It's a bright and sunny autumn day in October 2011..... On the seaward side of the boathouse the great shingle bank stretches out as far as the eye can see in both directions, from north to south, dropping steeply down at a sharp angle to the water's edge...... As you look southwards, you observe sea anglers silhouetted against the skyline, casting their lines out into the sea, then scurrying back under the shelter of their tents and umbrellas, for although it is a bright and sunny day, as is the nature of this particular area, there is also a constant and driving strong wind trying its hardest to blow both them and their equipment away. The more robust and colourful fishing boats lie perched on top of the shingle bank, their nets spread out to dry, patiently awaiting their next mission and tide.

Bird watchers (twitchers?) are strongly in evidence, as they abandon their cars randomly beside the edge of the road and grabbing up their binoculars, cameras and tripods, trudge off across the beach or onto the adjoining nature reserve in the hope of grabbing even a brief glimpse of perhaps their most sought-after quarry: another one on their precious list to be ticked off. (A purple heron perhaps?) And they don't have to look far, for offshore, high in the sky, graceful formations of migrating birds fly southwards towards warmer climes, while flocks of perhaps more nervous, smaller birds stick close together, as they skim across the tops of the waves, hoping to avoid the eyes of the ever-waiting and vigilant raptor birds.

People come from all over, to enjoy this wonderful place. And no wonder!

For, this most beautiful part of the coast, (and for a long distance inland, too), is internationally famous for its beaches, its wildlife and nature reserves, its varied and even rare and exotic examples of flora and fauna - and furthermore, located only a short distance away - for its historic Martello towers, its two giant and imposing (yet many would insist, in perhaps a strange way, 'beautiful') nuclear power stations, simply named "A" and "B". (Beauty being in the eye of the beholder!)

Many of the houses have names. A strong indication that there is a close and caring family and local community in this area is given by the nameplate attached to one of the very nice houses close by the lifeboat station, called 'Mizpah' – (an emotional bond between people who care deeply about one another).

And inside the lifeboat station itself, sitting sedately on her carriage, the highly-polished and gleaming Mersey Class lifeboat - which, despite her twenty or so years of service, still looks to all intents and purposes as if she came out of the showroom only a few months ago, and sits ready and eager for action at literally any time of night or day..... The station here has a full complement of some thirty to forty highly trained boat and shore crew, each and every one of them ready and willing to leap into extremely professional and immediate action whenever the call comes..... The Cox'n, his youthful looks belying his true age and years of experience, today sits smiling behind his desk, happy in his current job of catching up on his paperwork. (Ok – I jest about the paperwork!) A truly delightful character in the boathouse who first greeted me whilst standing next to the trailer that is used to transport the woods (skids) down the shingle beach is the station's mascot, a lovely and friendly black doggy called George, who follows his master everywhere and is much-loved by the crew and visitors, alike.

"Hang on a minute, John! Whatever are you talking about? At Dungeness, here, we certainly don't have a trailer to transport the 'woods' down the beach and our lovely mascot's name is 'Woody', not George!"

"Of course I know that – but then - who's talking about Dungeness? – I've in fact been talking about my visit last week to a location some 170 miles away from Dungeness, out on the East Coast, at the town of Aldeburgh, in Suffolk! Why – do you think that my description above sounds a bit similar to Dungeness, then?"

Yes, of course it does. And in so many lovely ways, including all of those similarities listed above, even down to the two nearby nuclear power stations of Sizewell "A" and "B" – Oh, yes – and of course (I'd better include it) - even down to the Cox'n looking younger than his actual age and the years of his experience in the job!)

For the benefit of those people reading this who may never have previously visited Aldeburgh, apart from the fact that, (unlike Dungeness), Aldeburgh is a bustling seaside town with lots of interesting shops and with many fine Victorian and Edwardian buildings and houses, (as was the house I saw named 'Mizpah' which I mentioned above): its beach and surrounding countryside are in so many ways extremely similar to Dungeness.

Being on holiday in the area and having heard so much in the past about Aldeburgh having a Mersey Class lifeboat and a shingle beach, as at Dungeness, I felt I had to look in upon them and see if their station and operations were similar to our own.

Having arrived in Aldeburgh and driven right through the town's main street, I saw in the distance, on the spit of land close to where the River Ald meets the sea, a Martello Tower and nearby a large white building, with the appearance somewhat similar to our own boat house and so carried on down the coast road towards it. As it happens, it turned out to be the local yacht club building and no lifeboat station in sight, which was a little surprising, as, with a multitude of yachts moored and moving about in the shelter of the river, it seemed an ideal place for a lifeboat station to be located.

I turned the car about and returned to the town and took the beach road, this time. Still no great white building in sight. Then (just having passed the house called 'Mizpah'), we finally came across RNLI Aldeburgh Lifeboat Station. And what a surprise! No great white building, such as we have here at Dungeness, but an ultra modern-looking building with what appeared to be a lot of glass and sharply sloping slate tile roofs. I'm no architect but I'm guessing there might be a Scandinavian influence there, somewhere. (Well, the Danes and the Vikings were around the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts back in the dark ages, weren't they?) Anyway, the strange thing is that despite its modern architecture, the station manages to blend in so well with the mainly Victorian and Edwardian houses and buildings close by. I later found out that it had taken many years for the station's design to get passed through local planning laws. I'm not surprised. But it certainly looks the business!

The Station's Cox'n Steve Saint was found to be in his office, and he really was genuinely catching up on his paperwork but he very kindly dragged himself away from it, in order to give me a guided tour accompanied by 'George' his lovely and very friendly 16 months old black Labrador pup, who, he explained, almost seemed to now be the main reason for the public visiting the station, rather than to view the lifeboats. (I say 'boats' as they have a 'D' Class inshore lifeboat D673 "Christine", as well as their All Weather Lifeboat, 12/34 "Freddie Cooper". )

Inside the building it was very modern and clean and appeared to be so much more compact than the wide open spaces of Dungeness Lifeboat station - and to this first time visitor it seemed to be a maze of stairs, of corridors and of rooms. Initial impression of the room where the crew change into their uniforms (all neatly hanging up there ready for them) was that it might perhaps be a bit tight on space when a 'shout' was in progress however, as stated, that was simply an impression and might not be the actual case. What did surprise me, however, is that, unlike here at Dungeness, where the Talus is kept hooked up to the carriage and ready to move out with the boat immediately, at Aldeburgh the Talus has its own separate room and therefore has to be moved out and then attached to the carriage in yet another room, each time a 'shout' goes out. Steve explained that any delay in hooking up to the carriage is minimal, however, and the boat will still be out on the beach and launched within minutes.

The shingle beach from the boathouse to launching area is a much shorter distance than we have here at Dungeness and they do not have to go out onto sand at low water, as we do. As Steve says – "The Talus hardly ever gets wet, in actual fact." I was naturally interested to learn in that case why the falls ropes appeared to be set ready for use with just a matter of attaching them round the pulley wheels located on the Talus, when it arrived to hook up to the carriage. Steve explained that in fact they use the falls ropes for every launch, as they find they get that extra bit of 'oomph!' into propelling the lifeboat on its way. I don't know (I'll have to ask Stuart) but I'm guessing that we could not do the same at Dungeness even for high water launches because the water would still be too shallow and the boat being propelled in that way could therefore occasion it severe damage. (?)

Although the sea is a shorter distance away across the beach from the boathouse at Aldeburgh than at Dungeness, it was very noticeable that the shingle pebbles are considerably smaller and that therefore recovery of the boat onto soft shingle must at times cause them problems. Apart from this, on the day that I was there it was a Sunday and despite it being mid-October, it was warm and there were literally scores of holiday makers playing on the beach and even swimming in the sea, literally in front of the boathouse. Clearing all those people together with their children off the beach and out of the water plus getting their dogs, picnic bags etc out of the way if a shout goes up, I would imagine could cause a bit of a headache for the shore crew.

I'm very grateful to Steve that he took the time and trouble in showing me around his fantastic lifeboat station and it certainly was impressive, including a very busy gift shop.

As already stated the similarities of the Aldeburgh area with Dungeness area are uncannily many, although further inland, once away from the shingle and the flat and marshy areas near the coast, there are far more trees and hills to be seen, than on our own dear Romney Marsh.

Aldeburgh Lifeboat station is obviously far more modern and newer than our own station and I can fully understand when I hear people say that they would love to have a brand new boathouse built here at Dungeness. But do you know - purely from a personal point of view - (and of course I don't work here on a daily basis!) - the sentimentalist within me has come to love our big, draughty old boathouse, with (to me) its greater feelings of space and simplicity of layout and indeed the homeliness and the history which surrounds me in the boathouse here, from on all sides. I personally would miss this big old 'White Whale" of a building, an iconic landmark that sits squarely on Dungeness beach and can be seen from so many miles away, if ever it were replaced with something more modern. And do you know something else? I reckon it's not only the boathouse that makes Dungeness Lifeboat station such a brilliant place and something to be proud of - because (as with any other RNLI Lifeboat station) - whatever its shape and construction it would only be an empty shell, without all the many dedicated people associated with it and who work so hard on its behalf, on all levels - and of course - there is also the amazing support we always receive from our local community.

John Poole

Dungeness RNLI Lifeboat Deputy Head Launcher

Visit Aldeburgh Lifeboat Website