
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Helen Mark spends the day wit the only full-time lifeboat crew in the UK, based on Spurn Point. This unique landscape is a strip of land, 3.5 miles long and only 50m wide in places. Until recently the station was occupied by the station staff and their families, but the fragility of the Spurn Point sandbank that links it to the mainland means it is no longer fit for so many people. And if you want to visit, you have to park up and walk 3 miles, since the storms of 2013 washed parts of the road away.
The lifeboat stations covers the treacherous inshore waters of the Humber and 100 miles out to sea, as far north as Bridlington and south to Skegness. There's an average call out rate of once a week, but the crew have to be ready 24/7. Helen meets Ben Mitchell, the 29 year old 2nd Coxwain who is in charge this week, plus crew members Ed Kilsby, Liam Dunnett, Glen Peterson and Kim Platford. She also visits the manager of the Spurn Point National Nature Reserve, who explains why this tiny strip of land is of national importance to wildlife.
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery.
By BBC Radio 44.8
8383 ratings
Helen Mark spends the day wit the only full-time lifeboat crew in the UK, based on Spurn Point. This unique landscape is a strip of land, 3.5 miles long and only 50m wide in places. Until recently the station was occupied by the station staff and their families, but the fragility of the Spurn Point sandbank that links it to the mainland means it is no longer fit for so many people. And if you want to visit, you have to park up and walk 3 miles, since the storms of 2013 washed parts of the road away.
The lifeboat stations covers the treacherous inshore waters of the Humber and 100 miles out to sea, as far north as Bridlington and south to Skegness. There's an average call out rate of once a week, but the crew have to be ready 24/7. Helen meets Ben Mitchell, the 29 year old 2nd Coxwain who is in charge this week, plus crew members Ed Kilsby, Liam Dunnett, Glen Peterson and Kim Platford. She also visits the manager of the Spurn Point National Nature Reserve, who explains why this tiny strip of land is of national importance to wildlife.
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery.

7,583 Listeners

1,057 Listeners

5,463 Listeners

1,801 Listeners

1,747 Listeners

1,042 Listeners

2,085 Listeners

1,976 Listeners

477 Listeners

38 Listeners

66 Listeners

282 Listeners

266 Listeners

252 Listeners

157 Listeners

106 Listeners

253 Listeners

102 Listeners

4,166 Listeners

3,187 Listeners

719 Listeners

235 Listeners

101 Listeners

26 Listeners

486 Listeners