St Bees Lifeboat Station
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | A85 Carriage |
| Address | The Promenade, St Bees, Cumbria, CA27 0ES |
| Telephone | 01946 822534 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
Below the red sandstone cliffs of St Bees Head, the most westerly point on the Cumbrian coast, St Bees runs a fast Atlantic 85 from the promenade. The RNLI established the inshore station in 1970 to cover this exposed stretch of the Irish Sea — also the starting point of the Coast-to-Coast Walk.
As the RNLI extended its network of fast inshore lifeboats, a station was established at St Bees in 1970 with a D-class lifeboat, kept at first in a simple garage. The exposed coast beneath St Bees Head — popular with walkers, climbers, divers and small craft — brought a steady demand for rescue.
The boats grew with the need: a C-class, then an Atlantic 21, an Atlantic 75 (named after the decorated war veteran Percy Henry Patmore), and from 2009 the Atlantic 85 Joy Morris MBE. A new three-level boathouse provides proper crew facilities and a souvenir outlet.
The station’s defining service came in 1993, when the fishing vessel Coeur de Lion was wrecked at Fleswick Bay; Senior Helm Ian McDowell’s crew rescued the two men aboard moments before she broke up, for which he received the Bronze Medal.
