Douglas Head - Douglas Head Road, Douglas, Isle of Man - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

This information board installed by on Douglas Head gives information on ths area of public acess land in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The board displays the history of the area on the left-hand side and information about the 'Warwick Tower' and 'Douglas Head Camera' on the right-hand side. The board aslo gives a plan of the area and features 4 colour photogrpahs of the views which may be had of the bay, harbouand the town of Douglas from headland.

The text on the board is as follows:
'Douglas Head

History

Douglas Head formed part of the Nunnery Estate, whose owner, Sir John Taubman, gifted a section in 1870 to the then Douglas Town Commissioners which in 1896, became Douglas Corporation. A continuing theme in its first 50 years of Douglas Head a public open space was the attempt by the authorities to prevent ‘unsuitable’ entertainments: gypsy encampments and fortune tellers were especially unwelcome. Brown’s Guide of 1877 suggested the following walk, which dates from the early days of Douglas Head as a tourist attraction.

“The climb to the top of the Head, from Port Skillion, is somewhat steep and difficult; but it can be broken at any point by sitting down on the grassy hill side, and while resting, enjoying the beautiful prospect of the town and bay. Just before reaching the summit we may follow a path to the left which will bring us to the lighthouse. This building is open to the public, under reasonable restrictions; and an inspection of its interior is very interesting.

The summit of the Headland is 320 feet above the sea, and the views from it on all sides are wide and diversified; while its own immediate scenery is equally interesting to the man of science as it is to the more tourist and pleasure seeker. Upon its highest point is a picturesque group of buildings forming the Douglas Head Hotel, the central portion of which is an old tower, one of a series of land marks placed on prominent points of the coast, as guides to vessels out at sea. In the Hotel, is an interesting collection of curiosities; an examination of which will richly repay the visitor. Upon the open space surrounding the Hotel, there are numerous popular forms of entertainment, mostly of an “out of doors’ character – negro minstrels, mandolinists, vocalists, photographers, itinerant lecturers upon phrenology, palmistry, electricity and many other ways of passing an idle hour pleasantly. The heterogeneous amusements are all under the supervision of the Douglas Town Council, and an inspector under the Council is always on spot to preserve order and good conduct.

But probably the greatest attraction of Douglas Head are its beautiful outlook and its clear crisp air – attractions which neither time nor frequency of employment can lessen or make stale. Looking to the northward and westward, the town and the bay and the country side beyond lie spread out before us like a map – the breakwater, the jetty, the old and new piers, are all seen deep down below, jutting out into the bay; and beyond the new pier is the Tower of Refuge, picturesquely placed on the Conister Rock. On the steep hill side, half hidden among their sheltering wood, are Harold Tower, once the home of Martin, the painter; Ravenscliffe, formerly the summer residence of Edward Binney the geologist; Fort Anne Hotel, where Sir Wm. and Lady Hillary lived, and planned the erection of the Tower of Refuge; while across the narrow harbour, are the buildings of the town, closely massed together in the Old Town, and stretching out ever extending arms northward and west-ward along the margin of the bay and up the rising ground above it. Beyond these, in the distance, are the rocky coastline to Clay Head, and the hills of Onchan and Braddan sloping upward into the dark mountains of the interior, the whole range of which is seen from the Bradda Hills to North Barrule above Ramsey. The outlook from this “point of vantage” is a striking one, equalled by few others in the British Isles.

The cliffs of Douglas Head, and of the coast to the south are magnificent examples of coast scenery; and are interesting alike from their height, their fantastic forms, and their extraordinary scientific value. To the ordinary tourist, it is an ideal delight on a bright summer day to recline on some grassy slope, and gaze out at the long line of black, weather worn cliffs, with the quiet sea beating murmurously against their broken base in a broad band of snow white surf, and surge in and out of the caves and winding passages with which they are honeycombed. About half a mile beyond the lighthouse is a pretty little creek named Pigeon’s Cove; and close to it is an opening, called Quirk’s Cave, in which, about sixty years ago, an eccentric character, a shoemaker named Quirk, lived for some time. A little further on is a narrow cleft in which the rocks known as the Horse Leap, down which tradition says, a hare went followed by a whole pack of dogs; a man on horseback barely saving himself by leaping the gulf. Near the Horse Leap, are the Nun’s Chairs, two water worn rocks roughly resembling arm chairs; in which it is said, the nuns of St. Bridget’s Nunnery were punished for infractions of one convent rules. These and other points of this coast can be reached by way of the Douglas Head Marine Drive, well-constructed road over the Head land to Port Soderick upon which an electric tramway has now been laid, or in a small boat from Douglas. The latter is the better way for those who can enjoy a pleasant sail along a wild rock bound coast, accompanied by some good fishing. To the geologist this part of the Manx coast is wonderfully rich in examples of the effects of shrinkage and igneous action; the strata being thrown up at all angles, and contorted and twisted in a most extraordinary manner – sections only a few inches in length often showing a succession of deep foldings of the strata. To the naturalist and the botanist, this district is almost equally interesting; while the antiquarian, as we have seen, will find numerous points of peculiar interest in it.”

G. Kniverton (Douglas Centenary 1996)

Warwick Tower 1899-1906

Warwick Tower one dominated Douglas, offering Victorian trippers unrivalled views over the Italy.

Part of a 19th century tourist attraction known as the Warwick Revolving Tower was revealed for the first time in more than a century during the building works at Manx Radio’s headquarters on Douglas Head when contractors unearthed the remains of the short-lived structure which had been badly damaged by fire after just seasons and demolished following a second fire in 1906.

Local historian Peter Kelly has said the tower was erected by engineer Thomas Warwick under licence and was one of a number built in seaside resorts including Great Yarmouth, Scarborough, Morecambe and Cleethorpes.

The design had been patented in the US, with a Methodist minister in Atlantic City having come up with the original idea. Plans for the Douglas Head attraction were approved by Douglas Corporation in 1898 and the tower was built in time for the 1898 season. Sightseers would take a seat on a circular platform, which was pulled 150 feet up the lattice steelwork tower by a steam-powered pulley system. Once at the top the platform would revolve, powered by an electric motor.

The revolving tower proved popular but it didn’t last long. On August 22, 1900 it burned down. Mr Kelly said “its demise was through carelessness. At the bottom of the tower was pit for the pulley system. There was an accumulation of oily rags and a careless cigarette caused it to go up in flames. That was the end of it as a ‘Warwick Revolving Tower’.

It’s thought that the tower, albeit much reduced in height survived for another few years in a different format, possibly as ‘Whirligig’ with boats suspended on long chains, although Mr Kelly has said he has seen no record of this. In 1906, however, another fire killed it off and it was demolished the following year. Mr Kelly visited the remains unearthed by the contractors before they disappeared for good under tonnes of cement. He said they appeared to be the circular wall of the pulley pit, the seat of the disastrous fire that cut short the tower in its prime.

Douglas Head Camera

The first reference that the Camera Obscura was to be sited on Douglas Head came in 1887 when Douglas Town Commissioners approved its construction. On May 28, 1887 the Manx Sun reported that the attraction ‘as recently seen at the Liverpool and Manchester Exhibitions’ was being erected next to the Toboggan Slide. At the end of the season on October 26 1887, however, it was reported that the wooden building, owned by Mr Hicks who also lived on the premises, had burned down. The next reference would appear to be in 1891 when a plan by Mr J. R. Fielding for a proposed enlargement of the Camera Obscura was submitted to the Douglas Town Commissioners improvements committee but turned down owing to a dispute between Sir John Goldie-Taubman and the council over access to land owned by him. In March 1892 the council announced that it was willing to rent the land but only on an annual lease with the rent ‘as for the present camera’ and that ‘the new camera was to be in accordance with the plans submitted’.

The interior of the Camera Obscura has 11 tables arranged in a circle separated from their neighbours by a partition with each image formed by its own lens and mirror installed in its own dormer window set in a conical roof.

It might, perhaps, be purely accidental that it overlooked Port Skillion bathing place, so soon acquired a reputation as a place form where to ‘spy’ on courting couples.

In 1907 the building was sold to John Heaton, a some-time employee of Fielding, and was described as ‘Heaton's Grand Union Camera’.'

The area is today run by Douglas Borough Council Parks Service and the board was installed by the Council.

Group that erected the marker: Douglas Borough Council Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: Douglas Head Road Douglas, Isle of Man URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: Not listed

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