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CLUB HISTORY

In 1960 four Penzance Grammar School boys returned from a holiday abroad where they had experienced Scuba Diving and had expressed a wish that a club should be set up in Penzance, they were Neil Birchenough, Gabriel Monroe, Ray Mallyon and John Tellam. The then Mayor of Penzance, Mr R. C. Matthews called a public meeting at St. Johns Hall in the Autumn of that year which was well attended and at the end of the meeting all those who were interested were asked to leave their names with Martin Lynch the Secretary who had been appointed at the meeting. The other appointment made at the meeting was the Chairman, Dr W Tellam, father of one of the four boys. There were about 80 people who left their names but most of these were below the age of 15 with only half a dozen adults, two of whom were Alan Griffiths and Ray Dennis. A committee was formed which included Alan and Ray, Dr Tellam, Martin Lynch and the four Grammar School boys, and our early committee meetings held in Dr Tellam's lounge. During the winter it was decided to become a branch of the British Sub Aqua Club but this lost us most of the youngsters who originally signed up for they realised that it would be years before they would be able to dive for the lower age limit in the B.S.A.C at that time was 16. We also lost Ray Mallyon early in the new year as he refused to take any tests which of course were obligatory in the B.S.A.C.

Some of our early club meetings were held in the Sea Cadets headquarters in Bread Street and our first Diving Officer was an Ex Canadian Mountie, whose name escapes me for he was only at one meeting before he left the area. John Tellam was then appointed D.O but that lasted only a few months before he left the area to go to college. Whereupon Ray Dennis was appointed D.O. whilst still only a Snorkel Class Diver and he remained D.O. for the next five and a half years during which time he qualified to Advanced Diver.

We were very fortunate at the time to make contact with Divers at Culdrose Air Station, particularly Dick Larn, who was their D.O. at the time, and we did some of our training in the static water tanks on the Station. We were also fortunate that John Rhodes came to the area and set up Waterspouts at Blewett and Penders, in fact John gave the club its first two sets of equipment consisting of twin tads, 25 cub.ft bottles from aircraft from which the wire binding had been removed and two Heinke twin hose demand valves which had no non-return valves in the hoses, which meant that we had to tip our head to one side as we breathed out to prevent the demand valves flooding.

Our first club room was at the Barbican above where the Aquarium was recently sited, it was previously the old Pilot's Lookout, and was unused, full of old rubbish and derelict when we first noticed it when looking for a club room. We discovered that it was owned by Chyandour Estates and negotiated for tenancy. They first said it was unfit for occupation but we insisted that we would clear the rubbish, and repair the building to make it fit for use whereupon they agreed that we could have it rent free for two years. At then end of the two years we heard that the property had been sold, we were there for a further year having heard nothing from the new owner and thought we should make contact in case the rent was higher than we could afford. The new owner turned out to be an acquaintance of Ray Dennis, Mr Leonard Williams a builder of Redruth who said we could remain there rent free until he developed the property. We made him our President.
While we were in occupations of the Pilot's Lookout we made the club's first boat out of three sheet of 3/8" marine ply, a few lengths of 2" x 1" timber and a packet of brass screws for the princely sum of £35 or thereabouts. We were given an old pair of oars and soon we bought a long-shaft Seagull Motor which could push us along at least twice as fast as we could row. The boat served us well for several years taking as many as eight divers out to Low Lee with all their equipment, and we also bought a C-Craft inflatable which gave us the chances to spread our wings to other parts of the coast. A second C.Craft was added later and the club would often hold camping weekends at Portloe and other areas such as the Manacles.

The Canoe Club also occupied other rooms at the Barbican building and when eventually Mr Williams decided to develop the property, he offered to provide a small store for each of the clubs in the development, but as we realised that we would need a lecture room and other facilities we approached the Council for accommodation. They offered us some old buildings on the Pier which were not suitable but we came to an arrangement with the council that we would take down the old buildings and build a new clubhouse, for which we paid rates but only a Peppercorn Ground Rent of £5 per annum for the first 21 years. That 21 years was completed in October 1995 and now the building belongs to the council and we pay both Rates and Rent.

This is an extract from the history of Penzance BSAC
 by Ray Dennis and Alan Griffiths

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