Qualla: Little and Broad Haven Lifeboat Station

Little and Broad Haven Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alvear24, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1881 the Chief Inspector of Lifeboats from London came to a fishing cove on St Bride's Bay called Little Haven and decided it needed a lifeboat. There was no boathouse, no slipway, and no obvious place to put either. The RNLI sent down a 33-foot pulling-and-sailing boat by train from elsewhere in the country, unloaded it at Milford Haven, and the crew rowed it the rest of the way along the coast to take up station. The arrangement was so bare-bones that for the first 20 years the lifeboat was moored afloat in open water under Goultrop Head. When the boathouse finally went up in 1903 it was, at the time, the smallest lifeboat station the RNLI possessed.

Image: Alvear24 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Little and Broad Haven Lifeboat Station: A Legacy from Ramsgate

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Waterborough, CC BY-SA 3.0. The committee minutes for 6 October 1881 record the decision plainly: a lifeboat was 'thought desirable' in St Bride's Bay, the broad open bite of coast that arcs between St David's Head in the north and Skomer Island in the south. The boat itself, a 33-foot self-righting craft w...

Image: Waterborough | CC BY-SA 3.0

Little and Broad Haven Lifeboat Station: A New Boat, A Closed Station

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. By 1903 the original Friend was due for replacement. A 40-foot pulling-and-sailing lifeboat called William Roberts (ON 505) was sent down and a proper boathouse with a slipway was built at Goultrop for £1,600. The new arrangement lasted only 18 years. On 18 March 1921 the RNLI co...

Image: Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data | CC BY-SA 3.0

Little and Broad Haven Lifeboat Station: Inshore Boats Change the Calculation

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wici Rhuthun 1, CC0. In 1964 the RNLI made a decision that would eventually revive Little Haven. As more people took to the water for leisure, the institution placed 25 small fast inshore lifeboats around the British coast, designed to be launched by just two or three crew, and capable of getting to ...

Image: Wici Rhuthun 1 | CC0

Little and Broad Haven Lifeboat Station: Vivienne Grey, MBE

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hogyn Lleol, CC BY-SA 4.0. The 2017 New Year Honours list included a name from this small Welsh cove: Vivienne Grey, crew member at Little and Broad Haven for 17 years, awarded the MBE for services to the RNLI and Maritime Safety. The citation noted that during those 17 years she had been involved in 120 c...

Image: Hogyn Lleol | CC BY-SA 4.0