History

In 1852, the Norfolk Association for the Saving of Lives of Shipwrecked Mariners provided Sea Palling with its first lifeboat. This boat was replaced in 1858, when the R.N.L.I. took over the running of the station and in 1864, a new Palling lifeboat named Parsee was acquired and housed in a boathouse on the dunes. The Parsee was kept on a carriage and needed up to twelve horses to pull it to the sea.

In 1870, the R.N.L.I. commissioned a second boat at Sea Palling, named British Workman after the periodical whose readers donated the vessel. Over the next 23 years, more than three hundred lives were saved by the beachmen who manned this boat.

Over time, the Parsee was replaced by Good Hope and in turn, by 54th West Norfolk Regiment. In 1893, British Workman was succeeded by the first Hearts of Oak.

The post First World War era saw a dramatic decline in the number of sailing ships. With fewer wrecks off our coastline and with a new motor-powered lifeboat stationed at Gorleston, the R.N.L.I. withdrew the second Hearts of Oak from service in 1929. The Jacob and Rachel Valentine was decommissioned in 1930.

When the lifeboat station was officially closed a year later, Captain Fanshawe of the R.N.L.I. spoke of its remarkable history. In seven decades, 781 lives had been saved, a record that could only be matched by three other British stations.

Over the years, the residents of Sea Palling still felt a need for a lifeboat of their own and in 1974, raised the money to buy a new station and a motor-powered, inshore rescue boat named "Hearts of Oak".

A private company, Palling Volunteer Rescue Service Ltd, administered entirely by local volunteers, was formed as a registered charity to operate and finance the new independent lifeboat service.

In 1981, the Rescue Service purchased a new rigid inflatable vessel named Leo, a boat that remained in service until Sunday 10th Feb 2008 when the new boat Lions Roar entered into service.

Information taken from "PALLING, a history shaped by the sea".

by kind permission of Mr. R.E. Pestell.

History of the Silver medal awarded to Thomas Bishop (second coxswain)
by the R.N.L.I. in 1894

Presently in place at St Margarets church Sea Palling.

5th January 1894 the Danish brigantine Sofia of Frederica on passage from Sundswall to Aberdovey with a cargo of timber went ashore about a quarter of a mile from Happisburgh, Norfolk, in a east-south-east gale and a very heavy sea.

The Bacton Life Saving Company and the Coast Guards tried three times to get a rocket over the wreck and even when they finally succeeded their effort was doomed to disappointment as just before the warp was hauled aboard the rope parted.

At this juncture the Palling no.1 self righting lifeboat "GOOD HOPE" went out to the brigantine and, in spite of heavy sea floating wreckage, succeeded after several attempts of taking off six crew men and landing them safely.

A report at the time rated the rescue amongst the bravest ever effected on the East Coast on account of the intense cold and the heaviness of the gale.

Mr. Bishop was in charge of the life boat on this service, and the award was also "in recognition of his gallant services during the past 18 years in assisting to save 272 lives from shipwrecks".

February 2008 - For the first time since 1929, Sea Palling had, two lifeboats on patrol

Lifeboat "Leo" went on service in 1976 and finished her service in February 2008, when Lifeboat "Lions' Roar" commenced her service through to the present day. ("Leo" is on the left of the picture)