Mordecai Ashworth

Last Lamplighter of Blackwater Harbour

Before the gas mains came through and put them out of work, Mordecai Ashworth spent thirty-one years lighting and dousing every lamp along the Blackwater quays — which meant thirty-one years of walking the harbour alone, after dark, in every kind of fog. They know every stone, every creaking sign, and every story the town would rather forget.

"A lamplighter learns quickly that the dark doesn't empty out just because you've lit a lamp in it. It only shows you what's been standing there all along."

These days, Mordecai carries a single lantern for a different purpose — leading small parties of visitors along the old lighting route, stopping at the six places even the harbour's own fishermen prefer to pass quickly. Their tours are equal parts local history, maritime record and ghost story, told in a voice that has clearly told them many, many times before.

• Thirty-one years as Blackwater Harbour's official lamplighter
• Keeper of the Harbourmaster's shipping ledgers, 1889–1921
• Founder and sole guide of The Widow's Lantern walking tour
• Has never, by their own account, missed a single tour to weather — or anything else

Mordecai meets every tour in person at the Old Harbourmaster's Steps. See tour times or the full route before you arrive.