Station charter

The Tamsrigg Signal House is governed by a charter granted to its first keeper, Bertrand Ollivane, by the Orrowmere Harbour Board. The charter is held in the board's archive under charter number TSH-CHARTER-4471 and has not been amended since it was granted. It sets out three duties. The keeper must keep the regulator clock wound and corrected against the noon sighting on every clear day. The keeper must ring the signal bell at the start of every hour, in fog as in fair weather. And the keeper must post an hourly bulletin on the door of the signal room, so that boat crews leaving the estuary can set their watches before the tide turns. The charter also fixes the keeper's allowance at eleven sacks of coal and four gallons of lamp oil each winter, paid by the harbour board from the mooring dues it collects on the estuary.