Rhoscolyn Lifeboat Station

Cadw's description

Location

Set on the coastline above the E side of Rhoscolyn Bay.

History

The present building is the fourth to be built at Rhoscolyn. The first was built by the Anglesey Lifesaving Association in 1830, on land donated by Captain Hampton Lewis. In 1859 a new station was built on the site of the old one to house a new, larger, lifeboat. In 1877 the Royal National Lifeboat Institution decided to completely renovate the old station and a new boathouse, designed by C H Cooke FRIBA, was erected at a cost of £400. This was to house a new lifeboat and the cost was met by a donation of £2000 from the Countess of Morella; the boat named 'Ramon Cabrera' in memory of her late husband who had been a Field Marshall in the Spanish Army. A plaque commemorating this event was set above the door of the third boathouse but was later moved to its present site on the rear wall of this, the last of the lifeboat stations to be built at Rhoscolyn, which was built on a different site, from the others and was constructed 1903, at a cost of £1591.50.

Exterior

A single-storey lifeboat station. Built of brick, whitewashed. Slate roof with brick copings and moulded kneelers, mid-gable articulated by square block with moulded cornice; slightly projecting eaves over dentilled course. Sea-facing (E) elevation with battered sides and large sliding wooden doors. Other elevations with segmental-headed openings. Sides of 4 bays; S side with square-headed doorway under segmental-headed fanlight towards W end, flanked by 3 recessed casement windows arranged 1-2 descending to seaward (E) end; N side with 4 similarly detailed windows; single window in rear (W) gable end, recessed marble memorial plaque above to Ramon Cabrera, field-marshal in the spanish army and Count de Morella (re-set from previous lifeboat station).

Interior

Contains a tongued and grooved panelled pine ceiling with exposed scissor brace trusses. Fittings original, including door mechanism.

Reason for designation

Included as a well-preserved example of an early C20 lifeboat station; a simple and well-detailed design retaining original fixtures and fittings.