Warm Weather - Rushden Baths Busy

A record for the last three or four weeks was made on Monday, when lots went to Rushden’s open air swimming baths to escape from the hot weather.

Out of town attractions took many away on Saturday, but despite this 850 went into the bath. During the time it was open on Sunday from ..am until 10am, just over 200 went in.

There were another 500 bathers on Tuesday, and 500 again on Wednesday, when temperatures of the week averaged 76 degrees.

“Once they get in,” said the attendant, smiling, “they don’t want to get out, with the water so warm. There have been a rare lot down this week end. Of course, about 200 children come from the schools each day by arrangement with the education authorities, and we have nearly ... season ticket holders this year. Oh yes, we’re busy enough!” [missing numbers were trapped in the binding of the newspaper volumes before filming was done]

Letters on Mixed Bathing

To the Editor of the "Echo and Argus"

Dear Sir,—Re the letter you published last week from Mr Ginns. I certainly agree that there should be more time allowed for mixed bathing, and would suggest that at least two early mornings should be "mixed."

Yours etc.
Horace Wright
"Cliftonville"
Essex-road,
Rushden.
14.8.34

Sir—As a ratepayer I beg to voice my opinion with regard to more facilities for mixed bathing at the Rushden Baths. It is, I think, and obvious necessity, as there are many who cannot get down at the times now allowed, and a lot who would appreciate new hours for mixed bathing.

I suggest that the mornings be utilised for the separate sessions up to 12.30, and from 2 o’clock the baths thrown open for mixed bathing until sundown. The bath attendant could be relieved by his assistant, and I am sure that not only would the baths be visited more, but the majority who have now to go out of town for their evening dips with their friends would take advantage of the opportunity. In my case it could be tried to see if there is a need by Rushden’s swimming population, who are broad minded.

I remain
Yours faithfully,
Hopeful

Sir—Mr Ginns is quite right, and i suggest that each one of us tackles his ward’s Councillors and urges them to do their best to throw away those tiresome restrictions. We nearly all of us like to bathe with our wives or girls, and eight hours in seven days is an absurd allowance. Don’t let the Council get Mrs Grundy-ish!

Yours, etc.,
Rushdenite
15.8.34

Sir—I feel I must protest against Mr Ginn’s letter about Rushden Swimming Bath. The object of the bath, surely, is to provide Rushden people with somewhere to swim. And the reason people go to the bath is to swim, for the sake of the exercise and for enjoyment in the exercise.

Surely we don’t want to pay extra rates merely to have somewhere to sunbathe, and I’ve never read such stuff and nonsense as a stepped terrace bedecked, I presume, with bright flowers and rich foliage.

I see no reason for continuing the foolish restrictions imposed by the Council in evident disapproval of mixed bathing. But so long as we can bathe, in clean water, it really doesn’t matter whether there are floral terraces and space for sunbathing. We have a jolly good bath, and we can’t afford unnecessary luxuries, so let is be content. We have enough water to swim in, so we should rejoice.

Yours faithfully,
Johnson Jones
Rushden
Aug. 13, 1934.

Sir—I would like to suggest that it would be to the benefit of the townspeople, and to the visitors of this town, if steps were taken to abolish that infernally restrictive time-table at the Rushden Public Baths as Mr Ginns suggests.

I am a keen swimmer and, like him, have visited many public baths in various parts of the country, and I find that most baths allow unrestricted bathing at all time. Visitors to the town who have an hour or two to spare can have a dip and then continue on their journey, if it is unrestricted bathing. At Rushden, ten-to-one it is "ladies" or "gentlemen" only.

A mere eight hours of unrestricted mixed bathing is allowed by the Baths Committee at the Rushden baths each week. If mixed bathing were permitted throughout the week, overcrowding would not occur, and more people would leave the town satisfied with the baths.

Yours faithfully
Submarine.

Heated Pool For Rushden Agreed If…

It looks as if Rushden is to have a 52-week-a-year swimming pool, but only if the majority of the £20,000 – the estimated cost of covering and heating the pool – can be found by public subscription.

This was decided by an overwhelming majority at a public meeting held at the Secondary School for Boys on Tuesday, though not before many people had raised objections and commented on counter schemes.

Schemes like scrapping the present pool and spending up to £100,000 on a new one, providing a lido in the hall grounds.

When it came to the vote the crowded school hall voted for what seems to be the one scheme which can be completed within the next couple of years or so.

The meeting even rejected a proposal that all the money should be raised by public subscription.

By this one can only assume that it is hoped the Urban Council will be prepared to find a proportion of the cost.

The council chairman Mr. A. A. Allebone made no promises. He pointed out that the council had rejected the idea that the improvements should be paid for out of the rates.

But he added: “I am sure the council would deal sympathetically with any proposition put forward by a voluntary organisation, which was supported by public opinion and able to raise a substantial capital payment towards the cost.”

Who Pays?

It was left to Rushden Swimming Club to organise a meeting of representatives of local clubs and organisations to form an association to raise the money.

Various ideas were put forward. There were strong objections against the money being provided out of rates. There were others who thought it was the council’s responsibility to provide the improvements.

Generally speaking, nobody denied that the improvements should be made. The argument centred on who should pay.

One of the best suggestions came from Mr. R. Bates, who said he thought Higham Ferrers, which does and will benefit from the pool’s facilities, should amalgamate with Rushden in raising the money.

Rushden Swim Pool Closed by Vandals

Rushden people hoping for relief from the hot weather in the town’s pool on Wednesday were disappointed. The previous night hooligans broke in and filled it with everything they could lay their hands on.

The authorities had no option but to close it.

Lavatory paper, slatted seats, litter bins and their contents, footboards, brushes, towels and costumes were all floating in the water when the superintendent, Mr. E. Line, arrived at the pool at 5.30 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

Although Mr. Line worked flat out in an effort to clear the pool, he feared the pollution might cause it to be closed on Thursday as well.

In addition to the public being deprived of a swim on Wednesday three school parties – from Alfred Street Junior School, Rushden Secondary School for Boys and Wellingborough Secondary School for Girls – had to be disappointed.

Mr. Line explained it would be impracticable to empty the pool as it would take a fortnight to refill and would reduce water pressure in the locality.

He hoped that by “bunging it full of chlorine” he could provide refuge for the overheated by Thursday.

Mrs. H. Underwood, 2 Essex Road, Rushden, who does not normally enter many competitions, learned on Saturday night that she was the winner of a De-Luxe Mini car—the major prize in Rushden Swimming Pool Improvement Fund's competition.

Mrs. Underwood, who attended the fund committee's wine and cheese party with her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Ann Underwood, at the Parish Rooms, Higham Ferrers, gasped with surprise and pleasure as the result of the competition was announced by the chairman of the fund, Dr. D. Smith.

Her lucky number was drawn by Mrs. A. Perkins, Chairman of Rushden Urban Council. Mrs. Underwood, who is not a motorist, told the "Evening Telegraph" that her daughter-in-law had passed her driving test on Thursday last week, and was hoping one day to buy a car.

She and her daughter-in-law would be able to use the car for pleasure trips.

Dr. Smith is to formally present the car to Mrs. Underwood tomorrow afternoon.

The competition marked the end of a series of events in aid of the fund at Rushden over the past six months.

Pool Fund Reaches Its First Target

Rushden swimming pool improvement fund committee which has been engaged in an all-out effort to secure all the year round swimming at Rushden Pool has now raised £2,100 – enough money, they hope, to either heat or roof the pool.

The committee hopes to provide facilities for winter swimming, which would alleviate the problem of teaching local children to swim – this year some children had to be turned away from swimming club instruction lessons because classes were full.

The better facilities would also give competition swimmers a better chance to train, and would put them on an equal practice footing with competitors in the Northampton area where there is already a heated pool.

The committee feels that £2,100 would be enough money to either heat or roof the existing pool in Station Road, and has asked to meet the Rushden Urban Council with a view to spending the money on one or the other.

The committee hopes that the council will contact a firm of experts for advice on which of the two schemes should be carried out first.

Mrs. J. R. M. Hardwick, secretary of the committee, told the “Echo” that Wolverton had a swimming pool twice the size of Rushden’s, and had installed gas heating for £1,800. If, however, roofing was to be the first priority, the committee understood that fibre glass material would do the job inexpensively.

Mrs. Hardwick feels if some improvements could be carried out to the pool with the money already raised it would act as a stimulant to people in the town to help raise enough money to complete the improvement programme.

The improvement fund does not, however, intend to rest on its laurels now that it has reached the sum of £2,000 and still plans more money raising activities.

Learners in the pool

This time next year, with any luck, the outside temperature will not matter so much because the pool will be heated.

Although the pool is small, it is surprising how many people use it. During the summer school term there is an almost constant stream of young children using the pool between Monday and Friday. As one class leaves, another arrives. And not only from Rushden and Higham Ferrers—they come from quite a wide area including Thrapston and Wellingborough.

With heated water it will mean even fewer swimming but of course the eventual aim is to have swimming days are lost, but of course the eventual aim is to have swimming 12 months of the year with an indoor pool.

The "Echo" understands that originally it was planned that the Rushden pool should be indoor, but the money ran out. Let us hope the same thing does not happen again.

No Sunday afternoon dip for swimmers

This Sunday afternoon the temperature could be soaring in the seventies – but there will be no chance of cooling off in Rushden Swimming Pool. If you want to swim in Rushden’s pool on Sundays you have to get up between seven and ten in the morning.

There is no by-law which prevents the pool from being open to the public on Sunday afternoons – in fact Rushden Urban Council would like to see it open. What is the snag then? Staff.

The council employs fulltime pool attendants, but there is a limit to the hours a person can be asked to work. From Monday to Saturday the fulltime attendants already have to work odd and inconvenient hours.

A council spokesman said this problem had been overcome last season by employing a temporary part-time attendant on Sunday afternoon.

This year, well before the swimming season started again, a similar post was advertised but – and this is why the pool is closed this year – there were no applicants.

As a last resort the council asked Rushden Swimming Club if they could put forward the name of a competent swimmer to act as pool attendant for two hours on a Sunday afternoon. Once again there were no takers.

Strange

On the face of it this might seem strange, particularly as Rushden has a strong and enthusiastic swimming club.

However, club chairman, Mr. Ron Merricks, explained to the “Echo” that although the council was offering to pay a guinea for a two-hour session, any swimming club member who took the job would have to refuse the money.

“We are affiliated to the Amateur Swimming Association and any member receiving payment would automatically risk his amateur status,” said Mr. Merricks.

He added that he did not think it fair to ask a person to give up practically the whole of his Sunday – it meant having to be in the town every Sunday afternoon – without some financial reward.

The council have asked that anybody applying for the job should have at least the bronze medal of the Royal Life Saving Society.

“Anyway I do not think the council is offering enough. Ten shillings and sixpence an hour is not much for Sunday work. Actually it is not likely to work out at even that,” said Mr. Merricks.

“A two-hour session would probably mean getting there thirty minutes before opening and staying for thirty minutes cleaning up after the pool was closed.

“It is a lot of responsibly looking after a full pool for two hours. A person who teaches swimming gets paid something like 19s 6d an hour by the county education department and has no more than twenty children to look after at one time.”

It seems fairly obvious that the swimming club, the council and the general public would all like to see the pool opened on Sunday afternoons.

It also seems fairly obvious that the staffing problem is caused by the lack of financial remuneration attached to the job.

The “Echo” asks: Why not double the attendant’s Sunday salary and double the price of admission during those two hours. Two shillings for adults and one shilling for children is not exorbitant.

Well done Barry and Pete
People who read this column regularly know how keen I am on swimming—particularly when it applies to children. That is why I would like to present three Cobbler compliments to Rushden Secondary School for Boys this Week.

I repeat this story in the hope that it will encourage others to learn to swim and for those who can already swim to improve.

At the school's annual swimming sports on Wednesday two school records were broken and a new one was established.

The first Cobbler compliment goes to 12-year-old Barry Prime, undoubtedly the finest swimmer the school has ever produced and probably one of the best the town has seen.

He won the 25 yards crawl in 12.9 seconds, knocking 1.9 seconds off the old record. A really good performance. And in the open butterfly 50 yards, competing against 15-year-olds he recorded 15.9 seconds. This was the first time the school had held a butterfly event and obviously it establishes a new record.

My second compliment goes to Peter Valentine who, to my mind, put up an even better show than Prime, in shaving a tenth of a second off the novices 25 yards record m 17.5 seconds.

Not very fast you might say out Peter could not swim two months ago!

The third compliment goes to the school teachers, who must have played their part—particularly Ron Merricks, who not only teaches at the school, but is also chairman of Rushden Swimming Club.

I know from experience that if a school has one outstanding swimmer or athlete of any kind, he helps the overall standard of the school to improve.

Barry is already the county under 15 100 yards crawl and 50 yards butterfly champion. As he progresses let us hope there are others from the school who will take his place. They would stand an even better chance with an indoor pool.

Swimming Pool

Rushden Urban Council have been busy these last few days putting the finishing touches to Rushden swimming pool which opens for the season on Monday – for the first time ever with heated water.

Queuing to use the heated pool for the first time

A new gas heated boiler which will heat the water as it enters the pool has been installed at a cost of about £3,500, thanks to a major donation from the Rushden Swimming Pool Improvement Fund Committee.

Rushden has always had a large number of keen swimmers and this additional benefit should boost attendance figures this season. Although the water will be heated – the temperature will be kept between 65 and 70 degrees – there are no plans to extend the season.

The reason for this is basically economic. The cost of heating the water for an extra month during a very cold spell could almost double the cost involved during the summer months.

Rushden swimming club will be opened for new girl members on Monday and boys on Wednesday.

Heated Pool is a Winner

Rushden Urban Council appears to have hit upon a winner with the introduction of a heating system at the town’s swimming baths, which opened on Monday.

The heating installation was put in at a cost of £3,500 – Rushden Swimming Pool Improvement Fund Committee providing a major donation. To off-set this admission prices have doubled and season tickets increased.

But this hasn’t deterred Rushden’s swimmers from sampling the warm water. In fact, opening day attendances were way in excess of last year’s figures.

“We were lucky if we had 12 all told on the first day last year,” said Mr. E. Line, the pool superintendent.

“This year about 260 children and 12 adults passed through the turnstiles. On top of that 80-90 children and 12 adults bought season tickets,” added Mr. Line.

The differences in the first day’s takings are also very marked. They have gone up from £21 5s 6d (including season tickets) last year to £150 0s 6d.

The pool opens at 6 am and about 60-70 schoolchildren turned up the first day. Forty returned the next – reflecting the majority’s approval of the pool. This is hardly surprising when you consider that the pool temperature was 74 degrees while the air temperature was at a chilly 58 degrees.

During the day school parties from the Rushden area make use of the pool and Mr. W. E. Simmonds, a master at Thrapston Secondary Modern School, paid tribute to it by joining his group in the water.

“I don’t usually venture into the pool until about July. I decided to have a go and found it very favourable. Most boys are reluctant to go in at this time of year. However, once in, no one was particularly anxious to get out on Monday. It is a great improvement,” commented Mr. Simmonds.

Mr. Line and Mrs. N. Stapleton, assistant pool superintendent, envisage having a much more hectic time this year. Both agree that the heating system is a wonderful asset which will make the pool more popular.

Rushden Swimming Club also had good response on their opening night on Monday. Forty new girl members were enrolled and on Wednesday evening they were enrolling new boy members.

Floodlights for Swimming Pool

Rushden swimming pool should soon be fitted up with floodlights as the result of an offer made to the Rushden Urban Council by the Swimming Pool Improvement fund.

The administrators of the fund have offered to pay £50 for the lighting which would let the swimming club hold events later on in the evenings.

Previously the council had said they were willing to provide the money for the lights but it would have to come out of next year’s council funds.

Rushden councillors heard of the offer at their meeting on Wednesday of last week.

At the same meeting they agreed to press for traffic wardens to be appointed for the Rushden area.

And they decided to approve a recommendation that streetlights should be of the superior mercury fluorescent type in future.

These lamps cost £2 more each, but they are less expensive to operate.

Broken Glass in Pool Danger

Mr Ernie Lines examines face masks

And now the pool superintendent has condemned the masks as possibly “lethal” in the hands of children and called for a complete ban on them.

The president of Rushden Swimming Club has also spoken out fiercely against the masks and says that his club consider them “extremely dangerous.”

Mr. Ernie Line, pool superintendent and the man responsible for the safety of the children who use the pool, said this week:

“The glass was scattered over a fairly wide area and broken up into fairly small pieces which makes me think it was deliberately broken – probably by a kids’ prank.

“It took us about five hours to clean the pool out and we nearly had to drain it. We didn’t in the end but on Tuesday morning we found some small pieces left on the bottom.”

Mr. Line held up some razor sharp slivers about an inch long to illustrate how dangerous the episode could have been.

Dangerous

He went on: “A good many pools don’t allow these face masks. They are very, very dangerous. The more expensive ones are all right but they are made of Perspex and built for the job.

“The dangerous ones are cheap foreign ones with real glass in them which falls out quite easily. People bring them back from holiday and more and more children have them here now. I’d like to see them done away with.”

A similar face mask almost caused the tragic death of a young Irchester boy this time last year when it fell over his face and almost caused him to drown.

Recalling the incident, Mr. Lines said: “The boy panicked – quite naturally – and I had to go in fully clothed to fetch him out. We took him to the ambulance station over the road where he had artificial respiration from the machine there.

“If it had not been for that I think he would have been a ‘goner.’

And he added: “Some of these masks are lethal in the hands of kids – they are a worry on their own without having to look after the children under normal circumstances.”

When the Irchester boy was almost drowned, Mr. Line claims he asked the council to ban the masks. But no action, he says, was taken.

Mr. Line says the council banned flippers after a boy had been struck in the face by one and his parents had complained to the council. At times these can be almost as dangerous as the masks, says Mr. Line.

Mr. G. Thompson president of Rushden Swimming Club endorses all Mr. Lines’ views: “I cannot understand why Rushden council allows goggles and face masks in a crowded pool. As a club we consider these are extremely dangerous when not used under supervision and during club sessions when the club is responsible for the safety of our members we do not allow the use of these aids.”

Mr. G. D. Evelyn, council surveyor, said this week that he had no comment to make.

Move to Replace Ageing Pool
Rushden swimming pool is on its last legs and should not have much more money spent on it, councillors will be told tonight.

Mr Tony Evelyn, East Northants Council director of technical services, says it has a very limited life ahead of it.

In a report to the council's environmental services committee he recommends a feasibility study into the siting, design and financing of a replacement.

Mr Evelyn suggests a pool specialist should be retained next year to advise the council. To this end £3,000 has already been earmarked in the estimates.

Although the summer-only pool was built in 1929, the filter tank appears to be in good condition, but the chlorination plant will have to be replaced before the summer of 1984.

Mr Evelyn says: "The pool has two cracks in the bottom which we are experiencing some problems in sealing, and the concrete reinforcing design is inadequate by modern standards.

"The finish to floors and walls in the pool is only Snowcemed and thus has to be redone each year.

"The walkway round the pool and the top edge of the pool is cracking, and needs annual attention to patch those parts which work loose. The toilet arrangements are somewhat primitive."

He continues: "Quite obviously the existing pool is not worth enclosing, as the basic structure is unsatisfactory.

"Equally it seems to be only a further waste of money to try and upgrade the pool surrounds and finishes when it appears to now have a very limited life ahead of it."

Mr Evelyn points out that it would take at least three years for a new pool to be ready.