Penlee lifeboat station saved for nation 42 years on from tragedy

Building that closed after disaster off Cornish coast in which 16 people lost their lives granted Grade II-listed status

Weather-battered oilskins still hang on the boathouse drying rack; the tools in the mechanic's workshop are carefully ordered as if ready to be used at any moment; and the service boards recording decades of gallant rescues retain their polished finish.

Forty-two years after the Penlee lifeboat disaster, in which 16 people died including the eight Royal National Lifeboat Institution crew members, the old rescue station at Penlee Point looks much as it did in 1981 and is now to be preserved for the nation.