WALTON’S historic lifeboat house has been highlighted as one of 23 more unusual heritage places gaining listed status this year.

The 19th Century Old Lifeboat House, in East Terrace, is one of 952 buildings and sites given new or upgraded protection by Historic England in 2018.

The list includes the elaborate Crystal Palace pedestrian subway in London, a thatched cricket pavilion at Uppingham School, Rutland, a battlefield in Warrington, a cattle trough and a series of Robin Hood sculptures, as well as 638 war memorials to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War.

The Old Lifeboat House, which is now home to Walton Maritime Museum, was conferred Grade II listed status in June after being nominated by museum curator Dr Josie Close.

She said: “Walton is a fairly modest village and this is a little gem, combining both wonderful stories of the stamina of local lifeboat men and their amazing sailing skills and a lovely little building with delightful details.

“It is a simple rectangular building, but it’s more than that in its detail.

“It’s a a delightful building architecturally, but it’s a great story of how a regiment’s drama society’s smoking club stumped up the money for the building along with local landowners - it’s very obscure.”

Dr Close thanked Essex Heritage for donating £1,300 to restore the terracotta roundels on the front elevation and marble plaque.

The Old Lifeboat House designed by CH Cooke, was built in 1884, and represents the crucial role played by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in saving lives at sea since the 19th century.

Its wide gabled structure and ornamental treatment, made up of fish-scale tiling, decorative moulded brick, and a beautifully incorporated bay window, create a finely detailed and strikingly composed building.

The local community played an important part in raising funds for the site, which housed Walton’s first lifeboat, a 37ft self-righter Norfolk/Suffolk class lifeboat, a design suited to the east coast’s shallow waters.

Baroness Bolsover launched the boat in a ceremony, held in Walton, on November 18, 1884, outside the new Lifeboat House where the boat had recently arrived by train.

The distinguished guests of the ceremony were escorted through the coastal town by mounted officers of the Honourable Artillery Company along a route decorated with bunting and the Company’s flags.

The lifeboat house was extended in 1899 to accommodate the James Stevens No.14 lifeboat, but the need to respond quickly to distress calls prompted the RNLI to moor its lifeboats at the end of the pier from 1900.

Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England said: “Historic England ensures that England’s most significant places are protected and 2018 has seen some remarkable ones added to the list.

“From an old lifeboat house in Essex to a former railway station in Otterington to the Cock sign in Sutton High Street, our fascinating history and heritage is celebrated through listing.

“We encourage people to understand and enjoy the wonderful range of historic places on their own doorsteps and by listing them we are protecting them for future generations.”

The maritime museum is open from 2pm to 4pm every afternoon from July to the end of September.