The History of the Hall

The building was built in the 1890s for use as a fish store for the local fleet of pilchard boats. The fish were kept in (ten) large tanks on the ground floor and were packed into barrels for transportation on the floor above. The upper floor was also used as a net loft where the fishermen were able to string out their nets for repair by hand, and to store and repair crab and lobster pots and later flower packing. In later years, as the pilchard fishing industry declined the building was used primarily as a general store facility, the original fishing tanks having since been rubble filled.

The building was constructed using local granite with a large slate roof, comprising two floors. Each floor has an area of over 1800 square feet. There was no connection between the floors other than by trap doors.

The building situated in the centre of the village had suffered over the years from a lack of adequate maintenance and was in need of considerable remedial work. The building is owned by Cornwall Council, but was previously owned by Penwith District Council (before the creation of the unitary authority) who first offered the building to the community of Mousehole on a peppercorn rent in 1997 on a flexible lease of £10 per annum. If the village did not make use of the Store, via securing funding, the site plus the residents car park (that adjoins the Store) would be sold for development.

Thank goodness that didn’t happen!

The History of the Solomon Browne

The Penlee Lifeboat “Solomon Browne” is usually only associated with her final tragic voyage, but she had put in over twenty years good and valuable service before December 1981.

She arrived in Mousehole harbour for her naming ceremony in September 1960. She was a state-of-the-art Watson Class, 47’ long and costing the then-considerable sum of £35,500, most of which was donated by a Miss Lydia Browne to commemorate her father Solomon, a gentleman farmer from Landrake.

Her first shout was to intercept the freighter “Fravizo” and take off a mother and new-born baby – an event which was celebrated as recently as 2010 when the mother and the 50-year old “baby” came back to Penlee to recall the event.

Much of her work-load consisted of ‘medicos’, attending to medical emergencies at sea and either transferring a doctor or landing the sick man, among other routine lifeboat tasks.  However there were some headline missions.  She attended the wreck of the “Jeanne Gougy” at Lands End, from which six men were unexpectedly rescued after all hands had been thought to be lost.  She searched for survivors of the “Juan Ferrer” which had hit the Bucks rocks in the night, losing fifteen men and leading to the building of the Tater Dhu lighthouse.  She spent a long and dirty shift standing by the stranded oil tanker “Torrey Canyon” to give the Isles of Scilly lifeboat a respite. She was on duty during the disastrous Fasnet race of 1979.

However her hardest service prior to 1981 was in 1975 to the MV “Lovat” which was sinking in hurricane conditions 25 miles south of the Lizard.  In awful seas she maintained full speed to the scene, where tragically she could do no more than pick up the bodies of the dead, a service for which the coxswain Trevelyan Richards received the RNLI Bronze medal and the crew received an official Thanks on Vellum.

On the night of 19th December 1981 the “Solomon Browne’s” crew were put on standby as the coaster “Union Star” had reported an engine breakdown on her maiden voyage.  Eventually, and rather late, she was launched into ferocious seas to make her way to the coaster, which was drifting just to the west of Tater Dhu.  A helicopter had been on scene for some time but had been able to make no headway in rescuing the crew of five or the captain’s wife and two teenage step-daughters due to the storm-force winds and huge waves which threatened to entangle her rotors with the ship’s mast. A salvage tug had also arrived but could offer no assistance.

By the time the “Solomon Browne” reached the scene after a dreadful voyage, the “Union Star” was only a few hundred yards from the cliffs. The waves were rising to as much as 40-50’, breaking, combining with the backwash from the shore, leaving deep troughs in which uncharted rocks might appear.  Despite this Trevelyan Richards did not hesitate to engage the coaster, coming alongside time after time, trying to cajole the terrified crew to come across to the lifeboat, in vain.  As the two vessels neared the shore the “Union Star’s” anchor parted and she turned broadside to the waves. Attempting to come alongside the “Solomon Browne” was picked up and thrown onto the coaster’s hatches, clear of the water.  As she rolled back into the sea the observers on the helicopter expected her to founder, or at least to break off operations, but instead watched in wonder as she immediately closed in for yet another rescue attempt.

When just 50 yards from the rocks the lifeboat radioed in that she had taken off four survivors, male and female, adding: “…There’s two left on board” before communications ceased. The helicopter having already left, no-one saw what happened next, but the “Union Star” shortly hit the shore and tipped over on her back, while the “Solomon Browne” was overcome and broken to fragments.  Along with the eight lives from the “Union Star” the eight volunteer crew from Mousehole were all lost. They were:

Coxswain Trevelyan Richards, 56; mechanic Stephen Madron, 35; assistant mechanic Nigel Brockman,43; crewmen John Blewett,43; Charlie Greenhaugh, 46; Barrie Torrie, 33; Kevin Smith, 23; and Gary Wallis, 22.

Their names are commemorated in several places in Mousehole, and are read out every year in the lifeboat service in Mousehole harbour, and will never be forgotten.  The RNLI awarded a posthumous Gold Medal to Trevelyan Richards and Bronze Medals to the crew.

The loss of the “Solomon Browne” and her heroic final voyage captured the imagination of the nation, inspiring poets and painters, sculptors and composers, raising awareness of the magnificent and still dangerous work carried out by volunteers of the RNLI, and is still recalled by the media on every significant anniversary. However Mousehole still feels the pain, loss and sadness of that shocking event, though coupled with an enormous sense of pride and respect for what her sons achieved on the “Solomon Browne”.