Social Life At The Pool!
A Memory of Brentwood.
I was five years old when this photograph was taken and would have occasionally been taken to the pool by my mother. My older sister would have come too. As we got older it was a great place to hang out as teenagers and we would often go for a swim after school and then walk home to Shenfield (saving the bus fare to buy a bag of chips at the fish and chip shop opposite the Green Dragon in Shenfield). We went to the Ursuline Preparatory School (The Grange) and then on to the secondary part at 11. The swimming pool was always cold but as teenagers we were more interested in posing and looking for boys than doing much swimming! The boys used to show off by diving, jumping etc off the boards so we always tried to sit on the area near the boards. When we were ready to go home or too cold to sit there any more we often bought a hot chocolate to drink - I can't remember if it was from a small kiosk but I think it was too early for there to be machines to dispense such things.
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Comments & Feedback
I would have been 3 when this picture was taken but like you during my teenage years in the mid 1960's this was the place to be seen..!!
Yup, the water was cold and yup there was a kiosk where you could buy that hot chocolate you mention. But do you remember those wire basket things in the changing rooms..??
The chip shop I would frequent was on the Ongar Rd 100 yards from the pool so we would get an exit mark or something, leave the pool and return with chips by the bucket load.... A portion of chips was a tanner (sixpence)....Happy days indeed.
Tim B.
I remember buying a season ticket every year from about the age of 8 or 9 (cost 10/6d!) and would cycle to the pool almost every day in the summer holidays! I remember the kiosk - it was a kind of servery in a wooden shed like building, and I seem to remember being under cover while queuing.One day the girl in front of me asked for a hot bovril. I'd never heard of this before, and thought she said 'hot bobbly'. It sounded kind of appealing, so I said, could I have that too please. Yuk! If only I'd known what it was! I never did 'get' bovril. Like drinking a cup of gravy!
Incidentally, I too went to the Ursuline - I wonder if we were in the same year? I started in Belmont in September 1961.