New cadets welcome! The Unit was formed in the summer of 1942 with parades being held twice a week at a local school and on Sundays at a boathouse adjacent to Knightstone Harbour in Weston-super-Mare. With the support of various local organisations within the town, this was followed by six years of temporary accommodation in several locations. In 1948 a wartime bombsite was leased, cleared and a single storey concrete framed building erected at a cost of around £1000. The official opening was held in August 1949. With new accommodation, renewed commitment, training and morale steadily improving, the Unit won its first “Pennant” efficiency award in 1953. The following year: due to town centre development, the Unit was again on the move. This time to a rented site in Prospect Place where between October 1954 and February 1955, our old headquarters was dismantled, transported and erected on this new site. In the early 1980’s it became apparent that the Unit was vastly outgrowing its accommodation, having utilised all available space for increased Unit complement and activities. However, with foresight and recognising the value of our location, the Unit land was eventually sold to the Local Authority for sheltered housing. In the meantime, with carefully planned fund raising and donations from local people, the purchase of the current site was secured and subsequently a purpose-built Headquarters, at a cost in excess of £200,000 was eventually established. The new Unit HQ was opened by His Royal Highness, the Prince Andrew as Admiral of the Sea Cadet Corps in October 1992. In March 2007 the Mayor of Weston opened an onsite & secure Boat Repair/Storage Facility costing £50,000. Development has continued in many areas with a new fire alarm system, solar panels, a walk-in pantry and new extraction system in the galley, a staff shower facility and a complete refurbishment of the cadets' toilets. Storage has also been moved around into a converted loft space to enable the building of a classroom on the upper bridge space for our new Royal Marines Cadet Detachment in 2010. Most recently in 2018, a Mezzanine floor was built over the forward end of the maindeck space to accommodate an extra area for a lecture theatre. This also has a folding partition wall, allowing for a conversion to smaller classrooms. In the future, we are looking to fundraise to install a lift to improve our practicality with all our visitors and cadets alike
