Zetland Lifeboat Museum and Redcar Heritage Centre
Free volunteer-run museum in Redcar housing the Zetland, the oldest surviving lifeboat in the world, with a gallery on local history.
Have only individual sections read aloud
About the museum
The museum is built around the Zetland, a lifeboat built in 1802 by Henry Greathead at his boatyard in South Shields. She served on the Redcar coast for 78 years and is credited with saving more than 500 lives. In 1907 she was placed in the disused Emma boathouse on the Esplanade, which is now the museum, and she is described as the oldest surviving lifeboat in the world. She is listed on the National Register of Historic Vessels as part of the National Historic Fleet.
The museum has operated in its present form since 1980 and is kept going by a volunteer crew, with Lord Zetland as its patron. The lifeboat has left her boathouse only twice: in 1963 she travelled to Edinburgh for the International Lifeboat Conference, and in 2018 she went to Middlesbrough for conservation work.
On the ground floor the displays include the Zetland, her call-out drum, the sternboard of the Lord Byron and the development of lifeboats through the years. Upstairs, the Laurie Picknett Gallery shows photographs, postcards and memorabilia of Redcar from the 1800s, a display on past Redcar and Tees lifeboat crews and a replica of an early twentieth-century fisherman’s cottage.
Highlights
- The Zetland, built in 1802 and the oldest surviving lifeboat in the world
- Call-out drum and the sternboard of the Lord Byron
- Laurie Picknett Gallery on Redcar’s past
- Sperm whale jawbone from a whale stranded on Redcar beach in 2011
- Replica fisherman’s cottage
- Audio-visual displays and short films
- Founded
- 1980
Admission & discounts
Admission is free.
Entry is free.
Accessibility
The museum hasn’t published any information on this.
Kids & families
The museum hasn’t published any information on this.
Getting there & parking
The museum is in the old Emma boathouse at 60 The Esplanade on the Redcar seafront.
Get directionsAmenities & dining
Visit-related facilities are not described on the museum website.
Events & venue rental
The museum hasn’t published any information on this.
Plan your visit
| Good to know | The museum is dog friendly. Group visits can be booked by email. |
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