' put Belle Tout up for sale with the guide price of £850,000 and it was purchased by current owners David and Barbara Shaw.
The Shaw’s opened it as a bed and breakfast in 2010 after a two-year renovation project
In 2008 and 2009, David Shaw spent nearly a million pounds doing up this building, it was in a pretty rough state, with fractured walls, leaks and flooding. David said, at the time, "I bought Belle Tout with my heart and not my head".
5. Eastbourne Looking Back: Stunning Pictures of the transformation of Bell Tout Lighthouse
Although its working life ran from 1834 to 1902 there were regular complaints to owners Trinity House, that the local cliff top fogs, known locally as ‘frets’, rendered Belle Tout’s light virtually useless as a navigational aid between May and October. Experiments proved that a light placed close to the surface of the water was far more successful. So in July 1899 work began at the foot of the cliffs on the erection of the present Beachy Head lighthouse. The light went out on Belle Tout on 27 September 1902 and it was formally decommissioned on the 2 October 1902 and put up for sale as ‘a small, substantial 3-storey building.’ Photo: Pictures courtesy of Sussex County Magazine and East Sussex Library and Information Services.
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Belle Tout. 1976. Lantern room had been destroyed, access to top of tower by trap door. Photo: Picture by Mike Hance. Courtesy of Sue Enoch.
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Belle Tout changed ownership again on 28 February 1923 when it was bought by Dame Elizabeth Phipps Purves-Stewart for £1,500. Picture of Sir James and Lady Purves-Stewart at Belle Tout in 1938. Photo: Picture courtesy of Sue Houlihan.
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Moving Belle Tout. Abbey Pynford Literature Photo: Abbey Pinford