The National Coastwatch station at Swanage celebrated 30 years of helping to keep people safe and save lives around the Dorset coast on 15 April 2025.

It was the second National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) station to open and now forms part of a 61-strong network of stations at key points along the coastline of England and Wales. The station is on the site of an old Coastguard Lookout, and is sited at Peveril Point, with sweeping views across Swanage Bay and out to sea.

Across the country, 2,800 NCI volunteer watchkeepers help to keep people safe and save lives at sea by maintaining a daily visual and radio watch of the coast, looking out for anyone in potential danger. They report any coastal safety-related incidents to HM Coastguard so that expert help can be sent. This assistance comes from the Coastguard Rescue Teams and helicopters, the RNLI, independent lifeboats and all emergency services.

Martin Jones, Station Manager at Swanage, said, “We’re tremendously proud to have achieved this milestone and we look forward to the next thirty years. Our dedicated team of nearly 70 watchkeepers keep watch 364 days a year, during daylight hours (as we are all volunteers, we allow ourselves Christmas Day off!). An even more impressive way of thinking about it is to consider that we’ve kept watch for around 100,000 hours. Over the past thirty years we have logged somewhere in the region of 360,000 vessels; assisted with and instigated responses to numerous incidents and we’ve definitely been instrumental in saving lives.”

Martin continued, “We’ve had several notable highlights during the last thirty years. In 2012 we were awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service (QAVS). Now known as the King’s Award for Voluntary Service, KAVS is awarded to voluntary groups for their contribution to their communities and is often referred to as the MBE for groups.

“In 2021 we were privileged to be visited by our Royal patron, HRH The Princess Royal. and in 2024 we were awarded the High Sheriff’s Award which recognised our contribution at improving safety in Dorset.”

The National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) began life in December 1994 when its first station opened at Bass Point, in Cornwall. It was formed following a tragedy where two local fishermen lost their lives. Since then the organisation has grown and there are now over 2,800 trained volunteer watchkeepers at 61 stations from Fleetwood on the West Coast round to Filey on the East Coast.

The Swanage station can trace its history back to at least the 1870s when it was a coastguard lookout. Shortly after the Cornish station at Bass Point opened, NCI founder, Captain Tony Starling-Lark was invited to Swanage with a view to open an NCI station in the former coastguard building. Instrumental in this meeting was the late Ian Surface BEM, who was also the officer in charge of the Auxiliary Coastguard team in Swanage. Ian quickly gathered a team of volunteers, including members of his auxiliary team, and the second NCI station, in the country, was opened.

Like all NCI stations, Swanage is staffed purely by volunteers and receives no external funding. In addition to their watchkeeping duties, the volunteers are responsible for raising the Station’s running costs, which are around £14,000 each year. To achieve this the Station relies on the generosity of its local community and the general public.