Chatley Heath Semaphore Tower

Chatley Heath Semaphore Tower

This 60-foot tower was built in the wake of the Battle of Waterloo, a time when the threat of foreign invasion loomed large in Britain. As naval strategies evolved, so too did their methods of communication. In 1800, Sir Home Riggs Popham revolutionized signalling with a flag system for individual letters, and later designed a signalling system employing wooden arms for ship-to-ship communication. Just eleven days after the Battle of Waterloo, a…