​National Coastwatch Shoreham looks back over 15 years of its volunteer shore-based visual watch for anyone in distress

The idea of the station on Shoreham Beach first arose in 2007. With the assistance of neighbouring NCI Newhaven, which was founded a few years earlier, recruitment for watchkeepers began out of the back of a trustee’s car opposite Carats Café on Southwick Beach. The search began for a usable building to host the newly-forming station and Shoreham Port kindly offered a Second World War Coastal Artillery Searchlight (CASL) building on the western side of the harbour mouth.

The building which has now housed Shoreham NCI for the past 15 years formed part of the emergency coastal battery at neighbouring Shoreham Fort but it was a derelict. The brick and concrete building had been home to a searchlight which was used for illuminating enemy ships during the night, to allow for the two large guns at Shoreham Fort to get accurate aim.

After the war, the building fell into disuse until the late 1950s, when it appeared briefly in the movie Battle of the V1 as a German lookout. The movie was filmed during the reconstruction of the harbour entrance, where the building was to become home to the electrical fuse board for the harbour lights on the western side of the new harbour breakwater.

The keys to the building were handed over to the NCI in February 2008 by Shoreham Port Authority. Renovation of the dilapidated structure then began in earnest shortly afterwards. While the works were on going, training of the newly-recruited volunteers continued by Carats Café.

On the morning of June 3, with the renovation works finally completed, volunteers climbed the newly-constructed external stairs to undertake the first watch. Observed by three other watchkeepers, the first watch proved successful, with watches taking place from 9am to 5pm every Saturday and Sunday. The station now opens every single day of the year. Opening hours are 8am to 8pm in the summer, and 8am to 5pm in the winter.