A Legacy of Generosity and Environmental Responsibility
Sarah Townsend Porritt is an Iconic Historical Lifeboat, built in 1951, and commissioned by the Sussex Yacht Works Ltd, Shoreham-by-Sea on behalf of the R.N.L.I, at a cost of £24,427 and launched in Lytham St Anne’s April 1951. She carried out in total 95 launches and saved 43 lives during her long and eventful service with the RNLI, including two bronze medals for gallantry.
This Lifeboat was funded by the estate of the late Miss Kate Porritt of Rossendale Lancashire, in her mother’s name Sarah Townsend Porritt. Why may you ask, is this name so important? The Porritt family were philanthropic industrialists with a conscience about the environment long before such thoughts were fashionable. It was said of them that they had not desecrated the landscape as had so many industrialists. Their mills and houses were unobtrusive and well built. They planted trees along the Irwell Valley and helped maintain the predominately rural atmosphere. Industry obviously needs labour and in the 19th century the Porritt’s built terrace houses and cottages for their workers. For more than 100 years the family were also generous benefactors.