Tower and Town, February 2016

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The Town Mill Swimming Pool

In the late 1940's my Mum was at the Grammar School (now St. Peter”s School) and used to have swimming lessons in the open-air pool on the Town Mill site. As she walked over the bridge with the water wheel on the left the derelict old mill building was still there. The pool was like a huge concrete paddling pool on a metal framework with metal steps going up from the south side. The P.E.teacher stood at the poolside instructing and using a belt float on a rope to give any nervous child more confidence. The water was unheated and the class went shivering back to school to a French lesson.

I swam there with my sisters at Marlborough Swimming Club in the late 60's. It was started by Town Councillor and former Mayor, Bill Winchcombe, and others. After tea we used to queue up with our parents to get in. Mum remembers a little girl looking at the temperature notice in centigrade and fahrenheit and telling her father that she was going in the fahrenheit end because it was warmer. Some who taught us then, like Alan Crook, are still mainstays of the club 50 years on.

We had warm orange squash and crisps or wafer biscuits to warm us up as soon as we were dressed. As we progressed and competed with other clubs with heated pools we would take a cold shower before a race to give us an advantage over the 'softies'. In the hot summers of the 70's we went to the pool in the morning and stayed for hours. There was no time limit. A colourful play area for toddlers had been put on the lawn with a paddling pool and swings. The older kids sunbathed there.

Carrie