by Rebecca Hannant
The Humber Coastguard Association will host the unveiling of a first-of-its-kind Coastguard memorial in Withernsea this weekend.
On Sunday, September 28, St Nicholas Church will unveil a new memorial celebrating decades of the area’s coastguard connections.
The memorial, which has been made using pews from the town’s St Matthew’s Church, also marks four years of coastguard history with photographs of members and former members. It also features one of the four Potts of Leeds clocks once installed in Withernsea.
The clock, which has become an integral part of Withernsea’s history, was originally located at the town’s swimming pool. The pool opened in 1911, and the clock was fitted to the side of the boiler house in the early 1960s. Seventy-five years after opening, the swimming pool was demolished to make way for Kay Kendall Court, but efforts were made to save the clock.
Terry Bearpark, current secretary and one of the founding members of the Coastguard Association 50 years ago, said: “When the site was being demolished prior to the building of Kay Kendall Court, a telephone call was received from a Withernsea councillor suggesting the clock should be ‘rescued’ before it disappeared.
“I went down and dismantled it just before the bulldozers moved in. It remained in my garage for quite a while before I passed it on to former Coastguard and Humber Lifeboat crew member Syd Rollinson who did quite a lot of work on it and fitted it to the side of his shed in Skeffling, where it remained for many years until he passed away in 2021.
“His family wanted it to go on display as part of Withernsea’s history and it was decided that St Nicholas Church would be an ideal place. Due to Syd’s and my long service with HM Coastguard it was thought that it should have some kind of Coastguard connection.
“The Humber Coastguard Association took the idea on and along with the church came up with the idea of a Coastguard memorial incorporating the clock.”
The clock was then given to Darrin Stevens, chairman of the Friends of St Nicholas, who undertook the design of the memorial and arranged for the clock to be fully restored and mounted on its own wall, as the church is not allowed to hang anything on the existing walls. The work was funded by the association in close collaboration with St Nicholas, while the clock itself was restored and remodelled by Simon Dundee.
The memorial will be unveiled on Sunday at 2.30pm, attended by the Deputy Lieutenant of East Yorkshire, Colonel David Fuller.
Terry added: “Sunday will be a unique day for the Coastguard service when the memorial is unveiled. We do not think there is a dedicated Coastguard memorial anywhere in the country and this one will remember all Coastguards who are no longer with us. A lot of thought and hard work has gone into its design, especially with it incorporating a piece of Withernsea’s history, the Potts clock from the old swimming pool. We hope it will be a popular attraction for many years at St Nicholas’ Church and will remind visitors of the valuable work carried out by members of HM Coastguard, both currently and over the past 200 years.”
Supporter Wendy Graves said: “Any plaque will benefit Withernsea – it shows the importance of a person, disaster or anything that has happened in the town. When it comes to unveiling a plaque, it is honouring the people of Withernsea, and their stories will live on.”