Qualla: Solva Lifeboat Station

Solva Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 4.0. The schooner Two Brothers of Holyhead was already in pieces when the rescuers reached the cliff edge. It had been driven onto the rocks near Pointz Castle on January 5, 1867, on a passage from Bangor to Bristol, and the four crewmen had launched the ship's small boat in a doomed attempt to reach the shore. The boat smashed against the rocks within seconds of touching the water. A local man named Thomas Mortimer Rees had himself lowered down the cliff on a rope and somehow brought all four men up alive. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution awarded him its Silver Medal. It also took notice of Solva.

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Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 4.0

Solva Lifeboat Station: A Widow's Promise

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lesbardd, CC BY-SA 3.0. Two years after the Two Brothers wreck, the RNLI's Inspector of Lifeboats visited St Davids and Solva, two small Pembrokeshire harbours separated by three miles of coastline. His December 1868 report recommended stations at both. Then came an unexpected gift. Mrs Margaret Egerton...

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Image: Lesbardd | CC BY-SA 3.0

Solva Lifeboat Station: Twelve Oars and a Sail

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alvear24, CC BY-SA 3.0. On September 11, 1869, the station opened. The Trinity House steamship had towed the new lifeboat round from Milford Haven, where it had been delivered after a sea voyage from the builders. The boat was a 33-foot self-righting pulling-and-sailing design, twelve oars and two masts...

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Image: Alvear24 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Solva Lifeboat Station: Trinity Quay

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andy F, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Elder Brethren of Trinity House had granted the site at Trinity Quay in Upper Solva at a nominal annual rent and donated materials from the old smith's forge nearby. The quay itself sat on the north shore of the River Solva estuary, where the harbour drains into St Brides Bay...

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Image: Andy F | CC BY-SA 2.0

Solva Lifeboat Station: Eighteen Years

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andy F, CC BY-SA 2.0. And then it ended. On May 5, 1887, the RNLI committee resolved to abolish the Solva station. Eighteen years is a short life for a lifeboat house. The reasons were practical. The shared crew with St Davids had proved cumbersome, the launch from Trinity Quay required boats to cross...

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Image: Andy F | CC BY-SA 2.0

Solva Lifeboat Station: What the Sea Remembers

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Deborah Tilley, CC BY-SA 2.0. The story of Solva Lifeboat Station survives largely in the Lifeboat Magazine archive, where the RNLI committee minutes of 1869 and 1887 record the bare bones of its life. But the river still empties into St Brides Bay through the same winding channel, the same tides still rip pa...

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Image: Deborah Tilley | CC BY-SA 2.0