MINEHEAD’S popular RNLI shop is winding down operations before closing its doors for most of next year.

The shop, part of the Quay West lifeboat station, has switched to winter opening hours but will close completely at the end of business on Sunday, December 12.

After that volunteer staff will be busy clearing the decks ready for a major, £1 million refurbishment of the historic station which is scheduled to start in the New Year.

From now until then the shop will be open from 2pm to 6pm on Fridays and from 11am to 3.15pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

In a normal year the shop brings in about £50,000 for RNLI funds from the sale of merchandise, including the ever-popular lifeboat Christmas cards.

But, says manager Alma Williams, the last 18 months have been anything but normal.

"First we had the lockdowns and then we had to adjust to the anti-Covid restrictions that were necessary, particularly in such a confined space as our shop interior," she said.

"But once we are open again next year we hope we shall be returning to something like normal trading arrangements."

The station, a listed building, is undergoing the biggest transformation in its 120-year history. It will be extended and remodelled to provide the volunteer crew with their first-ever changing rooms and with a reconfigured boat hall helping to cut several minutes off the launch time for the station’s D-class inflatable.

The station will operate a sea safety hub for the West Somerset and Exmoor coastline with an enlarged crew/training room, improved workshops and a completely revamped shop.

The scheme is expected to take about nine months to complete.

Image: RNLI