swimming

[OLLY]

Jul 16, 2008 13:12:47 GMT -1 @jnealedroylsden said:

Jul 16, 2008 13:05:02 GMT -1 OLLY said:

Jul 16, 2008 12:52:16 GMT -1 Lisa said:

Hi Dave, Olly has never been innocent in his life...... ;D

Hi Olly did I see that you were working today and if so did you manage to do it all

YES DID THEM BOTH JEAN.......

[june]

i learn't to swim at Osbourne Baths just off Rochdale rd ,a deffo was'nt like a duck te water i did me lenght just about with much spluttering i can honestly say swimming was and is not one of my forte's

[OLLY]

HERE`S A BIT OF LOCAL HISTORY ON SWIMMING.......

www.hydeseal.com/history.shtml

[Tigger]

Blimey Olly... cheers for that... one lives and learns.
I didn't realise that 'water polo' was a historically 'British' sport.

[angela]

I used to love swimming and was on team at jnr and seniors.Could never do more than 1 length though,but fast(prob due to smoking)Once I got free pass went every night to Withington baths.We had woolly cossies.Dont remember them but have lots of pics on front at B/Pool wearing them.The front of mine is round belly.
I remember pool attendants over those years late 50's to 63.One great woman .I think her name was Josie.She was getting on and had long peroxide hairdo.After her 2 very dodgy men.Last time I used baths,as I was leaving I was asked would I like to see the pumps or whatever in the cellar which was next to the paydesk by one of these perverts.I was about 11 then.Got off pretty smartish I can tell you.I had been alone in the baths that day,so god knows what peeping had gone on.Did tell but dont know what happened.Never went again except with school.Soon after had another incident while sitting on a bus in Piccadilly.Rember when they had driver and conductors.They would be left empty till time to go?Got off pretty smart again.The other sport I did was horse riding at Wythenshawe park.Again Dodgy Fred was in charge.He got the message with me ,now a seasoned perv avoider.I froze like a statue when he came within 6 ft of me.To think that to get there Id get a bus alone-aged about 11 on Palatine Rd in Withington at about 6.30am1

[barbara]

Jul 11, 2008 23:58:35 GMT -1 mo said:

ANyone remember the baths and swimming pool on Hyde road west Gordon not far from belle vue

I learnt to swim there Maureen I think it was Mrs Malley the instructor, I was doing well then got a bug c.1953/4 like polo so wasn t allowed to swim for 6 months when I got back to the swimming club I was put back with the little ones again and lost interest I still swam there many times a week.
Oh Maureen I remember the old tin bath in front of the fie in the black leaded grate Friday night, the water emptied down the back yard then donkey stoned the yard.
When we moved to a house with a bathroom I bagged the first bath and came out covered in builders dust ;D

[mo]

HI Barbara i got my first 25 yards certificate for breaststroke there. A stroke i dont do very much now only when iam doing my cool down. Always do freesly... Yes remember the donkey stoned. And the joy for my mam when we got our first bathroom.

[robcmar]

So was Barmouth St baths the baths near to the original Grey Mare Lane market ?

[codger]

Back to the main drift, Swimming, surely a joy for any child of the 50's, I recall walking from Birley Street school in Beswick all the way to Barmouth Street baths. Then a mad race to see who would get in the plunge first, the instructor with his long wooden pole, "grab it if you're drowning, otherwise I will use it just to prod you" Pop Dale grabbing me by the ear to get in the plunge bath first to get the week's Ardwick soot off, have you noticed how many people nowadays forego the pre-swim shower, yet it was drummed into us. The free pass achieved firstly by swimming one length freestyle, breaststroke, and backstroke, doubled for your second freepass and then four of each for your third with 16 yards of lifesaving thrown in. That pass was invaluable, especially during the school hols, swimming til your lips were blue and your fingers like prunes. Check if you could get anything from the Brylcreem machine, or an Oxo and 4 cream crackers for fourpence, or hot Vimto in Madges on the other side of Johnson street park. The opening scene from A Taste of Honey where the girls were playing netball was filmed there, and if you look really closely there are three lads watching with their towels and cossy's tucked under their arms, I often wonder who they were, no flash bags in them days. Joe the superintendent at 'Barmy' perfected the backward walk when he would dip his copper bowl on the end of a long pole into the plunge and flush the sides of pool to keep the verruca's down, the cacophany of noise from kids playing 'ticky hit' deafening.

[Lisa]

Hi Codger, Barmouth Street Baths......ah, the memories. True, we never had any fancy sports bags then....it was a towel rolled up under your arm with your cozzy and comb inside. The beautiful green tiles at the entrance and the smell of the chlorine as you opened the doors into the main pool. Then, trying to find a cubicle at the side of the pool that didnt have anyone's clothes in it......I always got the one with the green sailcloth curtains falling off their hooks. I got pulled into the deep end by my waist-length hair once and almost drowned. I once caught nits because I lent my comb to someone I didnt know - never again. The, the best bit was getting that oxo and cream crackers.....then walking home with dripping wet hair and shivering. The smell lingered for days until I got to have my Sunday night bath and if you licked your arm you could still smell the chlorine on your skin. Children today wouldnt believe it, would they?