North Shields, lifeboat house and slips

HER Number:
8000

District:
N Tyneside

Site Name:
North Shields, lifeboat house and slips

Place:
North Shields

Map Sheet:
NZ36NE

Class:
Maritime

Site Type: Broad:
Sea Defences

Site Type: Specific:
Groyne

General Period:
Early Modern

Specific Period:
C19

Form of Evidence:
Structure

Description:
Lifeboat house, boat house and two jetties shown on Ordnance Survey second edition map. The lifeboat house was destroyed by a German bomb on 10 April 1941. The Germans may have mistaken the lifeboat slipways for military infrastructure, or they may have been trying to target the nearby 12-pounder battery. A new lifeboat house was built by 1949 on piles at the low water mark of the Northern Wave Trap, accessed by a footbridge from the edge of the wave trap. A square two-storeyed cement-rendered and whitewashed building was built - probably as a watch house. The timber lifeboat house and footbridge were demolished in the 1990s, but the watch house and its later garage survives today. Late nineteenth century timbers from the slipway of the lifeboat house and iron footings from the footbridge are embedded in the boulders of the Wave Trap.

Easting:
3640

Northing:
6853

Grid Reference:
NZ36406853

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Northern Counties Archaeological Services, 2005, Brecky's Factory Site, Clifford's Fort, North Shields - Archaeological Assessment; North East Civic Trust, 2001, Clifford's Fort, North Shields - Draft Conservation Plan, pages 58-59