A dip into George's swimming pool memories
Today's health and safety brigade would have had a field day down at Market Drayton's old outdoor swimming pool.
"They would get as many as 3,000 on a Sunday in the heyday, with only one supervisor. Now it's about one to every 25 swimmers," recalls 82-year-old George Edwards, who learnt to swim in the pool as a youngster.
Other features of the long-disappeared pool to make health and safety folk shudder were the 15ft diving board above only a 6ft 6ins depth of water, and the water itself which came from the River Tern and, as George remembers it, was originally a horrible green colour, and unheated to boot.
But despite its quirks his memories of the pool are fond ones.
"It was lovely. It was always warm as it was stagnant. It was not being moved about or going through a big filter.
"The families used to go early morning on a Sunday at 10 o'clock and take a picnic with them and would be there until going home at 3 o'clock. Sometimes they would have to shut the doors as there were so many in there that they couldn't let any more in, it was that popular. You couldn't see a blade of grass.
"Saying there were about 3,000 people there is no exaggeration."
Those folk would not of course all have been in the water, but relaxing both in around the pool, an old-fashioned lido, which had opened in 1933 and was destined to close in 1994. It was replaced by today's swimming centre on the same site.
George, of Farcroft Drive, Market Drayton, can paint a picture of what the pool was like in more ways than one. He was a painter and decorator, and worked for the council for 42 years, during which he was regularly involved in painting the pool, the diving board, the changing rooms, and so on.
So he can even give chapter and verse on the colour schemes.
"I worked down there from the 1950s onwards and swam there regularly in the 1940s," he said.
"Every spring we had to go down and paint it and prepare it for the coming season. We used to get it ready for the first Sunday in May if possible, weather permitting.
"We would repair and fill the cracks on the bottom of the pool. Originally we used to do it with lime and alum to harden the lime off. We did the bottom and the sides with Snowcem and all the edging. All the posts were Snowcemed.
"Originally there were holes in these concrete posts and a rope went all the way around to stop people running straight into the pool from off the grass. It was like a cordon.
"All the way around the side was an iron pipe you could grip hold of. That used to be painted with aluminium paint, all around the pipe. It was silver.
"The diving board was painted green. The original one was wooden, 15ft high, with two springboards either side.
"In my time for many years the cafeteria was run by Joe O'Malley. He had the franchise for the cafe. He sold ice cream, lemonade, pop, crisps, and all the sundries.
"We had to paint that, not every year, but quite frequently. It was always green and cream."
One problem in painting the bottom of the pool was getting it dry enough to paint.
"The deep end was below the bed of the river. There were two valves, like grids, and water finds its own level, and we had to pump, while the sun dried it."
The foreman had a bright idea to make the process easier.
"On one occasion the foreman decided we would bung the holes up for 12 hours or 24 hours."
They got sand, cement, and rapid drying material to block the holes and all seemed to go well.
"Next morning when we went down the pool manager Tom Bickley was there and said: 'I told you what would happen.' It had started to crack the bottom of the pool further up. As the water could not get out through the holes it came up the weaker parts.
"When we pulled the bung out the water shot 15ft up in the air through the force of water. We got wet and had to wait for it to dry again."
However, there was a bonus for George as he worked regularly in the outdoor pool, with its white sides, to paint.
"I had a suntan every year."
