Qualla: Bamburgh Castle Lifeboat Station

Bamburgh Castle Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrew Curtis, CC BY-SA 2.0. The lifeboat at Bamburgh Castle launched twice in earnest, and saved one ship. On 15 March 1888, eleven days after that single successful rescue, the Albion of Brevig went onto the rocks within sight of shore. Seven of her ten crew drowned. The Bamburgh lifeboat did not launch. At the inquiry held afterwards at the Victoria Hotel, the crew were acquitted, but the reasons given said everything about the station's problem: the flat sand beneath the castle was so soft that men and wheeled carriage alike got stuck before reaching the surf. The lifeboat was in the wrong place, and everyone knew it.

Image: Andrew Curtis | CC BY-SA 2.0

Bamburgh Castle Lifeboat Station: The First Lifeboat Station That Wasn't

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrew Curtis, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1786, the inventor Lionel Lukin modified a local coble - a flat-bottomed fishing boat - into something he believed could survive a heavy sea. It was placed at Bamburgh at the request of Dr Sharp and the Crewe Trustees, a charitable foundation set up in 1704 under the will of N...

Image: Andrew Curtis | CC BY-SA 2.0

Bamburgh Castle Lifeboat Station: The RNLI Years

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrew Curtis, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 3 November 1881, after a string of shipwrecks along the coast, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution agreed to establish a proper station at Bamburgh. The boathouse on The Wynding cost £231. The lifeboat itself - a 32-foot self-righting Pulling and Sailing boat with both oar...

Image: Andrew Curtis | CC BY-SA 2.0

Bamburgh Castle Lifeboat Station: Two Calls, One Save, One Tragedy

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrew Curtis, CC BY-SA 2.0. The second John and Betty Cuttell - a slightly older boat brought up from Ferryside in Wales after the first was transferred to Whitby - made both her active rescues in March 1888. On the 4th she launched to the Marshall of Thurso and saved the crew. Eleven days later, on the 15t...

Image: Andrew Curtis | CC BY-SA 2.0

Bamburgh Castle Lifeboat Station: Closing the Station

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrew Curtis, CC BY-SA 2.0. A third John and Betty Cuttell arrived in 1889, this one a 34-foot self-righter built fresh by Woolfe for £426. She launched exactly once in operational service - on 4 April 1891, alongside the North Sunderland boat Thomas Berwick, to the Ornen aground at Greehill Rocks. Both lif...

Image: Andrew Curtis | CC BY-SA 2.0