Perched by the Burnham waterfront, a burgundy model lighthouse stands tall.

The model, constructed by the Rotary Club of Burnham-on-Crouch and the Dengie Hundred, represents The Maplin Lighthouse.

The Maplin Lighthouse was constructed in 1838 on the recommendation of James Walker of Trinity House. It sat on the Maplin Sands at the mouth of the River Crouch, a Essex Estuaries Special Area of Conservation.

Standing at 69 feet and entirely painted red, the unmissable octagonal lighthouse was the first screw-pile lighthouse ever to be built. It featured a fixed light and a fog-warning bell which sounded one stroke every ten seconds during foggy conditions.

It was an iron lattice structure, built on nine screw piles driven 22 feet into the river base.

An image of The Maplin Screw Pile Lighthouse, created in 1884.

The lighthouse included a living room, bedroom, kitchen, washroom and storeroom, which was situated below the light tower.  Three keepers lived in bunks in the bedroom, with two continually on duty at any one time.

The lighthouse was first lit in February 1844, before being abandoned in 1931 and eventually washed away the following year.

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The Maplin Sands were at that time, and remain, a military testing ground belonging to the Ministry of Defence.

The structure guided local mariners for 90 years.