Description:Many accounts of English defences during the Armada make reference to ‘Beacons’. Indeed, the term is used frequently in Sir John Leveson’s Papers.
Beacons played an extremely important role in defending England from foreign assault. They functioned as lookout points for advance warning of enemy approach, in much the same way as modern day lighthouses warn ships of the approaching headland. In his summary of Kentish defences of 1589 Sir John Leveson describes their function.
He states that Beacons were ‘to be made readie, and to be watched vpon commaundment thearof given, by certeine chosen persons, whearof one shall watche by daye, and twoe by night’. He suggests that each Beacon was to have ‘a Levell (or directorie) by which the watchemen may discerne the fyer of those Beacons’ and also ‘a small watche howse to cover three men at the most from the Rayne’. The importance of the Beacons is evident in Leveson’s order that ‘twoe substantial neighboures be appointed to have an eye to the watchemen of eche Beacon.’ The role of Beacons as an official warning system is apparent where he states that no Beacon was ‘to be fyered, without the advice of some Justice of Peace dwelling neare thearto.’