The South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA) is the regional film archive for the South West of England. Established in 1993, SWFTA's core collection comprises of the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and TSW (Television South West). The archive also cares for a significant number of donated film collections, both amateur and professional, dating back to the early 1900s.
This film is part of Free
The New Padstow Lifeboat Station
Padstow has a new boathouse and slipway at Trevose Head.
From the collection of:
Overview
Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) crew tests out the slipway at the new boathouse at Trevose Head for the Padstow Lifeboat Station. The new boathouse and slipway of two hundred and forty feet open on 20 October 1967 at Trevose Head west of Padstow and the James and Catherine Macfarlane lifeboat has just arrived. The station's inauguration was held on 19 July 1968 with a specially commissioned march entitled the Padstow Lifeboat by composer Malcolm Arnold.
The RNLI has over 230 Lifeboat stations and mans 220 beaches in the summer. It is funded by voluntary donations and crewed by volunteers who must be ready at a moment's notice to respond. The first lifeboat Mariners Friend went into service in 1829 in Padstow Harbour but the station was moved to Trevose Head when there was too much silt around the one in the Camel Estuary. In 2006 the slipway was adapted to house a new Tamar class lifeboat the Spirit of Padstow. Memorials at St. Petroc's Church and Padstow cemetery commemorate those who lost lives in service to others; in 1867 five lifeboat crew were lost aiding the Georgiana and in 1900 the James Stevens capsized in heavy seas with the loss of eight men.