Old Lifeboat Station (Mary Stanford Boathouse)

Old Lifeboat Station (Mary Stanford Boathouse), Icklesham

This is a former lifeboat house built in 1882 by a local builder named M Anne, financed from donations by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). It was constructed of pre-cast "no fines" shingle-based concrete, with the roof covering replaced with 20th-century roofing felt.

The building is rectangular with end gables and a four-bay roof. Originally there were entrances at both the north and south ends and two windows on the east and west sides. Both the seaward (south) and landward (north) ends originally featured large wooden ledged and braced plank double doors, though the doors at the south end have since been removed and infilled with blocks. Both ends retain louvred wooden ventilation openings in the gables. The side elevations each had two casement windows with stone lintels and cills, with metal ventilation grilles above, but these windows were blocked in during the 20th century with concrete blocks.

Internally, the four-bay roof is constructed with a scientific kingpost in softwood with butt purlins. A platform in the southern bay above the blocked-in doors is accessed by a fixed wooden ladder.

The building has significant historical importance. In 1882, the RNLI provided £255 from donations to construct a new boathouse for the Winchelsea Lifeboat Station. At that time, another lifeboat station already existed at Rye Harbour, which had been located at Camber since 1865; this closed in 1901 and was demolished. On 10 March 1910, Winchelsea Lifeboat Station was renamed Rye Harbour Lifeboat Station because the lifeboat was entirely crewed and launched by residents of Rye Harbour village, situated one and a quarter miles from the station. The lifeboat Mary Stanford came into service in 1916. On 15 November 1928, the Mary Stanford was launched into a fierce south-westerly gale to attempt the rescue of survivors from the Alice of Riga, but the lifeboat capsized with the loss of all 17 crew. This was the biggest loss of life from a single lifeboat in the history of the RNLI. This disaster had a devastating impact on the Rye Harbour community, and the boathouse was subsequently decommissioned. After 1928, ownership passed successively from the RNLI to the Kent Catchment Board, Kent River Board, Southern Water, and the Environment Agency. During Environment Agency ownership, the boathouse was used by Rye Harbour Nature Reserve as an educational facility until closure in 2003.

The building is of particular interest as a rare surviving example of pre-1885 pioneering concrete construction, and is possibly the only pre-1885 concrete lifeboat house in existence. It represents 19th-century charitable and altruistic activity and has historic value as the only building directly connected with the Mary Stanford disaster.