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The photo on the left shows the model in the St Patrick's Day Parade at Donegal in 2002. Photo courtesy of the Donegal Times.
The
Barham Model Club built this splendid half size model of the
Great Yarmouth and Gorleston 44ft Waveney lifeboat the
"Barham". The idea to build the model came about after
discussions between the lifeboat crews into what they could
do to enter the 1986 Great Yarmouth carnival. The Barham
Model Club was then formed which consisted of 24 members
from the inshore and offshore lifeboat crews. A full set of
plans were acquired from the RNLI headquarters at Poole and
work began on the model in April 1986 in a domestic garage.
It wasn't long though before they had out grown this
accommodation and had to move to a local warehouse which was
kindly loaned by G.C.S. Wire Rope Services. Events were
arranged during the spring and summer of 1986 to raise the
£3,000 needed for the building of the model, which was
insured for £12,000 after the work was completed. In
all the model took eight months to complete with work
continuing right up to the launch, which to place in the car
park of the Rumbold Arms, Southtown, Yarmouth which was also
the venue for many of the fund raising events. The Mayor of
Yarmouth, Mrs Brenda Mills, performed the launching
ceremony, praising the lifeboatmen's efforts as a
"marvellous achievement". Looking at the incredible detail
put into the model it is not surprising to learn that the
model took several hundred hours to complete.
The
model was also loaned out to organisations across the
country to raise funds for the RNLI. The last know
destination was when the model was taken on a tour of
Ireland but it has not been heard of since, so if anyone
knows what became of the model I would be very pleased if
you could e-mail
me.
