IN the churchyard at Croft, three miles to the south of Darlington, a highly unusual headstone boasts of the achievements of the father of the man who lies beneath it.
But they are great achievements which have saved hundreds, even thousands, of lives.
The stone is dedicated to Henry Greathead “who departed this life on September 21, 1824, aged 34”. He was, says the inscription, “the son of Henry and Catherine Greathead, of South Shields, Durham, the inventor and builder of the lifeboat patronised by the Duke of Northumberland”.
Other than the churchyard is so close to the River Tees that in times of flood, the living need a lifeboat to escape, what is a South Shields chap doing in a North Yorkshire graveyard?
Croft church in the 1880s; Henry Greathead's stone is somewhere on the right
The first Greathead in our story is John, of Halnaby, which is between Croft and Middleton Tyas. John was one of 600 salt officials in the country charged with collecting the salt tax on any salt manufactured locally – producers paid the Treasury two shillings a bushel. John’s patch was centred on Richmond, and his five children were baptised in the town’s church.
The youngest of those children was Henry (below), who was baptised at St Mary’s in 1757.
Six years later, John was promoted to collect salt tax in South Shields – presumably there was much more salt production beside the briny sea than there was in the dales – and so Henry grew up as an apprentice shipbuilder.
He went to sea as a ship’s carpenter, was shipwrecked and pressganged, but eventually made it home from America and set himself up as a boatbuilder in Shields. He married Catherine in the town and they had two daughters and two sons.
In March 1789, the Adventure, a Newcastle ship, was wrecked in heavy seas on a notorious sandbank off Tynemouth. The people of Shields could see the desperate sailors climbing the rigging as the ship sank and falling off to drown. They couldn’t reach the victims because they didn’t have a boat capable of braving the towering seas.
After the disaster, the town held a competition to design a lifeboat that could withstand heavy seas. Many people entered, including Henry and the parish clerk, William Wouldhave.
There was no overall winner, but Henry was commissioned to build a lifeboat based on his design and incorporating some of the best features of the other entrants.
Henry’s lifeboat – he called it “Original” – looked like a Greenland whaling boat he had encountered on his travels. It was 28ft long, flat bottomed with room for 20 people, and the seats of the 10 oarsmen were reversible so they could row either forward or back without having to turn the boat round.
Original was lined inside and out with cork, to protect it from damage from rocks and also to provide buoyancy.
It made its first rescue in January 1790 and was such a success that the Duke of Northumberland paid for Henry to build a second lifeboat which the duke presented to North Shields. The two lifeboats acted in tandem and saved many lives until the original Original was broken up on rocks in January 1830.
Various humane societies gave Henry awards, culminating in 1802 with Parliament giving him £1,200 (worth £90,000 in today’s values, according to the Bank of England Inflation Calculator) in recognition of his brainwave – much to the disgust of Mr Wouldhave who felt he should have won for his copper and cork boat.
The 11th Original was paid for by the people of Redcar who named it “the Zetland” (above). In its 78 years service from 1802, the Zetland saved more than 500 souls from the sea, and it is now the prize exhibit in the Redcar lifeboat museum – it is the oldest lifeboat in the world.
In all, Henry made 31 Originals, most of which went to UK coastal towns but some went to Portugal, Germany, Denmark and Russia. Henry didn’t patent his design, which allowed other people to build their own lifeboats.
Sadly, Henry himself ran into heavy financial seas and, despite his windfall from the government, and he died in a debtors’ prison in London in 1818. His wife, Catherine, had died nearby in 1814.
It is their son, Henry, born in South Shields in 1790, who lies in Croft churchyard. Presumably he was living with his relatives at Halnaby when he died in 1824.
The Zetland, the oldest lifeboat in the world, at Redcar
There is great debate about whether Greathead really was the inventor of the lifeboat. Many feel that Mr Wouldhave should have great credit, and the claims of Lionel Lukin of Kent, whose “unimmersible” boat predates the South Shields competition, should not be overlooked.
However, Henry Greathead Jnr clearly thought his father was the man and so had his father’s achievements inscribed on his own headstone.
St Peter's Church, Croft, by John Mannick of The Northern Echo Camera Club. Henry Greathead's grave is to the right
The main building at Halnaby was Halnaby Hall (above), a 17th Century country mansion belonging to the Milbanke family of Seaham Hall. Famously, it was the setting for Lord Byron’s awkward honeymoon in 1815 after his marriage to Annabella Milbanke. Halnaby Hall was demolished in 1952 and a farm now bears the Halnaby name. The salt tax, incidentally, was abolished in 1825 so salt could affordably be used in large quantities in new industrial processes.
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