Devon & Cornwall - Day 2

Day two of our week in Devon and Cornwall started with a relaxed breakfast and a 10:00am meet at Falmouth lifeboat station. We arrived a little early parked the car and had a cup of tea at a local cafe before heading to the station.

Falmouth Lifeboat Station

We had pre-arranged to meet one of the visits officers at Falmouth and we were duly met by Paul who had kindly opened the station for us and welcomed us with a look around. Falmouth have two lifeboats, an Atlantic 85 and, up until recently a Severn class which was unique among the fleet as it had no crane for launch their Y-boat common to most Severn lifeboats.

On the day of our visit their Atlantic 85, Robina Nixon Chard, B-916, was away for maintenance. They had a relief boat, Sam and Freda Parkinson, B-941. The seven class boat, Richard Cox Scott, had been retired from service and returned to Poole, this boat had joined Falmouth in 2001. It had been replaced by a relief Shannon class lifeboat, George and Francis Phelon (13-44) which happened to be the boat assigned to Great Yarmouth and Gorleston Lifeboat Station in Norfolk. Unfortunately the mooring pontoon is not suitable for the smaller Shannon class and requires modification so we were unable to board the boat. This is a similar reason why this lifeboat is not allocated to its correct station in Norfolk.

Falmouth lifeboat station was established in 1867 with the current boat house being built in 1993 and is jointly occupied by HM Coast Guard. Paul gave us a fascinating insight into the history of Falmouth lifeboats and after a very interesting discussion we said our goodbyes and headed for our next stop The Lizard.

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The Lizard Lifeboat Station

The small village of Lizard is at the most southerly point of mainland Great Britain. Before our visit to the current station, we visited one of the old lifeboat stations located on the beach at Lizard Point, the most southerly point of mainland Britain. We then headed back around the coast a short distance to Church Cove the spectacular location of the Lizard Lifeboat Station.

The first station at this location was established in 1859 following the wreck of the steamship Czar. This first lifeboat house was near the top of the road leading down to Polpeor Cove. In 1892 a new lifeboat house was built near the beach. In 1917 another new lifeboat house with a deepwater slipway was built at Polpeor Cove. In 1961 the station was moved to its current location at Kilcobben Cove. The new modern station was completed in 2012 and houses the Tamar class lifeboat, Rose (16-20).

Access to the station is via over 150 steps or a funicular railway. At the station we met several of the visits and shop volunteers and we learned about the history of the station and its rescues.

As this was the last visit of the day we headed back to Lizard Point where we enjoyed a lovely Cornish Pasty at the Wavecrest Café overlooking the beautiful rocky coastline.