Hastings Lifeboat Station
| All-Weather Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
| Launch Method | SLARS |
| Address | The Stade, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 3FJ |
| Telephone | 01424 720828 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
From The Stade, the shingle beach where Hastings’ fishing fleet still launches, a lifeboat has served since 1835, the RNLI taking over in 1858. One of nineteen lifeboats sent to Dunkirk, Hastings has earned more than thirty awards for gallantry and runs a Shannon-class lifeboat off the open beach.
A lifeboat was first placed at Hastings in 1835, paid for by a local fund raised after a coastguard boat and its crew were lost; but the boat fell into disuse, and after a further loss of life off the town it was the RNLI that established a permanent station in 1858, the new lifeboat Victoria paraded through the streets on her carriage.
Hastings still launches its lifeboat and its fishing boats across the open beach — one of the last places in Britain to do so — and in 1940 the lifeboat Cyril and Lilian Bishop went to Dunkirk.
