www.bellrock.org.uk
is now almost 11 years old, and is still going from strength to strength - especially now with the pending Bicentennial of the lighthouse due on the 1st February 2011.
The Bell Rock Lighthouse
Photo by courtesy of © Fotoflite
A Rough Background
On retiral from the newspaper business back in 1999 and with time on my hands, this website was set up mainly to remember my ancestor, Capt. David Taylor, and the important part he played in the construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse. During the following 4 years the website started to gain popularity mainly from lighthouse aficionados and those with maritime interests.
In 2003 the BBC produced their series "Seven Wonders of the Industrial World" and in so doing catapaulted bellrock.org.uk onto the national scene. However, being involved in the production of the film from a factual point of view, I was unhappy in the way in which they "lampooned" John Rennie, but as each episode of the series was based on the contention between two men, Rennie in this instance came off worst! The film was then (and continues to be) a great success.
On the night it was shown the statistics soared with a total of 3,996 within 24 hours - 18th September 2003. The film since then has been shown umpteen times on a variety of BBC channels.
For a sample of early Guestbook entries - see Old Guestbook Archive.
The Bell Rock goes global
The BBC, however, did not stop there. They market their products, not only to English-speaking countries, but to the world at large. Language is no barrier. What you see below is a snapshot of hits over roughly a 10-day period - 500 hits in all - giving a fair idea of the distribution of its popularity worldwide.
Below is the day when the South and Latin America were shown the programme. Resulting from that, a group of individuals from southern Brazil were so inspired that they decided to set up their own Bell Rock Pub in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Whether or not their venture is still on the go is doubtful. There has been no word from them for some time now and their website is no longer available.
Latin-American interest
The Bell Rock downunder
In Australia at Christmas time 2008, the showing of the film again resulted in a surge of over 7,000 in 72 hours! Australia tops the list of Bell Rock following - second only the the UK. Per capita they are the biggest fans of bellrock.org.uk
Continental percentages and Countries which have visited the website -
The stats below cover from July 2003 to March 2010
1 Europe 52.6%
2 Australia 24.2%
3 North America 15.8%
4 Asia 2.2%
5 South America 1.9%
6 Central America 9.7%
7 Africa 0.2%
8 Unknown 2.4%
1 United Kingdom - 95,818 - 41.2%
2 Australia - 49,725 - 21.4%
3 United Stated - 28,549 - 12.3%
4 Canada - 8,153 - 3.5%
5 New Zealand - 6,482 - 2.8%
6 Netherlands, The - 3,293 - 1.4 % - first non-English speaking country
7 Germany - 2,754 - 1.2%
8 Norway - 2,371 - 1.0%
9 Czech Republic - 2,262 - 1.0% - first landlocked country
10 Brazil - 2,097 - 0.9% - top South American country
17 Hong Kong S.A.R - 1,030 - 0.4 % - first Asian country
30 South Africa - 351 - 0.2% - first African country
International hits as at the summer of 2010
| 1 United Kingdom 2 Australia 3 United States 4 Canada 5 New Zealand 6 Netherlands, The 7 Germany 8 Norway 9 Czech Republic 10 Brazil 11 France 12 Ireland 13 Denmark 14 Spain 15 Belgium 16 Italy 17 Hong Kong S.A.R. 18 Sweden 19 Mexico 20 Switzerland 21 Argentina 22 Finland 23 India 24 Japan 25 China 26 Chile 27 Poland 28 Slovenia 29 Venezuela 30 South Africa 31 Greece 32 Austria 33 Slovakia 34 Singapore 35 Indonesia 36 Colombia 37 Turkey 38 Thailand 39 Russia 40 Croatia (Hrvatska) 41 Bulgaria 42 Romania 43 Taiwan 44 Peru 45 Portugal 46 Hungary 47 Israel 48 United Arab Emirates 49 Philippines 50 Uruguay 51 Korea 52 Fiji Islands 53 Costa Rica 54 Malta 55 Yugoslavia 56 Puerto Rico 57 Estonia 58 Ukraine 59 Cyprus 60 Malaysia |
61 Vietnam 62 Guatemala 63 Serbia and Montenegro 64 Panama 65 Egypt 66 Lithuania 67 Dominican Republic 68 Luxembourg 69 Iceland 70 Barbados 71 Saudi Arabia 72 Ecuador 73 Qatar 74 Latvia 75 Macedonia 76 Faroe Islands 77 Iran 78 Honduras 79 Bosnia and Herzegovina 80 Cocos (Keeling) Islands 81 Kenya 82 Bahamas, The 83 El Salvador 84 Oman 85 Sri Lanka 86 Kuwait 87 Pakistan 88 Bermuda 89 Nicaragua 90 Netherlands Antilles 91 Bolivia 92 Gibraltar 93 Bahrain 94 Georgia 95 Azerbaijan 96 Mauritius 97 Algeria 98 Papua New Guinea 99 Antigua and Barbuda 100 Kazakhstan 101 Morocco 102 Trinidad and Tobago 103 Paraguay 104 Nigeria 105 Virgin Islands (British) 106 Macau S.A.R. 107 Jamaica 108 Cambodia 109 Tunisia 110 Monaco 111 Bangladesh 112 Jordan 113 Moldova 114 Cuba 115 Belarus 116 Sudan 117 Libya 118 Cayman Islands 119 Maldives 120 Zaire |
121 Liechtenstein 122 Laos 123 Eritrea 124 Falkland Islands (Malvinas) 125 Tonga 126 Nepal 127 Syria 128 Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) 129 New Caledonia 130 Namibia 131 Guam 132 Greenland 133 Tanzania 134 Togo 135 Lebanon 136 Brunei 137 Albania 138 Cook Islands 139 American Samoa 140 Kiribati 141 Saint Kitts and Nevis 142 Samoa 143 Iraq 144 French Polynesia 145 Aruba 146 Grenada 147 Andorra 148 Saint Vincent and The Grenadines 149 Suriname 150 Angola 151 Solomon Islands 152 Kyrgyzstan 153 Mongolia 154 Congo 155 Burkina Faso 156 Rwanda 157 Senegal 158 Belize 159 Saint Helena 160 Ghana 161 Uganda 162 Palestinian Territory, Occupied 163 Malawi 164 Virgin Islands (US) 165 Mozambique 166 Unknown |
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