History

We're fundraising to rebuild the Centre!

Centre History

A brief history

The Sennen Cove Recreation Centre was donated over 100 years ago to the community (in 1923) by the local reverend and has been held in trust as a community building ever since.

Over the years it has been home to various community groups and has also been known as :

Sennen Seaman’s Mission (19th Century) - the oldest map of the Sennen Cove area we have found is dated 1839 and shows the seaman's mission, we don’t have an exact age that it was built.
Sennen Reading Rooms (1920s)
Sennen Cove Institute, home of the:

- Sennen Working Mens Club (1950s)

- Sennen Snooker Club (1990s)

- Sennen Surf Club & Cape Cornwall Gig Club (2010s)

Sennen Cove Recreation Centre (2011)

In the early 20th century the building was constructed of dark coloured timber, we understand this was replaced with a granite building sometime in the 20s. However in WWII (24 May 1942) a sea mine washed up on the shore in front of the building, detonated and heavily damaged it and the buildings surrounding it. The building was then almost entirely demolished as building materials from it were used to repair surrounding homes. It was rebuilt in its current form (uninsulated pot block with tin roof) in the 50s:

The Mission House / Reading Rooms

Location of the sea mine explosion (1942)

The building was empty for a number of years after the snooker club stopped running before the community surf club - the Sennen Surf Club carried out renovations and moved in in 2010. The surf club still use the building to date, though at a reduced level than previously due to its degrading condition.

The Sennen Cove Recreation Centre is the only community building in Sennen Cove and the only waterside community building in Sennen Parish, and being a coastal community is of huge value to local community groups and individuals.

The Centre existed as an unincorporated charity until registering as a CIO in September 2023 (registered Charity No. 1204904) to protect it as a community asset for future generations.

If you would like to view more on the history we have put together a Google Photos Album.This album depicts various photos and maps of the centre through the years, collated from research carried out at Kresen Kernow archive centre in Redruth, Cornwall

Sennen Cove Mens Club

The Centre today

Where we are today

The building condition has been gradually deteriorating over the years, despite maintenance, as the roof requires replacement. There was a previous fundraising attempt in 2015 to refurbish the centre and improve the accessibility, this unfortunately failed at the last stage as the deeds for the building could not be located to prove ownership, and there was an issue with registering the building with Land Registry. These issues have since been resolved with the building being registered in 2020 and transferred into the ownership of the charity in March 2024.

In its current state the building is cold and damp even in mid summer, with widespread damp & mould representing a health hazard, which severely limits its use to the community. It has been all but relegated to storage for the one remaining community club who cannot run without a base in the cove.

Widespread internal damp & mould

Subsiding bank to the rear of the centre

With the support of various professionals we have carried out feasibility surveys on different ways of renovating the existing building. The structural survey showed that the bank to the rear of the building is suffering from subsidence. To fix this issue would require partial demolition of the existing building to build up and reinforce the current, insufficient retaining wall, and it was determined that it would be as expensive to resolve this issue, rebuild what was demolished and then bring the existing building up to standards, than to fully demolish the building and create a new purpose built building. An added benefit of the rebuild is the new structure will have much better green credentials, as it will be more energy efficient and will be built in a way that is in keeping with the surrounding buildings.

As such we have worked with a local architects firm to draw up some initial plans for the build and undertaken a period of consultation with the local community to ensure it meets the needs of as many people & groups as possible.

Help us to rebuild!

The opening of capital funding opportunities like the Community Ownership Fund - a fund dedicated to saving community assets that are at risk, like the centre - has enabled us to look to the future of the building again. We were in receipt of support to put in a comprehensive application to this fund, which was successful with £322k+ awarded in December 2024!

We've now secured over £460,000 of funding with just £25,000 left to raise!!