The Outdoor Swimming Pool

A favourite leisure facility in Bourne for the past ninety years has been the outdoor swimming pool and its continuing success is a perfect example of how the will of the people can triumph over our faceless and often unthinking bureaucracy. In this case, it is also a testament to the endeavours of one local person, Mrs Lesley Patrick. 

The pool is one of the few traditional outdoor swimming pools remaining in the United Kingdom. It dates back to 1138 and was originally a carp pond to provide fish for the monks at Bourne Abbey and was converted into public swimming baths at the instigation of keen local swimmers in the early 20th century. During the years following the Great War of 1914-18, there was an upsurge in the provision of leisure amenities and a swimming pool for the town was high on the agenda with the carp pond being the most suitable place, having become a popular haunt for the local lads taking a dip during the summer months. In 1922, a local committee was formed to clean it out and make it suitable for bathing including the erection of dressing rooms at either end and an approach to the baths from Coggles Causeway.

The work of converting it from the old monks' pond was carried out by Mr T Hinson under the direction of a local committee comprising Mr T W Mays (president) and Mr W Waddington (honorary secretary) and the plans were drawn up by Mr R G Coles, surveyor to Bourne Urban District Council. 

An official opening by Lady Kesteven was held on Saturday 12th August 1922, having been postponed from the previous Monday because of wet weather. A report from the Stamford Mercury said:

" Mr Mays presided and, in introducing Lady Kesteven, said that Bourne was to be congratulated on having such an excellent bath which had been talked about for the past 20 years. She congratulated the town on its enterprise and hoped that both boys and girls would learn to swim as they never knew when it would be useful in life-saving. Mr R A Gardner, from Bourne United Charities, proposed a vote of thanks to her ladyship and called attention to the recent saving of two persons' lives by a lad of ten years of age. The opening ceremony was followed by water sports for competitors of all ages and in the evening there was a water polo match between Stamford and Wisbech."

The site was taken over by Bourne United Charities with the acquisition of the Abbey Lawn in 1931 and the following year major improvements were carried to create a pool 154 feet long and 50 feet wide, lined with reinforced concrete and a paved path running round the edge. The depth of the water at the shallow end was 2 feet 9 inches and 7 feet 3 inches at the deep end with new four-tier diving boards 14 feet high and two additional spring boards. A lawn around the sides of the bath was laid and there were several flower beds and rockeries. The water was supplied by the Bourne Eau and filtered through a coke bed and the bath was both filled and emptied by the gravity of the water, thus obviating the necessity of a pump.

There has been a continuing programme of modernisation ever since, much of it paid for by the charity trustees although in recent years the pool has depended largely on voluntary financial support. During 1971, the town’s Round Table organisation raised sufficient funds to finance a heating system and shortly afterwards, South Kesteven District Council took over the running of the pool as part of its leisure and community activities programme, a move that eventually proved to be most unwise. 

In 1989, the new leisure centre with its own indoor heated swimming pool was opened by the council alongside the Robert Manning School and in their wisdom they decreed that the outdoor pool was redundant and should close because it would create too much competition for their own facility. It was at this point that Mrs Patrick took up the cudgel on behalf of the people of Bourne who were reluctant to lose their outdoor pool. A public meeting at the Corn Exchange attracted over 200 people. This was followed by a protest march through the town and a petition with 4,000 signatures of support and as a result a trust was formed with the objective of keeping and maintaining the pool for the benefit of the townspeople. 

Since 1990, the Outdoor Pool Preservation Trust has been run by volunteers to ensure that the pool has not only survived but its facilities enhanced and now include a toddler pool, sand pit and play house, all added with the help of a £10,000 grant from Bourne Town Council. There are indoor and outdoor changing rooms with lockers and toilets, extended lawns with seating and picnic tables, attractive gardens with hanging baskets, a refreshment area, sweet and snack shop and barbecues for hire. All of this is available in a most pleasant part of the town, surrounded by the Abbey Lawn and mature trees, an old garden wall and a magnificent view of Bourne Abbey. Qualified lifeguards are on duty at all times while first aid and life saving equipment are kept continuously at the poolside. 

Lesley Patrick became chairman of the trust when it was formed in 1990 but her endeavours on behalf of the outdoor pool also spurred her on to greater civic duty and despite having six children to bring up, she became a town councillor and served as Mayor of Bourne from 1994-95, also supporting a large number of other local organisations and charitable causes.

She resigned as trust chairman in 2000 to make way for others and Mrs Mandy Delaine-Smith was subsequently elected chairman at the annual general meeting and now heads the organising committee of fifteen members. But the pool is still close to Lesley's heart and every year she hopes for fine weather to ensure that her pet project continues on its successful path. 

The pool is just under the official Olympic length of 50 metres. It holds 250,000 gallons and is heated to a pleasant 27-30 degrees C during its opening period from mid-May to early September. There is an ongoing programme of improvements and many are made each year but there is always more work to be done and money remains a perpetual worry although there are frequent voluntary donations and a Gift Aid scheme is also in operation to help with the upkeep of facilities and to ensure that the pool is preserved as an amenity for the town in the future.

In 2004, the pool was given a £50,000 donation in the will of Len Pick, a local businessman and landowner who died in January, aged 94. He had always been a keen supporter of the pool and his bequest, part of a £4 million legacy for the benefit of the town, enabled the trustees to restore the fountain after ten years of disuse and it will in future be known as the Len Pick memorial fountain. The new feature was opened at the beginning of the 2005 summer season by one of the pool’s most loyal followers, Mrs Kath Cox, aged 94, a regular for 83 years who remembered those days when the sides were lined with corrugated iron and there was mud on the bottom.

But despite the many changes, the traditional look of the pool that has been part of its charm over past decades will stay. Lesley Patrick says: "We do not want to spoil the special atmosphere that has been established over the years but it is important that we keep up with the times to ensure that it remains one of the town’s most treasured summer amenities."

The 2007 summer season opened with the completion of improvements costing £30,000 after the trust had spent the winter months refurbishing toilets and changing rooms, refitting the kitchen area and office, improving first aid facilities and maintaining the boiler. Chairman Mandy Delaine-Smith said: "The improvements mean that we are fully up to health and safety standards and we have also been given a 100 per water quality rating by the local authority."

Essential repairs were carried out in readiness for the opening in May 2013, mainly remedial work on the floor of the pool where cavities had formed allowing algae to grow, but specialists replaced the damaged sections and re-sealed the entire pool. The work cost £35,000 and the bill was met with substantial grants from local organisations, the Len Pick Trust and the organisers of the BRM celebration day the previous October.

The pool has twice been named as one of the finest lidos in the country, firstly in the summer of 2006 when it was on the list published by The Observer newspaper as being among the best places in Britain to swim outdoors. This accolade was given again in July 2013, this time by The Times, when it was listed among the best 30 lidos in Britain, "an amenity run by generous volunteers where generations of children have picnicked on the Abbey Lawn after splashing each other in the toddler pool and playing in the fountain."

The constituency's Member of Parliament, Mr Quentin Davies, visited the pool on 17th July 1993 to see the work of the organising committee and he is pictured here with some of the young swimmers busy enjoying the facility. With Mr Davies (middle centre) were Lesley Patrick, then a town councillor, and Councillor Don Fisher, an enthusiastic supporter of  the project who was also instrumental in keeping the pool open when it was threatened with closure.

The civic opening of the pool for the 1998 summer season on Saturday 16th May was attended by two of its oldest supporters, Kath Cox and Len Pick, who are pictured below with other guests. In the picture (left to right) are committee members Mrs B Hilless and Mrs Mandy Delaine-Smith, Kath Cox, Councillor Lesley Patrick, Mrs J E Turner, Len Pick, Councillor Shirley Cliffe (Mayor of Bourne),  Councillor Don Fisher (chairman of Bourne United Charities) and Mrs Gail Clingo (clerk to BUC).

PHOTO ALBUM

An aerial shot of the outdoor swimming pool taken in the summer of 2008 (above) and a remarkable view from the tower of the Abbey Church (below) taken by Jim Jones in April 2010.

Trust chairman Mandy Delaine Smith (left) and secretary Paula Biggadike are seen here in the pool after it had been drained in readiness for repairs in 2013.

REVISED MARCH 2015

See also

How the Outdoor Swimming Pool came to be built

The Outdoor Pool in past times     Learning to Swim

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