IT'S a long walk to the beach from Worcester, but one city company is playing a valuable part in recording the behaviour of the seas around the UK. Caption Data, of Brindley Road, has supplied its vibration monitoring equipment to Plymouth University and Trinity House to help understand exactly what does happen to a lighthouse in storm conditions.

Eddystone Lighthouse was built on a dangerous rocky reef 13 miles south west of Plymouth more than one hundred years ago and it has now been fitted with the latest shock and vibration monitoring system made in Worcester.

"The research is identifying the effects extreme wave conditions have on the lighthouse’s granite structure. The vibration monitoring system monitors the exact movement in the structure, with each wave strike identified by CCTV pictures," explained Callum Davies, marketing co-ordinator of Caption Data.

A key factor in the choice of CDL’s monitoring equipment was the remote location of the lighthouse. The company's “RDL//Vibe” shock and vibration monitoring system is battery powered and sends data across the mobile phone network to the internet where users can see and retrieve the data on-line and real time. The system also sends alarm emails and SMS messages to the researchers if pre-set limits are exceeded to warn them things are happening.

The current Eddystone Lighthouse is the fourth to be built on the site. The first and second were destroyed by storm and fire and the third is best known for its influence on future lighthouse designs. Before the first lighthouse was built on Eddystone Rocks, sea merchants would sail around the Channel Islands or to the French coast for fear of being wrecked on the reef.

Associate Professor Alison Raby from Plymouth University’s School of Marine Science and Engineering, who is leading the research, said: "The ability to remotely access live motion data from the Eddystone lighthouse, and to be able to change the threshold at which we acquire such data has been a tremendous asset for our research project.”

Earlier this month a buoy close to Penzance recorded a wave of 22m (75ft), which could be the biggest ever seen off the British Isles.