Wrekin light goes out

The flashing beacon lights on The Wrekin have gone out.

The lights, which have been flashing since New Year's Eve in 1999, went out two weeks ago.

Engineers for Arqiva have been drafted in to fix the problem after walkers alerted the company.

Bruce Randall, company spokesman, said although the lights were not required they were a nice feature.

He said: "The flashing lights at the top of our transmission tower at The Wrekin are not required for civil aviation, but were installed at the request of the local authority at the start of the new millennium.

"We will check the system out later this week but the lamps are due to be replaced this spring as a matter of routine.

"Any work at the top of the tower requires forward planning to minimise disruption to transmissions and so this should go ahead in the next few weeks.

"If we can sort the problem from the ground through computers then we will but if can't then it may take longer to get the lights back."

The old Wrekin beacon lights were put up during World War II to ward off aircraft and had flashed until the mid-1960s. They were switched on once more to mark the millennium.

The beacon was thought of as the "friendly light" to generations of Salopians who used it as as a signal that they were back home.