About Pendennis Leisure
Pendennis Leisure is now a registered charity and was formed by residents of Falmouth, Penryn and surrounding villages to operate and enhance leisure services at Ships and Castles, Falmouth.
Pendennis Leisure CIO was established to galvanise community support for and prepare for a community lead operation of Ships & Castles in the wake of the announcement that Cornwall Council intended to recommend closure of our leisure centre from end March 2022.
Unfortunately, despite strong campaigning from the community, Cornwall Council closed the leisure centre in April 2022 with a view to selling it for development.
However – the story didn’t end there. Falmouth Town Council successfully negotiated an option to take over the site under a Devolution Deal, protecting it from development and sale – which is where we come in. Pendennis Leisure took over the lease of Ships & Castles in August 2023.
Our aim is to seek and apply for external funding to reopen a much needed sustainable swimming and leisure centre at the site. A successful crowd funder at the end of 2022 raised over £40,000 from community pledges, along with funding from Swim England and Power to Change. This has enabled us to leverage professional consultants opinion to develop plans for the future centre.
Due to the condition and configuration of the site – along with the huge increase in energy costs that we have seen recently, it will not be possible to simply re-open the site as was. So the current plan is to transform the centre with a 25m pool at its heart, and a teaching pool along with modernisation to reconfigure space and provide essential improvements to make the site more sustainable and energy efficient. This could take 2-4 years and in the ‘meanwhile’ the site is now open as a Community Hub offering activities, events and more for all ages.
The Site
The Ships and Castles Leisure Centre sits on Pendennis Point, an iconic headland at the mouth of the River Fal and it’s historic harbour. The headland is steeped in history- including Henry VIII’s Pendennis Castle and scheduled monuments dating from the Civil war.
The centre was built in 1993 and with it’s leisure pool, wave machine, river run and water slide it was a popular tourist attraction. However, for many years it was also the only public swimming facility available to the residents of Falmouth, Penryn and the surrounding area where hundreds of local people learnt to swim, enjoyed the physical and mental health benefits afforded to them from the centre.
The Purpose
Our aims are:
- To protect the site on Pendennis Headland
- To develop sport, leisure and well-being facilities for Falmouth, Penryn and the surrounding area.
Meet The Team
The Directors
Gemma Adams
Gemma is a Swimming Teacher, Aquatic Tutor, and Open Water Swimming Coach. She has run a local swim school for over 10 years, and has vast experience of teaching babies right through to adults.
Her passion lies in all things aquatic and she believes that everyone should have access and opportunity to learn to swim and to be able to utilise a public leisure facility for both fitness and well-being.
Gemma lives in Falmouth with her family and spends as much of the time as possible in the pool or the sea!
Mark Woodbridge
Mark is currently a Trustee and is the Treasurer of Cornwall Wildlife Trust. He is a retired Chartered Management Accountant who focused his career in Charity Finance. His last role was as Chief Operating Officer at Global Witness who fight corruption and environmental abuse. Before this he was Finance Director at Diabetes UK and he spent 14 years as the Finance Director of Practical Action.
Mark lives in Falmouth and is a member of Ships and Castles. He enjoys most sports and fitness activities including swimming, running, tennis, yoga and pilates.
Matthew Thomson
Matthew was formerly chief executive of Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen and Cornwall Food Foundation, during which time he was an active member of the Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Employment & Skills and Integrated Territorial Investment Boards, co-chair of the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Local Nature Partnership and a founding member of the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Leadership Board.
He remains an active member of the Local Enterprise Partnership’s Rural Group and works as an independent project manager and consultant.
