The largest land-locked county in Britain isn’t the first place you’d expect to find a thriving group of sea cadets – but Shropshire has one of the best branches in the region. Ben Bentley visited them on one of the eve of one of their most important occasions.

It might be landlocked and a good 80 miles from the ocean, but step inside this unassuming hut in Donnington, Telford, and you are aboard a ship sailing on the high seas.

Fitted out to replicate the deck of a Navy war ship, the base for Telford Sea Cadets – the only Sea Cadet unit in the whole of Shropshire – is where up to 90 youngsters are drilled and put through their paces every week.

Petty Officer Kevin Hoyles, a man whose booming voice could strip paint from 100 yards, barks orders. “Port division, eyes left,” comes his order. “Stand at . . . ease! Stand . . . easy!”

The cadets, guns on shoulders, respond with synchronised precision. Discipline, a quality that people often argue is missing from many youngsters in today’s society, is present and correct here.

As the cadets are drilled, it’s hard to ignore the effects of the leaking roof, and the smell of damp is only masked by the whiff of drying paint.

“You should have seen it last week when we had no wall and no floor,” says PO Michelle Grey.

There’s no hiding the structural problems, but luckily the youngsters who turn up week after week have more pressing matters on their minds.

PO Hoyles is putting them through last-minute rehearsals for Unit 405′s big day today. It’s when the unit, which is celebrating its 65th year, will be at its spick-and-span best for its annual Royal Navy Parade.

Youngsters aged between 10 and 17, along with senior officers, will come under the scrutiny of Navy bigwigs who’ll be judging whether it measures up to the high standards set by the oldest of the British armed services.

Says Kevin Hoyles: “It’s where all cadets are inspected annually and it shows that we are adhering to the rules and regulations, and the kids are getting trained properly – and can show it. So it’s quite important.”

Kevin, 43, is aware of his own understatement here. He is eager for the unit to make an impression.

And yet it already has. Despite obvious problems with the building, the cadets themselves are made of stern stuff. Previous inspections have ranked Unit 405 among the top 20 per cent for sea cadets in the UK and it regularly wins regional and area competitions for such pursuits as canoeing and sailing.

For younger members such as PO Hoyles’ daughter, 16-year-old leading cadet Maria, joining has led to aspirations of riding the ocean waves.

“I want to be in the Navy and I will be in July if I pass my tests,” she says.

“I love the cadets. You can do your Duke of Edinburgh Award and National Navigation Award, we go sailing and canoeing, mountaineering in Snowdonia and you can do your British Subaqua Club diving badge.”

Newer cadet Tom Archer has been with the unit for 18 months and is working his way through his Duke of Edinburgh Awards. He says it’s also given him chance to learn scuba diving.

PO Michelle Grey is a long-serving member, having joined aged 10 and now having notched up 16 years of service.

She says: “I wanted to join before I was 10 but you couldn’t. I kept seeing them at the Kids International event in Telford and every year I wanted join.”

But back to training, and making sure the cadets are at their best for the parade.

Says PO Hoyles: “What I am hoping to do is to raise the profile of the Sea Cadets to show people who we are and what we do, also to show parents and other youngsters what is available to them in an evening and at weekends.

“Unlike the Army Cadets and the Air Cadets, we are not funded by the Navy directly, so we have full charitable status. Just because you join Sea Cadets you don’t have to join the Navy.

“It is about what we can do for the youth of Telford and Shropshire and we are the only Sea Cadet Unit in Shropshire. At the moment we have a cadet who travels from Shrewsbury and one who travels from Stoke.”

He adds: “This is a very big event in our calendar, which is annually, and it shows the people of Telford that there are youngsters out there doing good and youths we can be proud of.”

It costs in the region of £15,000 to keep the Sea Cadets on even keel. The majority of funding comes from its own committee, so use of any spare cash has to be prioritised.

And this means that the building in Wellington Road gets the short end of the stick.

“The state of it is horrendous,” Kevin admits.

“It’s got to the point where the roof is a problem, and with the amount of work the rest of the building needs, you have to wonder whether the building is worth it – water has ingressed over the years, it’s damp, it smells, there’s no heating . . .”

The unit owns the building and leases the land it stands on from Telford & Wrekin Council.

Kevin adds: “We have tried general funding but nobody wants to know. There are football teams and things like that out there who are supported, and I’m not saying they aren’t worthwhile, but we don’t get the support.

“There’s a bit of a stigma that we are military and there are people out there who think our agenda is military. That’s people’s perception, but to me that’s not what we are about. We are taking kids off the street and teaching them important skills. There are opportunities for them here.

“We are always hearing that kids don’t want to do anything but I would say that here they learn about respect. They are going back to the streets and they are moral citizens.”

* Telford Sea Cadets is always looking for new members. For more information contact PO Kevin Hoyles on 07831 134233.