Old Padstow Lifeboat

Land’s End is a bit of a funny place. You follow the A30 down through Cornwall and what is at points a major road suddenly turns into a car park, which unceremoniously turns you around points you back the way you came. Unless, of course, you want to park up and take a look at the most westerly point of the mainland British Isles.

Should that mood take you, you’ll find something akin to a small, artificial village containing shops, restaurants, a hotel and educational film theatres. There are few residential buildings to speak of; the whole area is a construction solely for tourists that wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the fact that its a rocky outcrop that happens to be the west-most point in the UK.

I’ll post more of Land’s End itself in a later post. At this tourist hotspot – which was lovely in and of itself without the westerly gimmick – there was an old lifeboat that had been deposited for people to board and have a look around.

Fortunately when we arrived it was pretty quiet, allowing me to get some unfettered shots of the boat without people making it all look untidy.

Having the freedom to move around without people getting in the way gave me ample time to play about with some angles.

You could also get access to the wheelhouse.

I like the cloudyness of this shot. It was a relatively clear day, but the glass of the wheelhouse was really grubby. I like to think that this was the sight greeted by many a coxswain bravely heading out to sea to risk their life to save those in peril.

The boat was rife with perspective angles to shoot which, if you’ve read this blog before, you’ll know I’m rather partial to.

This lifeboat – the RNLB James & Catherine Macfarlane – used to be stationed in Padstow in Cornwall. It spent 16 years stationed there before transferring to Lizard – the most southernly point in the British Isles. It was there for a few years before being retired.