Skegness Coastguard

By Angela Gooch on January 15th, 2008

From skimming through the censuses of Skegness, it seems there were two buildings connected with the coast guard. The first is Lifeboat Cottage and the second is a terrace of five abodes, numbered 1-5, collectively called Coast Guard Cottages. They are situated off St Andrew’s Drive, north of Skegness.
Lookout Cottage is east of the Coast Guard Cottages, closer to the sea. It is also raised on a hill. Study the picture on the right below-you can see the raised topography. Panning left from this perspective, we capture the shot of the Coast Guard Cottages frontage.

Lookout Cottage today, front and rear:

Coast Guard cottages today, front and rear:

(I would be grateful if anyone knows where there are old photographs of these buildings so I may link to them)

Specific addresses and street names were very sparse on the earlier census reports and often the address of a house would be ‘near the church’ or ‘on the beach’. Because of this is it difficult to correctly identify an abode. Clues may be found from the ‘enumerator’s walk. It would be illogical for him to record on a sheet an abode on the North Beach then jump to (say) the Vine Hotel south Skegness, then back again!
Keeping this in mind, let’s examine the census returns.

1841 census

The enumerator recorded three abodes on Wainfleet Road then reached Gravel Hall, Cottage, then Life Boat House. Look at the column headed HOUSES/INHABITED. There are eight strokes in this column, one for each abode. The eight includes four abodes in the Village (which I assume is High Street and Lumley Road area).

Life Boat House constitutes one abode.

From this page on the 1841 census, it appears that the terrace of Coast Guard Cottages did not exist in 1841.

Consult this map, looking at the three coloured dots and their locations. All abodes are connected with the life boat.

For reasons that will be discussed later, I believe that what is described as the Life Boat Cottage on the 1841 census constitutes the Old Life Boat Cottage marked as the red dot on the map.

Who lived in Life Boat Cottage in 1841?

Samuel Moody aged 40?, occupation ‘Life Boat Keeper’ born in Lincolnshire
Mary Moody aged 40 born in Lincolnshire
Elizabeth Hutson aged 65 born in Lincolnshire
Thomas Lucas aged 60, occupation ‘Bricklayer’ born outside Lincolnshire
Sarah Lucas aged 60 born outside Lincolnshire

Assumptions can be made here to give clues to further research:
Mary was probably Samuel’s wife. Elizabeth was probably Mary’s mother. In fact a quick search of the International Genealogical Index proves this assumption to be correct. They married in Winthorpe 1818.

1851 Census page A page B

In 1851, things get a lot better for us!

The street names and addresses are more specific, people’s correct ages are recorded instead of being rounded to the nearest five. Also the place of birth was more specific.

Let’s look at page B of the 1851 census. Look towards the bottom. Life Boat Cottage-and our Samuel and Mary Moody are still living there. Sam’s a ‘Retired Mariner’ now, and we can see he was born in Winthorpe near Skegness.

Notice the first entry on page B - 5 Maitland Place. A John Beal is a C** Boatman Coast from Cornwall.

Moving to page A, numbers 1-4 of the same street are listed. Look at the occupants’ occupations-Acting Chief Officer Coast Guard, Mariner and three more Coast Guards. all from away!.

We now have good reason to believe that these five abodes are in fact the terrace of Coast Guard Cottages.

So, the Coast Guard Cottages were built between 1841 and 1851, though they were not yet christened as such.

For the record, let’s list the occupants:

No1 Rowland Nash aged 53 Acting Chief Officer Coast Guard from Ireland
John Nash aged 22 Mariner from Grimsby
No 2 John Wolfe aged 30 Coast Guard from Devonport
No 3 Thomas Quick? aged 20 from Hampshire
No 4 William Tyrrel? aged 26 from Essex
No 5 John Beal aged 34 from Cornwall

In contrast to our lone coastguard on the 1841 census, the years immediately preceding 1851 saw a noticeable strengthening of Skegness’ Coast Guard.

It seems that over the last ten years, it was necessary to build up the force; Skegness, lacking in skilled personnel, saw an influx of Mariners from afar!

1861 Census page A page B

Strangely, on the 1861 census, there seems to be only four Coast Guard Cottages listed, all on page A, page B is a continuation of the family in the fourth cottage. If a property was uninhabited, this would have been recorded on the census report as such. No such endorsement is evident.

I cannot see an abode called Life Boat House on the 1861 census. There is an entry here that shows our old friend Samuel Moody living at Sea Bank. The entry is between Hildreds Hotel and Vine Hotel. This could mean either the yellow or the red dot on the map. Sam’s occupation is listed as ‘Coxswain of the Life Boat’.

Living in the Coast Guard Cottages (St Andrew’s Drive) are

Jonas Robinson age 34 Coast Guard from Basford
William Clifford age 32 Coast Guard from Dorset
Thomas Jackson age 35 Coast Guard from Milford
George McNulty age 38 Coast Guard from Scotland?

1871 Census page A page B

The above two pages list the inhabitants of the five Coast Guard Cottages. We must note that the five cottages are now described as Sea Bank.

Patrick Donovan age 48 Chief Officer Coast Guard from Ireland
William Kemp age 34 Coast Guard from Deal in Kent
David Hull age 34 Coast Guard from Surrey
Thomas McDermott age 33 Coast Guard from Castleford Yorkshire
Joseph Pearse age 38 Coast Guard from outside Lincolnshire

For three consecutive decades, the Coast Guards in Skegness have come from afar.
Now look at Samuel Moody in 1871. His abode is described as Old Life Boat House. This is what led me to believe that the red dot on the map is Sam’s abode. The census page that follows this one lists Vine Hotel, as before.
Two possibilities - either Sam moved house, but there’s no listing for a life boat house at the yellow dot on the map in 1861! or a new life boat house had been built and Sam’s abode renamed.

I have searched the 1871 census and cannot find another abode which may be a new life boat house. We need to reserve judgement on this until we have looked closely at subsequent censuses.1881 Census page A page B

David Trewin age 47 Commisioned Seaman in Royal Navy Coast Guard from Sussex
William Brittain age 27 Boatman Coast Guard from Cambridgeshire
Henry Polland age 32 Boatman Coast Guard Seaman Royal Navy from Sussex
William Collbeck age 45 Navy Chief Officer Coast Guard active lieutenant from Kent
Patrick Donovan age 56 Warrant Officer in the Royal Navy from Ireland

Patrick Donovan has been residing in what is now described as the Coast Guard Station for at least ten years now.
Discrepancies in age occur because of the different dates on which the censuses were taken.

So what about Life Boat House? What about our old original coast guard, Sam Moody?
Sadly, Sam died in 1871.
To find out who’s living in the Old Life Boat House now, we’ll have to search all the 1881 census!There is no abode named Old Lifeboat House on the 1881 census. It is written in a history book on Skegness that this building became derelict in the 1880s. But read on to the next census…
1891 Census

The Old Life Boat House is occupied by a farmer from Friskney in Lincolnshire. He’s 69 years old and is called John Atkin. Look at the entry immediatly after the Life Boat House. It is an abode named Bell View House. Now consult the old map of Skegness again. Scroll down to the red dot which is Old Life Boat Cottage and examine the abode between it and the Vine Hotel. This is Bell View Cottage. Remember Sam in 1841, the sole coast guard living in Life Boat House? This is further evidence that this was the original Life Boat House.Who’s living in the five Coast Guard Cottages?

Arthur Woolett age 51 Chief Office HM Coast Guard from Pembrokshire
Henry Pollard age 42 Coast Guard Boatman from Sussex
Thomas Gillam age 31 Coast Guard Boatman from Darlington Middlesex
George Fowler age 31 Coast Guard from Hull
William Burrows age 37 Coast Guard from Portsmouth

1901 Census

The occupants of Coast Guard Houses are:

Charles J Boyle age 49 Royal Navy Coast Guard from Scotland
Charles Rawlinson age 29 Coast Guard from Harmston? Lincolnshire
Percy William Ellis age 29 Coast Guard from Hampstead
James Walker age 32 Royal Navy Coast Guard from Scotland
James Lainsbury age 30 HM Coast Guard from Berkshire

Look at the 1901 census for the Old Lifeboat House (which we have established to be on what is now Lifeboat Avenue). No one is listed as living there. But look at the headings at the top of the Uninhabited column. There is a stroke at the side of the entry to indicate that is IS in occupation.

Facts

1824 - the national sea rescue service, later to become the RNLI, was formed.

October 1825 - the first lifeboat station to be formed on the Lincolnshire coast was established at Gibraltar Point

1830 - the lifeboat station moved into Skegness
The ‘old lifeboat station’ was built in the area of what is now Lifeboat Avenue. It became derelict in the 1880s (see 1881 and 1891 above for comments)
A ‘new’ lifeboat station was erected on South Parade in 1864, being rebuilt in 1892.