The life boat is probably not the HFS but what I first noticed about this old photo of Amble were the two coal trucks on the skyline, on the further of the wooden bridges or staithes. Those structures served at least two collieries and the remnants of one of them was still there and rather impressive when I first visited in Amble in 1974.
About 30 years later I was persuaded by a good friend to acquire a coble very much like one of the cobles moored in Amble Harbour along side the lifeboat and I brought her up to the Tyne from Hartlepool and gave her, her original name, Peggy and she was restored, firstly by Fred Crowell, with myself as one his ‘apprentices’ and later by Dave Walker of the NE Maritime Trust.
By the time I finally made my home in Amble in 2019, she had been sold to a sister Trust to NEMT and while she is now over a 100 years old, having been built in 1924, I was lead to believe she had been sailed during the summers of 2024 and ’25 by the members of the North East Maritime Trust or their friends though sadly I have no photographic evidence that she had been laken out for a sail in the last couple of years1.
Mick Dawson
Amble
16 & 19 January 2026
1 – recent photos are not available at the moment because the content isn’t available. Facebook says “When this happens, it’s usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people or changed who can see it, or it’s been deleted. picture are not available”
There is however, a photo of her sailing off Souter Lighthouse as part of the event in the 2010s and that’s me using an oar to get her out of ‘stays’. I believe the event was to celebrate an anniversary of the handover the Lighthouse and the keepers cottages to the National Trust.
I had an opportunity to visit the Lighthouse after joining the National Trust and can thoroughly recommend it.