The sands to the west of Wells harbour entrance now quickly get cut off by the incoming tide.
Make sure you are back on dry land or the main beach FOUR HOURS BEFORE high water!
People walking out on the sands by the water's edge to the west of Wells harbour entrance at low water can easily be cut off when the tide starts to come in. This particularly catches out people walking along the foreshore from Holkham beach or those walking right out across the sand down the side of the harbour channel from Wells beach.
Make sure you come back to the main beach when the siren sounds, the water starts to flow into the harbour or four hours before the time of the next high water! See our Sea Saftey Advice page for more information and tide times. Tide times are also displayed on the NCI Coastwatch Hut as you come onto Wells beach from the beach bank or car park.
The RNLI Lifeboat Station in Wells-next-the-Sea houses an all-weather lifeboat and an inshore lifeboat to save lives and assist with emergencies around Wells and off the North Norfolk coast. Manned by volunteer crews, the boats are ready to launch within minutes, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. This website will tell you more about the station and give you a taste of what we do and the traditions of the lifeboat service.
Our new shop, visitor information centre and public viewing gallery are open Fridays-Mondays from 10-4 plus some additional weekdays... see below for latest info.
Shop and viewing gallery open 10-4 Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday
A new sandbar means people walking by the water's edge to the west of Wells harbour entrance at low water can easily be cut off when the tide starts to come in. This particularly effects people walking along the foreshore from Holkham beach or those walking right out across the sand down the side of the harbour channel from Wells beach. Make sure you come back to the main beach when the siren sounds, the water starts to flow into the channel or four hours before the time of the next high water! See our Sea Saftey Advice page for more information and tide times.
Weather Fine Visibility Good Wind W2 Sea Slight
Weather Fine Visibility Good Wind NE3 Sea Slight
The ILB launched at 14:32 with a crew of three and proceeded to East Hills to carry out a perimeter search of the area at a safe distance to see if anyone needed assistance which was fortunately not the case. The ILB then returned to the outer harbour to assist the fire brigade in getting equipment across to the East Hills. The ILB worked alongside additional vessels provided by the harbour, a local fisherman and the police marine unit, and aditional volunteer crew were deployed to assist fire fighters on the hills with equipment and hoses. In total, ten crew provided support on scene with a further eleven helping at the boathouse. By 18:30, the fire was under control and the flames extinguished but the area still smouldering. By this time, the tide was ebbing away and it was becoming increasingly difficult to pump water to the Hills so a decision was made to leave the scene, with the fire brigade intending to return the following day to douse down the remaining hot areas. The ILB returned to station at 18:45 and was rehoused by 20:00.
Unfortunately, the fire broke out again during the night and Wells fire crew attended in the small hours with the help of a local fishing boat. Clearly, significantly more resources were needed to extinguish the fire completely. Multiple fire crews assembled on Friday 30th ahead of the tide and the lifeboat crew were paged again at 15:04, the ILB launching at 15:45 with a crew of three and an additional eight volunteer crew being taken over the channel on harbour and support craft to again assist the fire fighting effort. With the area doused down by 18:15, all personnel and equipment returned to the station. The inshore lifeboat was rehoused and made ready for service by 19:45 and the fire crews finally departing at 20:45.
Weather Fine Visibility Good Wind WNW 4 Sea Slight
Weather Fine Visibility Good Wind SSE3 Sea Slight
Weather Part cloudy Visibility Good Wind NW3 Sea Slight
Weather Cloudy Visibility Good Wind NW1 Sea Slight
As the RNLI celebrates 200 years of life-saving this year from 1824-2024, volunteers at RNLI lifeboat stations around the UK gathered to mark the anniversary with a photograph taken at 18:24 on 1/8/24. These images are a snapshot of the people currently continuing the instituition's proud history around the coast. Our thanks to Mark Frary for the drone photography at Wells.
Our shop and viewing gallery are normally open weekends from Friday to Monday 10-4 along with extra days in the holidays and whenever we can. In good weather, the main boathouse doors may also be open to view the all-weather lifeboat from the front. See below for latest times or our visits page for more information.
Shop and viewing gallery open 10-4 Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday
The RNLI is 200 years old this year and the anniversary is being marked nationally and by lifeboat crews and stations
around the UK. In Wells, we held a series of events and an exhibition in Wells Maltings in March and we'll be flying the
RNLI 200 flag throughout the year.
Lifeboat Horse marking 200 years in the quay
Wells RNLI is now operating from the new building. See the boathouse build pages for the story of how the new station was built.
Our new Shannon lifeboat was funded in part with a station appeal for £250,000 in 2014-15 and also by the Civil Service charity The Lifeboat Fund with its 150th Anniversary Appeal. We are hugely grateful to everyone who has donated, fund-raised, helped and supported us both locally and across the UK and further afield.
You are welcome to watch the lifeboats launch on exercise from a safe distance on the beach bank or beach; please keep clear of the boats and launching vehicles and keep children and dogs under supervision. Exercises are roughly every two weeks and we try to post dates and times in advance when we can. All dates are subject to change or cancellation at short notice for operational reasons.
Thursday 7 Nov 2024 18:30
Regular exercise
Sunday 24 Nov 2024 09:00
Low water launch Holkham beach
Sunday 8 Dec 2024 09:00
Regular exercise
Sunday 29 Dec 2024 09:30
Launch & Recovery practice, Holkham beach
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a charity, registered in England and Wales (209603) and Scotland (SC037736). This website is managed and maintained by local volunteers at Wells-next-the-Sea Lifeboat Station and is not the main RNLI site. All text and images copyright (C)2005-2021 RNLI Wells Lifeboat Station, or as indicated, and may not be downloaded, copied or reproduced elsewhere without prior permission of the station or the relevant copyright holder. Site Manager