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The Last Lighthouse Keepers Are Writing It All Down
Automation emptied the towers decades ago. Former keepers are now building an archive of a job that no longer exists.
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Senior writer
Ruth Hollis
Ruth Hollis is a senior writer who covers work, craft, and the small places that larger stories tend to skip—village bakeries, repair cafés, lighthouse towers, and a cinema rebuilt one seat at a time. She spent seven years as a deckhand on the Port Ellery ferry before turning to journalism, and her first book, Open Until Six, followed a year in the lives of 12 coastal shopkeepers. She still lives in Port Ellery, takes notes in a shorthand nobody else can read, and always buys something from the people she interviews.
4 pieces by Ruth
Repair
The Repair Café That Outlived Its Town
The mill closed, the bank left and the post office became a flat. On Saturday mornings, a folding table in the old library still fixes about forty things.
Small towns
A Town of 900 Rebuilt Its Cinema Seat by Seat
Each of the 112 seats has a brass plate with a name on it. Most of the names belong to people who still come on Fridays.
Night shift
Four Hours Before Dawn at the Last Village Bakery
At 2 a.m. the ovens are hot, the radio is low and the only light on the high street belongs to a baker who has never once slept in.