Appledore Lifeboat Station can be found at the end of Irsha Street in Appledore, a village overlooking the confluence of the River Taw and the River Torridge, on the north-west coast of the county of Devon, in England.
A local committee established a lifeboat station at Appledore in 1825, operating the first lifeboat provided by the newly formed Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck (RNIPLS). From 1831, the station was managed by the North Devon Humane Society. The present station, operated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), opened in 2001.
The station currently operates a All-weather lifeboat (ALB), 13-32 Ruth and David Arthur (ON 1339), on station since 2026, and a Inshore lifeboat (ILB), Glanely (B-861), on station since 2012.
History The recently formed Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck (RNIPLS), as the RNLI was known at the time, was petitioned in August 1824, to provide a lifeboat for the Bideford area. An lifeboat built by William Plenty of Newbury, Berkshire, the Volunteer, arrived towards the end of February 1825 and was initially kept in a barn at Appledore, but in 1829, was moved into the nearby King's Watch House.
A meeting was called in Northam on 20 June 1831, which established the North Devon Humane Society. Their first aim was to build a boathouse and provide a carriage for the lifeboat, so that it could be taken to wherever it was most suitable to launch for each rescue.
The new boathouse was completed in Watertown by the end of the year, which put the lifeboat half a mile nearer the sea than before. This building was large enough for two boats and a second larger lifeboat named Assistance arrived in December 1831. On 24 November 1833, Assistance capsized after launching to the aid of the ship Mary Ann, on passage from Puerto Cabello, Venezuela to Liverpool, Lancashire, when she was driven ashore at Bideford and wrecked. One lifeboat man made it ashore, and four more were rescued by the Volunteer, but three were lost, as were all hands off the Mary Ann.
A new appeal was made in the area in 1846 to buy a third, larger, lifeboat and £125 was raised. The RNIPLS suggested they buy a boat similar to one recently provide to the Admiralty at . The new boat, Petrel, arrived at the Watertown boathouse in October 1847. It proved too heavy to be used head-on to heavy seas and was prone to taking on too much water so was sent back to builder in 1850 for alterations. A second boathouse was built in 1848 at Braunton Burrows, on the north side of the estuary, and the Assistance was relocated there. The new station was needed to make it easier to reach ships in trouble on that side of the estuary but the crews always came from Appledore.
The distance from the Watertown boathouse to Bideford Bar, where most wrecks occurred, proved to be a problem, and so another boathouse was built at Northam Burrows to the west of Appledore in 1851, partly funded by the RNIPLS. The North Devon Humane Society was wound up in 1855 and became a local branch of the RNLI. The Northam Burrows boathouse was expanded to house a second boat in 1856 and became the main station; the old boat house at Watertown was closed.
The two stations were close to the Bideford Bar but remote from Appledore where the crews lived. With the development of boats that could be more easily sailed (rather than just rowed) a new boat house was built in 1889 at Badsteps in Appledore, to replace the station at Northam Burrows. During World War I, it became difficult to find the horses and men necessary for launching boats at Braunton Burrows, so it too was closed temporarily in 1918, becoming a permanent closure the following year.
The first motor lifeboat arrived on station in 1922. In 1938, a 46-foot Watson-class lifeboat, the Violet Armstrong (ON 815), was placed on service, but was moored afloat, as it did not fit in the boathouse. The boathouse was then used to accommodate a small boarding boat, used to ferry the crew out to the lifeboat. The new lifeboat had a shallower draught than usual for a Watson class, and also had her stern strengthened, both modifications to help crossing the shallow water at the mouth of the estuary. In 1947, it was the first lifeboat to be fitted with a radio which could also be used as loudhailer, making it easier for the crew to communicate with other vessels.
An Inshore lifeboat has been stationed at Appledore since 1972, and is kept in the boathouse with the boarding boat. The boathouse had a new crew room installed at first-floor level in 1980, but the whole building was demolished in 2000, and a new station opened the following year. The new station building was designed by Poynton Bradbury Wynter Cole, costing £500,000. Philip Cole, one of the firm's partners, said the building's design reflects "the traditional form of early lifeboat houses" and would be made from local stone.
On 2 October 2025, the RNLI announced that following a national review of service calls, the lifeboat at Appledore, 16-16 Mollie Hunt (ON 1296), was to be reallocated to a different station in 2026/27, and be replaced with a All-weather lifeboat.
13-32 Ruth and David Arthur (ON 1339) arrived on station on 1 May 2026, and entered service at 13:32 on 15 June 2026.
Building descriptions
The first boathouse at Watertown was built in stone just above the high water line. It was with a door that was just wide. The Braunton Burrows boathouse of 1848 was built in wood north of the lighthouse at Airy Point. It was the same size as the one at Watertown, , but with a doorway.
The present lifeboat station is situated off Jubilee Road. At ground level, facing a slipway, is covered accommodation for the ILB, boarding boat and their tractors. Additional crew facilities are located in the attic above.
Area of operation The boathouse at Appledore faces the estuary formed by the confluence of two rivers. When lifeboats were first stationed here, there were busy ports at Barnstaple on the River Taw and Bideford on the River Torridge. The estuary flows westwards over the shallows at Bideford Bar into Bideford Bay. Much of the coast is lined by sand dunes, the 'burrows' where the auxiliary stations were built.
The RNLI aims to reach any casualty up to from its stations within two hours in good weather. To do this, the Shannon-class lifeboat has an operating range of , and a top speed of . Adjacent lifeboats are at to the north, and to the south is an Inshore lifeboat at , and an All-weather lifeboat at .
Service awards
The Volunteer lifeboat launched on 11 September 1829 and rescued 12 people from the packet boat Daniel of Bristol, although it took two trips to complete the rescue. RNIPLS Silver Medal was awarded to Owen Smith, William Brinksmead and Philip Guy for their part in this service.
1833 was a busy and tragic year. Assistance was used on 6 March to save nine people from a wrecked brig, when a storm blew up during salvage work. On 24 November, it was taken out to aid the Mary Ann, which had run aground in the night. No signs of life were seen, so the lifeboat returned to shore. Movement in the rigging caused a second crew to return took the wreck but three drowned when it capsized. There were no survivors from the Mary Ann. The smaller lifeboat Volunteer was launched and brought the lifeboat and its survivors ashore. Both the lifeboats were launched on 17 December 1833 and saved 18 people from the Elizabeth of Liverpool. These three rescues saw five people awarded silver medals: William Chappell, Thomas Burnard (the Humane Society's secretary), Thomas Chappell, Thomas Tuckfield, and Henry Popham.
Thomas Day received a silver medal for leading the crew of the Volunteer when they rescued six people from the schooner Henrietta on 29 November 1836. Both lifeboats were involved in another silver medal service just before Christmas in 1845. Eight people, half of the crew of the wrecked barque Ness, were saved on 23 December. This medal was awarded to Joshua Williams who received a second silver award, and John Marshall his first, when they rescued four of the five crew from the Dasher which was wrecked on 23 March 1850.
28 December 1868 was a day of bad storms off the Devon coast. Two boats were seen to be in difficulties in Bideford Bay. The Hope was taken out of the boathouse at Northam Burrows and taken along the shore as the Austrian barque Pace tried to get out to sea to no avail. When it was blown aground, the lifeboat was launched into seas so heavy that at times it was vertical. After getting nine people onto the lifeboat, it was dashed against the wreck and lost its rudder. It got back to shore and, after landing the rescued people, put to sea again with fresh crew but had to steer with an oar instead of the rudder. It failed to reach the Pace this time and returned to the beach after it capsized and lost all but three of its oars. The volunteers were prepared to make a third attempt but the tide was now low enough that the remaining crew could be brought off the wreck without a boat. Joseph Cox, the coxswain who had been injured during the first attempt, was awarded a silver medal by the RNLI. He and the two others who gone out both times the lifeboat launched (his son Joseph Cox Junior and John Kelly) each received the Silver Cross of Merit from The Emperor of Austria. Another volunteer, David Johns, who had survived the first attempt to save the Pace, was drowned later that day, while trying to take a rope out to the Leopard which had run aground further down the coast.
Coxswain James Smallridge received a silver medal for rescuing seven people from the Nigretta, after it ran aground at Braunton Sands in a gale on 5 November 1871. There was then a gap of more than 60 years before the next medal was awarded at Appledore. George Pow, the second coxswain, was given a bronze medal for taking the lifeboat into heavy seas to rescue the three people on board the fishing boat Lee Bay on 11 January 1935.
Sidney Cann was Appledore's most decorated crew member. He joined the crew in about 1912, became the lifeboat's bowman in 1922, promoted to second coxswain in 1931 and then coxswain in 1933. He retired in 1965. He was awarded a bronze medal for a wartime rescue. A concrete caisson that would become part of a breakwater was being towed to France on the 18 October 1944 but the tow broke in heavy seas. The Appledore lifeboat was sent to take the seven crew off although the caisson's position was uncertain. He took part in a second bronze-award service on 13 November 1949 when the Monte Gurugu sank off Lundy Island. This was a Spanish ship and he was also awarded the silver medal of the Spanish Society for Saving the Shipwrecked. Next, he was accorded the 'Thanks of the Institution inscribed on Vellum' after attending the steamship Gilwice of Poland on 13 November 1959. He was finally awarded the RNLI silver medal, after the Louisa Ann Hawker was launched into a northerly gale on 17 November 1962, to assist the Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker Green Ranger, which had broken free from her tug and run aground on rocks near Hartland Point. While the lifeboat found the ship they could not find any of her crew. The lifeboat stood by for some time until it became clear that the crew had already been saved by breeches buoy. Cann was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1964.