Swimming at Seaton Carew Baths 1971
When I was eleven years old I went to Galleys Field School in Hartlepool and I have memories of going to the baths with the school. I was Ruth Thompson then.
The baths were salty and usually cold as they were fed by the sea. There were changing rooms at both ends of the baths and I remember going there one day with the school when they were having some work done to the changing rooms at the deep end and we had to use the ones at the shallow end. I wasn't taking a lot of notice as I just wanted to get in the water and swim.
I did my usual thing of dashing out of the changing room and diving straight into the water. I ended up with a bump the size of an egg on my forehead were I hit the bottom. I never did it again!
The baths are no longer there. I am not sure when they were demolished, but it is typical Hartlepool mentality of knocking down rather than preserving!
Memories Links
See more memories of Seaton Carew
Add a Memory for another place
Tips & Ideas
How has this scene changed?
Do you know who lived or worked here?
Why is this photo significant to you?
Particular points of interest - transport, architecture, fashions etc.
Comments
3 comments have been shared so far in response to the memory "Swimming at Seaton Carew Baths 1971".
Why not get involved and post your comments using the comment form below.
Comments
RE: RE: Swimming at Seaton Carew Baths 1971
Sadly, like a lot more other places in Seaton Carew and Hartlepool, as it is now known, the Seaton Swimming Baths are no longer in existance. There used to be an open air swimming pool at the original Hartlepool (now known locally as the Headland. But that was actually 'Blown' away in a storm in the early 1950s. The local council built a modern indoor pool in the central area of what used to be West Hartlepool. The buildings in most of the other pictures of Seaton Carew are still standing as they were at the time of being being photographed. So much for progress!
Comment from Eric Todd on Saturday, 30th October 2010.
RE: RE: Swimming at Seaton Carew Baths 1971
The photograph of the Seaton Carew Swimming Baths and the writer's memories of it have given me cause to reflect on my own connection and recollections of same. The writer has cast doubts on my own memory of the baths and I'm now left wondering if she's talking about the same baths. The Baths were listed as being West Hartlepool Corporation Swimming Baths, Coronation Drive, West Hartlepool, Co Durham, and I worked there as an attendant from May 15th to November 24th 1961. The Superintendant at the time was a Mr S Westmorland. The writer claims that when she swam there the pool water was salty and cold as the water was drawn from the sea. I seem to remember that it was a fresh water pool and heated, to a certain extent. To the rear of the pool, behind, and to the right of the diving boards, there was a door that led, down a few steps, into the filtration plant. Doses of chorine were released into the pool and one had to keep a check on this by taking samples of the water every couple of hours. The changing rooms as one entered the building were to the left and no one could get into the pool itself without first walking through an ankle bath, which was adjacent to the shallow end, where a bar of soap was supplied for kids to wash their feet and ankles. It's true the water could never be described as comfortable and I can recall lots of kids hovering in front of the underwater vents where warm water was fed into the pool. I guess it's possible that between 1962 and 1971 the pool could have been converted to seawater. Of course I could be wrong!
Comment from James Tindill on Sunday, 3rd April 2011.
RE: RE: Swimming at Seaton Carew Baths 1971
I spent many happy hours in the cold water at the Seaton Carew swimming baths; hard to believe, but we also used to swim in the freezing north sea. We had emigrated to Canada in 1957, but returned to England in 1960, for six months, primarily to cure my mother's extreme homesickness. My sister and I attended St. Cuthbert's School in West Hartlepool, and part of the curriculum, for me anyway, was swimming lessons at Seaton Baths. We would head out on a corporation bus and misbehave the entire time as it was viewed as a lark by an unruly crew of 12 year old girls. The poor chap who ran the lessons had a dreadful time getting us to cooperate with him - mostly we seemed to be trying to drown each other in the shallow end by ducking heads and seeing how long we could hold our breath, either willingly or with the help of a hand holding somebody's head down - and at the end of the year he grudgingly passed everyone except a girl named Margaret who never actually got in the water. There was a footbath available and it smelled like very strong chlorine; in fact if you sat in it, you were in danger of having your bathing suit destroyed. But many people did sit in it, primarily because it seemed warmer than the water in the swimming pool. I know the baths were pulled down many years ago, after a long period of decline. The last time I actually saw this building it was near derelict. I still have the certificate that poor man gave me.
Comment from Barbara Van Haarlem on Monday, 24th October 2011.