The Lifeboat Monument, St Annes, stands on South Promenade,

St Annes Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population at the 2011 census was 42,954. The town is almost contiguous wi ...

, Fylde,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, England. It commemorates the death of 13 lifeboatmen from St Annes who were lost in the attempt to rescue the crew of the German

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

'' that had been driven into a sandbank in a gale in December 1886. The lifeboat from

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Iris ...

also lost 14 of its 16 man crew in the disaster. The monument depicts a lifeboatman looking out to sea and standing on a rock-like

plinth A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In ...

. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

as a designated Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

In a severe gale on 9 December 1886, the ''Mexico'', a German barque, was driven on to the Horse Bank, a sandbank off

Ainsdale Ainsdale is an area of Southport in Merseyside, England, situated three miles south of the centre of Southport. Originally in the Historic counties of England, Historic County of Lancashire, at the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census it had a ...

, near Southport. Three lifeboats were launched to come to her rescue, ''Laura Janet'' from St Annes, ''Eliza Fernley'' from Southport, and ''Charles Biggs'' from

Lytham Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population at the 2011 census was 42,954. The town is almost contiguous with ...

. The crew from the ''Mexico'' were rescued by the Lytham lifeboat, but the other two lifeboats capsized. All thirteen of the crew of the St Annes lifeboat were lost, and only two of the sixteen members of the Southport lifeboat crew survived. It was the worst disaster in the history of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Following the disaster, John Unwin, the mayor of Southport, set up a Disaster Fund, which raised £31,000. Most of this was used to help the dependants of the men lost, but in January 1887 the Fund allowed each of the three local committees a sum of £200 to erect monuments to commemorate the disaster. The St Annes committee commissioned W. B. Rhind to design a monument. This was unveiled on St Annes Promenade on 23 May 1888 by John Talbot Clifton.

Description

The monument is constructed in

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

. It has an ashlar tapering plinth approximately square and high. On the plinth is a

pedestal A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In ...

with the appearance of a rock, about high. Standing on the pedestal is a larger than life-size figure of a lifeboatman. The lifeboatman looks out to sea. On the south side of the monument is a panel inscribed with the names of those who were lost. Underneath the names is the following inscription:

Appraisal

The memorial was designated as a Grade II listed building on 15 February 1993. Grade II is the lowest of the three grades of listing and is applied to "buildings of national importance and special interest".

Related monuments

Three other memorials were commissioned to commemorate the event, two in Southport and one in Lytham, all of which are designated at Grade II. In Southport Cemetery is the Lifeboat Memorial, which is in the form of a tomb chest, and on the Promenade is the Monumental Obelisk, which commemorates other events in addition to the lifeboat disaster. The Lytham Memorial stands in the churchyard of St Cuthbert's Church and has the form of a pinnacled tabernacle.

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* * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:St Annes, Lifeboat Monument Grade II listed buildings in Lancashire Buildings and structures completed in 1888 Monuments and memorials in Lancashire Lytham St Annes Grade II listed monuments and memorials Buildings and structures in the Borough of Fylde