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Dagenham Swimming Pool

A Memory of Dagenham.

My mum worked at Valence open swimming pool and my aunt worked in the buffet - what a result - in for free and free Oxo after the freezing water.  My mum looked after the ladies locker rooms - she remembers the boys trying to peep over the top of the girls lockers!  She remembers when they closed the pool and she lost her job, and saying 'no' to working at the Dagenham indoor pool, and a little girl drowning and the father saying it would never had happened in Valence pool.  Brilliant childhood memories.

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Added 21 June 2007

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It was my best friends little brother Tony Bailey that drowned at the new indoor swimming pool. I remember Tony singing a Elvis song a couple of hours before. He got into trouble in the deep end and his other little brother ran for help, the swimming guard was drinking tea and said he would come once he is finished and when he did come Tony was gone. I still to this day remember how cold he felt that same night when I touched him at the morgue. It's true it would have never had happened at Valence Swimming pool. At Valence was so much fun and yet so much safety too... I was one of the boys that looked into the girls lockers too....
By freedomspeach on Mon Jul 11th 2016, at 6:59 am
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My mother also worked in the Buffet at Valence Swimming Baths. She used to serve the Oxo/Bovril and packets of crisps. The water was always freezing, and did not make for swimming being a very pleasant pastime. Terry Venables (Football pundit) used to visit frequently on his bicycle, he was about 12/13 years old at the time, lived locally I think. Since leaving Dagenham in 1965 I have never returned, like to keep my memories intact! (could be I don't like change)!
By alicecass20 on Mon Nov 6th 2017, at 6:37 am
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