Qualla: Newbiggin Lifeboat Station

Newbiggin Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Heaton, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 22 March 1851, the fishing cobles of Newbiggin set out for a day's work. A sudden storm caught them. Four boats capsized. Ten men drowned. Five surviving fishermen pulled two of their neighbours from the freezing water, and for that they were awarded the Silver Medal of the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck. That winter, the Duke of Northumberland funded a boathouse on the shore. The next year the institution placed a thirty-foot self-righting lifeboat called Latimer at the station. The Newbiggin Lifeboat House is still there, still operating, still answering calls from the Northumberland coast. It is now the oldest boathouse the RNLI runs anywhere in Britain or Ireland.

Image: Chris Heaton | CC BY-SA 2.0

Newbiggin Lifeboat Station: The Women of Newbiggin

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Donald Brydon, CC BY-SA 2.0. Launching a lifeboat from a beach was not something a small crew could manage alone. The boat had to be hauled across the sand by men, women, and horses, often into surf already breaking heavy. In January 1927 the lifeboat Ada Lewis was called to the Newbiggin fishing fleet itsel...

Image: Donald Brydon | CC BY-SA 2.0

Newbiggin Lifeboat Station: Latimer and Embla

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Phil Thomas, CC BY 2.0. The lifeboat Latimer was launched on 7 January 1854 to the aid of the Embla of Norway, on passage from Setubal in Portugal to Stavanger. The Embla had wrecked off the Northumberland coast in a gale. Latimer set out without a full crew, the men gone or unreachable, and her volunte...

Image: Phil Thomas | CC BY 2.0

Newbiggin Lifeboat Station: The Rocket House

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Russel Wills, CC BY-SA 2.0. Next door to the lifeboat house stands the Newbiggin Rocket House, built in 1866 as an extension. The Rocket Brigade was not part of the RNLI. They worked from the shore, firing lines on rocket propulsion to ships wrecked close in - the line was then used to rig a breeches buoy o...

Image: Russel Wills | CC BY-SA 2.0

Newbiggin Lifeboat Station: Richard Wake Burdon

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Graham Robson, CC BY-SA 2.0. The all-weather lifeboat was withdrawn in 1981. From then the station has run inshore lifeboats - smaller, faster boats designed for the kind of work most modern coastal call-outs require. The current boat, on station since 2012, is the Richard Wake Burdon (B-864). She launches o...

Image: Graham Robson | CC BY-SA 2.0