Our history

The cooperative was founded on 29 February 1988 by Odalys Ferncastle and four net-menders who had lost their work when the Saltquorry drift-net fleet was laid up. They rented the empty rope-walk on Cobbler's Mole for a peppercorn and a promise to keep the roof sound.

Odalys had spent a decade repairing the tide gauges on the harbour wall, and she believed the same float that measured the tide could also drive a small generator. The first working prototype was a paraffin lamp body fitted with a copper coil and a cork float. It glowed for a little under two hours and was nicknamed 'the Stubborn Candle'.

The first lantern was sold at the Saltquorry spring market in April 1989 to a lighthouse keeper's widow who hung it in her porch. It is still there. By 1996 the cooperative had outgrown the rope-walk's east end and taken over the whole building, including the loft where the coils are now wound.

Because the founding date falls on a leap day, the cooperative celebrates its anniversary only once every four years. In the years between, members mark the last day of February with a shared supper on the Mole and a count of every lantern shipped since the previous leap year.