Silloth Lifeboat Station
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | A85 Carriage |
| Address | Lawn Terrace, The Green, Silloth, Cumbria, CA7 4AH |
| Telephone | 01697 331691 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
High up the Solway Firth, on the seaward side of the great Victorian green at Silloth, the station runs a fast Atlantic 85, covering the swift tides and shifting sands of the upper firth. The longest-serving of the present Solway stations, Silloth has had a lifeboat since 1860.
With the local population contributing towards a boathouse and the running of the service, the RNLI established a station at Silloth in 1860; the cost of the first lifeboat was met by the celebrated philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts, and the boat was named Angela and Hannah after her and her sister. In 1876 the lifeboat saved five crew and the pilot of the schooner Tweed, wrecked on Powfoot Bank in a gale.
The all-weather station closed in 1896, after one of its lifeboats capsized on exercise without loss of life. As leisure use of the Solway grew, an inshore lifeboat station was re-established at Silloth in 1967, the old Victorian boathouse re-acquired to house it.
The boats grew from a D-class through a C-class and Atlantic 21 to an Atlantic 75; in 2008 the Atlantic 85 Elaine and Don Wilkinson was placed on service, from a boathouse rebuilt on the original Victorian site.
