[1] To the west lies St Austell Bay which includes Par Docks built in the 1840s to handle the mineral traffic from Joseph Treffry's mines and quarries, and Charlestown which had been established about fifty years earlier by Charles Rashleigh.

[3] The position of the mouth of the River Fowey meant that it would be nearly impossible to launch a "pulling and sailing" lifeboat (that is, one powered by oars and sails) during the more dangerous storms when the wind blew from the south, and so it was decided to station the lifeboat at Polkerris, a small fishing village with a breakwater on the east side of St Austell Bay.

[4] The first, six-oared, lifeboat was replaced in 1866 by a larger ten-oared boat, the Rochdale and Catherine Rashleigh, which meant that the boathouse had to be altered.

Conditions changed following World War I as the RNLI brought in plans for a more efficient service with motor lifeboats, when it was decided that Fowey would be a better location for such a boat.

Deneys Reitz replacement was a much older Relief fleet 46 ft Watson-class, the 1946 built Gertrude (ON 847) which was at Fowey for eighteen months until November 1981.

The former St. Marys 46 ft 9in Watson-class Guy and Clare Hunter (ON 926) was the next boat, but served for less than two months before being sent to Penlee to replace the ill-fated Solomon Browne.

Another Relief fleet 46 ft 9in Watson, Charles Henry Ashley (ON 866) then filled the breach, but on 16 October 1982 a new type of craft took up station, the first of its class to be put into service.

[11] She served for five years before being replaced by the older but larger ex-Plymouth Waveney-class Thomas Forehead & Mary Rowse II (ON 1028).

The small D Class inflatable was initially kept in a wooden container at Berrill's Yard and launched using a davit near the ALB's moorings which had recently been moved from Town Quay.

After landing 13 men from the larger vessel at Par, and taking on two fresh rowers, returned to rescue the remaining nine people.

After an hour's search through rain-swept heavy seas a sunken ship was found near Killyvarder Rock, with the crew gathered on a small part that was still out of the water.

[14] The following are all the awards that have been made at Polkerris and Fowey:[15] The three-storey lifeboat station was built in 1997 in a style that blends with the older buildings around it.