Qualla: Barmouth Lifeboat Station

Barmouth Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pjposullivan, CC BY-SA 3.0. On a cold wet 25 November 1982, Diana, Princess of Wales, stood on a wooden slipway at Barmouth in front of a brand-new orange lifeboat and gave it a name. Princess of Wales, the boat was called; the first Mersey-class she-boat fitted with radar, built by William Osborne of Littlehampton for £240,000. Diana was 21 and still in her honeymoon year. The Mawddach was running grey, the rain was sideways, and the crowd that pressed against the harbour rails barely cared that they were wet. Behind them, somewhere up on the slopes of Cadair Idris, the fog hung in tatters. The station had been there since 1828, one hundred and fifty-four years before its newest boat got a royal name.

Image: Pjposullivan | CC BY-SA 3.0

Barmouth Lifeboat Station: Reverend Ricketts and the Sloop Dove

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 4.0. Barmouth's lifeboat tradition begins with a clergyman. In 1828 the Reverend Frederick Ricketts wrote to the Royal National Institute for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, the predecessor of the RNLI, and asked for a boat. The Institute agreed. On 25 October 1828 the sloop ...

Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 4.0

Barmouth Lifeboat Station: Medals for Cliff Falls and Trawlers

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The wall of awards in Barmouth's boathouse reads like a chronicle of accidental geography: this is where coast meets mountain, and where people fall. On 21 June 1971, a woman fell from a cliff. John Henry Stockford, Colin Pugh, and Dr Robert Haworth went in after her and brought ...

Image: Public domain

Barmouth Lifeboat Station: The Bridge and the Jumper

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Traveler100, CC BY-SA 3.0. Barmouth Bridge crosses the Mawddach estuary just south of the town - 909 yards of timber and iron, the longest wooden viaduct in Wales. People sometimes jump. On 19 October 1980, John Henry Stockford, who had already won a Silver Medal for the cliff rescue nine years earlier, en...

Image: Traveler100 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Barmouth Lifeboat Station: Ella Larsen and Craig Steadman

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Plucas58, CC BY-SA 4.0. Today the station keeps two boats. Ella Larsen, a Shannon-class all-weather lifeboat, has been on station since 2019, capable of speeds the Mersey-class Princess of Wales could only dream of, self-righting, water-jet propelled. Craig Steadman, an inshore D-class, arrived in 2017 ...

Image: Plucas58 | CC BY-SA 4.0