Historic lifeboats return home to Hoylake ahead of museum opening

May 20 2011 By Lorna Hughes

HISTORIC lifeboats returned home to Wirral ahead of the opening of a museum devoted to the lifesaving efforts of RNLI volunteers.

The 110-year-old Chapman and the Thomas Corbett, which dates from 1948, will become prime exhibits in Hoylake Lifeboat Museum, which is being developed in the former RNLI station on the town’s promenade.

Chapman served on Hilbre Island until 1939, when she was retired from lifeboat duties.

Built in Cowes, the Thomas Corbett was a Hoylake lifeboat in the 1970s but left 37 years ago to continue service in Ireland.

Lifeboat enthusiast and businessman John Parr, who spearheaded the campaign to open the museum, spent £25,000 on restoring Chapman after he discovered her lying derelict on the shores of the Ribble in 1998.

He tracked the Thomas Corbett to County Waterford, Ireland, and plans to restore the boat in Hoylake.

The museum is due to open later this summer after a long-running battle by campaigners to use the building, formerly owned by developer Peel.

The RNLI moved out of the station in November, 2008, after 110 years, to a custom-built lifeboat station nearby.

Mr Parr, 57, said he "felt butterflies" to see the lifeboats being craned into position yesterday.

He said: "I feel a great sense of pride and there is also a tremendous feeling of gratitude that so many people rallied round us.

"I was amazed to learn Chapman had survived, but when I found her she was in a very poor condition.

"Anyone looking at it logically would have walked away but she was the last of the Hilbre lifeboats and I had to save her – I am a complete lifeboat romantic.

"The idea was we would one day have a lifeboat museum, but we have done everything the wrong way round. We had exhibits but no building."

Twelve apprentices at the Laird Foundation helped to restore the lifeboat as part of a 12-month programme funded by Mr Parr.

Both the Chapman and Thomas Corbett are listed in the National Register of Historic Vessels.

In 1971, the Thomas Corbett performed one of the most daring rescues recorded by a Hoylake lifeboat when a crew went to the aid of the ailing tug, Diane. The heroic feat earned her coxswain a prestigious RNLI medal for gallantry.

Mr Parr paid tribute to Peel for giving the plan a chance, along with businessman Tony Crane who, through his firm Hylgar Properties, helped the scheme move forward.

Mr Parr said: "It has come together remarkably quickly but we still have a lot of work to do.

"It will be a very nostalgic place for the older generation and a place for the younger generation to learn about the history of lifeboatmen.

"They have always been my heroes and they still are."