Cranwell was originally a Royal Naval air station before the formation of the RAF in 1918. Atop the red-brick and Portland stone neo-Georgian Baroque College Hall sits a small lighthouse, which may commemorate these nautical links. It should be noted, though, that the coast is twenty miles away, well over the horizon, even from the top of College Hall. So there is always the possibility that the lighthouse is there to remind officers how they should behave during their careers – it being both brilliant and of no practical use.