West Wales – Pembrokeshire

On the second day of our long weekend in west Wales we visited three stations on the Pembrokeshire coastline.

St Davids Lifeboat Station

Our first stop was the iconic St. David’s Lifeboat station. Nestled in the rugged cliff at St. Justinian’s a short drive from the City of St. Davids, the station is of similar design as Tenby housing a Tamar class lifeboat and like Tenby, sits alongside the original slipway station now used by the local sailing club and boat trip companies.

There are actually three stations in the small cove. In 1869 when the RNLI established the station, a boathouse was built at the top of the stony beach to house their first ‘Pulling and Sailing’ boat, Augusta which served until 1885. This boathouse remained in use until 1911 but has been subsequently used as an Inshore boathouse between 1998 and 2016.

Tragedy struck the station in October 1910 when the lifeboat Gem was wrecked with the loas of three of the fifteen crew members. Following this tragedy a new station with a slipway was built above the old one. Opening in 1914 it housed the stations first motor lifeboat, General Farrell. It was one of the first motor lifeboats in Wales. This 1914 boathouse remained in operation until the construction of the new station to house the Tamar class lifeboat in 2016.

Their current lifeboat is Tamar Class, Nora Wortley (16-26) and they also have a D-Class, Marian and Alan Clayton (D-840) which is launched by Davit crane.

Unfortunately, the station was closed when we visited and we were unable to have a look around so we took our evidence photos and headed into St. David’s to visit the impressive Cathedral.

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Little and Broad Haven Lifeboat Station

On the opposite side of St. Brides Bay lies the beautiful little village of Little Haven. It is nestled in a small cove with a wide sandy beach.

Established in 1882 by the RNLI the station saw its first lifeboat moored in a sheltered location. In 1903 a boathouse and slipway were built to improve the launching of their new Watson class sailing lifeboat. Difficulties with obtaining crew members resulting in the stations closure in 1921 and the boathouse demolished. The station was reopened in 1967 with the introduction of an inshore lifeboat and the building of a boathouse. The current boathouse was built on the sam site in 1992 and was renamed Little & Broad Haven Lifeboat Station.

Their D-Class inshore lifeboat is D-899, Swaine-Legane arriving on station in 2025 to replace Jack & Edith May (D-766) which retired after 11 years of service.

Unfortunately, the station and shop were closed and there was no one to meet us so we took our evidence photos and headed for our final visit of the day.

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Angle Lifeboat Station

As we had a little bit of time on our hands we decided to visit the two locations of Angle lifeboat stations is reverse order to what we had planned.

Angle is a tiny village on the south shore of Milford Haven. Along an unmade track which runs close to the waters edge lies the Angle Lifeboat Station with its slipway designed for Tamar Class lifeboats. Initially we had thought that the boathouse was now unused and we knew there would be no one there to meet us. So we took an evidence photo and headed back across the river at Pembroke to the town of Milford Haven.

The lifeboat station at Angle was established in 1867 and was initially known as Milford Lifeboat Station. A new boathouse was built in 1927 to serve their first motor lifeboat, Elizabeth Elson. The current boathouse and slipway were built in 1992 with adaptations to house an inshore lifeboat and Tamar class following in 2009.

Unfortunately, due to challenges getting crew members from the tiny village the decision was made to move the lifeboat across the river to Milford Haven. Here they obtained a building on the Port of Milford Haven site. It is here that we headed to meet some of the crew.

On arrival we were met by Coxwain Lewis who welcomed us to the station where we met several crew members who had kindly taken time out of their weekend to meet with us. They explained the arrangements with the Port authority and the mooring of the lifeboat. It would seem that the arrangement is far better and made a lot of sense in terms of crew numbers and facilities.

Unfortunately, we were not able to get down to the boat, Mark Mason (16-11), as it is moored on a Port Authority pier but we were able to get a photograph of it from the shore and we were also able to have a photo with the crew.

We thanked everyone that took the time to meet us and said our goodbyes. Whilst we were unable to meet anyone or tour the first two stations we enjoyed the variety of locations. We never take for granted that anyone will be available to meet us, they are all volunteers afterall.