Appledore Lifeboat Station
| All-Weather Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
| Launch Method | Moored afloat |
| Address | Jubilee Road, Appledore, Devon, EX39 1SA |
| Telephone | 01237 473969 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
At the mouth of the Taw and Torridge estuary on the north Devon coast, Appledore — home of the very first RNLI lifeboat — runs a Tamar-class all-weather lifeboat and a fast Atlantic 85, covering the treacherous Bideford Bar and the wider Bristol Channel. A lifeboat has served here since 1825, and the station holds an exceptional record of thirty gallantry medals.
The recently formed National Institution was petitioned in August 1824 for a lifeboat for the Bideford area, and the Volunteer arrived early in 1825 — the first lifeboat the new Institution placed anywhere. She was kept at first in a barn at Appledore, then in the King’s Watch House. In 1831 the North Devon Humane Society was formed to manage her, and the RNLI took over in 1855, the boats having already saved 107 lives in the previous 24 years.
The station’s history holds both honour and sacrifice. Coxswain Owen N. Riordean Smith and crew members William Brinksmead and Philip Guy received three of the first Silver Medals ever presented by the RNLI. And on 24 November 1833 Appledore suffered the first loss of RNLI lifeboatmen, when Benjamin Pile, John Peake and Samuel Blackmore tragically died during a rescue.
A first motor lifeboat, the V.C.S., arrived in 1922, and an inshore lifeboat from 1972. The present station opened in 2001, and the station now runs the Tamar-class Mollie Hunt, moored afloat, alongside the Atlantic 85 Glaneley. From here the crews work the Bideford Bar and the open Bristol Channel, a coast of fast tides and shifting sands.
