How it all began
Sir William Hillary founded the Royal National Lifeboat Institution on March 4th 1824, however it was not until 1882 that a Lifeboat Station was established in Weston-super-Mare.
A legacy of £450 was received from the estate of Col. W. J. Holt of Bangor "for a lifeboat to be placed on the shores of the Bristol Channel" .
The first lifeboat 'William James Holt' was hung from davits on Birnbeck Pier, she was 25ft long and was an 8 oared self-righter, cost £266.10.0d and she arrived in Weston on November 5th 1882, beginning a long association of Weston Lifeboat with Birnbeck Island.
The William James Holt being launched from its divits
'William James Holt' served for 7 years, but was only launched on service twice.
On August 4th 1887 it was agreed to replace this boat with a larger boat. To accommodate this boat a boathouse, with a slipway 100-foot long, was built on the north side of Birnbeck Island, close to the Pier and still visible to-day. This boathouse cost £718.1.4d and the new boat, which arrived on July 16th 1889, also called 'William James Holt', cost £463.
The second 'William James Holt' was not called out for 6 years and then only 3 more times in her 14-year career in Weston.
Acknowledgement: This is a very short extraction of details from a book called 'The Story of Weston-super-Mare Lifeboats' written by and produced by Jeff Morris to whom we are grateful for allowing us to reproduce the parts you have read. This book is available at the Weston-super-Mare Lifeboat shop price £3.00