Formby Civic Society is a registered Charity (No. 516789)
Origins of Britain’s first lifeboat station
Reg Yorke -
A footnote to ‘A Chart of the Harbour of Liverpool’ by P. P. Burdett, 1771, corrected
1776, provides the first documentary evidence of a ‘boat and station for saving lives’
in existence at Formby Point by 1776:
‘NB: On the strand about a mile below Formby
Lower Land Mark there is a boathouse, and a boat kept ready to save lives from vessels
forced on shore on that coast, and a guinea, or more, reward is paid by the Corporation
for every human life that is saved by means of this boat, etc.’
It was William Hutchinson,
the Liverpool Dock Master, a colourful and exceptional man whose classic ‘Treatise
on Practical Seamanship’ published in 1776, included this chart who, supported by
the Dock Trustees, arranged for Britain's first such ‘life-
The exact date of the establishment of Formby station remains uncertain
as the minute book of the Dock Trustees prior to 1793 has long since been destroyed
but was apparently between 1771 and 1776. A minute of the Liverpool Common Council
dated March 5, 1777 indicates that the boat and boathouse had already been there
long enough to need repair!
‘
At the next meeting of Council
on April 2 it was ordered that:
‘Richard Scarisbrick of Formby, sailor, be appointed
to take care of the boat and boathouse erected and provided to be built and stationed
at Formby to assist and save shipwrecked persons and goods on this coast. And that
Mr Gerrard do pay him the sum of five guineas for the good services by him already
done herein and that he have a salary of two guineas a year from henceforth for such
service. And that he and the boat’s crew shall be handsomely rewarded hereafter for
such good service done herein and not less than one guinea per head for every life
or person they shall save and to be further rewarded as the Council shall on enquiring
find he or they merit to be paid out of the dock duties.’
Burdett’s chart was updated
and reprinted in 1781 (see Fig. 1). In addition to a similar footnote (see Fig. 2)
the position of the boathouse and boat is clearly indicated at Formby Point. Although
not much is known about this boat or her service, we may guess that she was probably
of the type known as a Mersey Gig, a generally two or three masted, versatile, sprit-
In 1799 the Dock Committee appointed William Brown to look after the boat
‘in room of Robert Whitfield, deceased, with the like allowances as enjoyed by his
predecessor’, and then on April 9, 1800, Robert Neale, the riding officer at Formby,
was appointed to the care of the boat and boathouse ‘in the room of William Brown’.
The
original boathouse was rebuilt in 1793 on the same site at the end of what subsequently
came to be known as Lifeboat Road. According to a survey of the bay, when built it
was situated 100 yards inland well above the high tide line on land belonging to
the Reverend Richard Formby, the lord of the manor. This reverend gentleman was incumbent
of St John’s, Liverpool, from 1784 to 1792 and later of Trinity Church, Liverpool.
He seems to have had a local beneficial influence and interest in lifesaving somewhat
akin to Dr John Sharpe at Bamburgh, as in 1798 we find he was presented with the
Freedom of the Borough of the Town of Liverpool ‘as a mark of respect for his unwearied
and compassionate attention in a variety of instances to the unfortunate who have
suffered shipwreck on the coast near Formby, both with regard to their person and
property’.
It is important to realise that the Formby lifeboat was the only one serving
the harbour until 1803. Other Liverpool Bay stations were at the same time established,
completing the far-
For more information see ‘
B. and R. Yorke; Alt Press. ISBN 0 9508155 0 0
A collection of stills showing a practice launch of the lifeboat in 1916
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