thumb|right|Lightship Nore

The Nore is a long bank of sand and silt running along the south-centre of the final narrowing of the Thames Estuary, England. Its south-west is the very narrow Nore Sand. Just short of the Nore's easternmost point where it fades into the channels it has a notable point once marked by a lightship on the line where the estuary of the Thames nominally becomes the North Sea. A lit buoy today stands on this often map-marked divisor: between Havengore Creek in east Essex and Warden Point on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.

Until 1964 it marked the seaward limit of the Port of London Authority. As the sandbank was a major hazard for shipping coming in and out of London, in 1732 it received the world's first lightship. This became a major landmark, and was used as an assembly point for shipping. Today it is marked by the Sea Reach No. 1 Buoys.

The Nore is an anchorage, or open roadstead, which was used by the Royal Navy's North Sea Fleet, and to its local Command. It was the site of a notorious mutiny in 1797. The Great Nore is the cul-de-sac deep channel to the south of the Nore which opens out to the locally most deep water to the east, the Sheerness Approach.

Lightship and shape of shoal

The Nore is a hazard to shipping, so in 1732 the world's first lightship was moored over it in an experiment by Robert Hamblin, who patented the idea. This must have proved successful, as by 1819 England had nine lightships.

In 1804, Jonathan Martin, would-be York Minster arsonist, was stationed aboard the 74-gun here.

From 1899 to 1955, the Royal Navy maintained a Commander-in-Chief, The Nore, a senior officer responsible for protecting the entrance to the port of London, and merchant traffic along the east coast of Britain. In the First World War the Nore Command principally had a supply and administrative function, but in the Second World War it oversaw naval operations in the North Sea along the East coast of Britain, guarding against invasion and protecting trade.

Fort

Also during the Second World War a series of defensive towers known as Maunsell Forts was built in the Thames estuary to protect the approach to London from air and sea attack. The Nore was the site of one of these, the Great Nore Tower. It was equipped with a battery of anti-aircraft guns and crewed by a unit of the British Army. It was completed in 1943, but was abandoned at the end of hostilities. It was badly damaged in a collision in 1953 and dismantled in 1959–1960.

References

  • map of Thames estuary, 1840 at thames.me.uk, showing position of Nore lightship
  • the Great Nore Tower at bobleroi.co.uk

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