The Sea Shanty Tea Rooms was established in 1939 by Clem Ford and his wife Boo. After much encouragement from Boo, Clem, who owned the majority of the land in Branscombe, converted the the old coal yard into the café. Both Clem and Boo died in 1961 and The Sea Shanty was purchased by Cyril and Phillis Sellick and Cyril's sister Ada Buchanan. The business was later passed on to Cyril and Phillis's sons Robert and Anthony. From 1994 the property was leased to a number of tenants. In December 2019 The Sea Shanty was returned to the family and is now run by the next generation of the Sellick family.