A MILLIONAIRE landowner has donated £250,000 towards the costs of Swanage’s new lifeboat station.

William Gronow-Davis, who owns the 7,500-acre Rushmore Estate in Dorset, has specified his quarter-of-a-million pound donation should go towards the cost of the crew’s new training room, kit and training.

Swanage RNLI’s new £3.5 million lifeboat station, one of the charity’s largest ongoing construction projects, is well underway.

The new station, designed to house the RNLI’s latest £1.5 million jet-propelled Shannon Class lifeboat, is scheduled to be operational by 2016.

Mr Gronow-Davis started supporting the RNLI in 2011, and last year he organised a golf day event in aid of the Swanage Lifeboat Station Appeal that raised £25,000.

Swanage RNLI Lifeboat Station Appeal chairman Peter Foster said: “After working closely with Mr Gronow-Davis to organise the RNLI gold day back in July 2014, I became aware of his tremendous support for the charity.

“This additional donation he has made is a remarkable show of his support and it is fitting that his donation will fund the crew room that will be the heart of the future lifeboat station.”

Mr Gronow-Davis owns the Rushmore Estate, which incorporates The Larmer Tree Gardens, Rushmore Golf Club and Tollard Park Equestrian Centre.

Last month a huge mechanical claw sliced its way through the slipway at Swanage’s former RNLI station. That followed an emotional send off earlier in February, when hundreds of people packed the waterfront to see both of the town’s lifeboats go down the slipway for the last time.

The volunteer lifeboat crew have taken up temporary residence at Swanage Boat Park – from where the lifeboats, Charles Brown and Phyl and Jack are operational.