Medal reminders of pool's glory days

But he is quick to make clear that they are not his own, and his own swimming achievements were modest indeed.

"I actually won a school race which was a beginners' width. That's the only thing I won swimming. There were about 30 of us in one mad dash across the pool. We had inter-house competitions," says George.

So how come he has these nostalgic reminders of the gala days at the long-disappeared pool?

They come from his friend Graham Hull of Market Drayton, who loaned them to George as he thought they might be of wider interest to readers.

"We used to go down the pool frequently, especially in summer time as kids all day until chucking out time. He is about two years younger than me and he has talked about these medals and about what to do with them. He's thought about putting them in a Drayton museum," said George, who is 82 and from Farcroft Drive in the town.

Graham's medals from the early 1950s include awards for both swimming and diving.

The pool manager from George's childhood days was Tom Bickley, who lived in a cottage opposite it.

"I believed he worked as a builder for Woods of Hodnet and was part of the Woods building team who built the swimming pool in 1933. He then applied for the post of manager and managed it on his own, more or less, with his wife, whose name I can't remember, as cashier.

"He was very strict but he was fair. He had a policy that before you could go in the deep end you had to prove to him you could swim a length in the pool."

He recalls later pool managers as well.

"One was Bill Pickering. He left and went to Walsall indoor baths. He used to come back to Market Drayton to practise to swim the Channel. He would swim all day in the pool because it was a good outdoor pool and Olympic size. That's where he did a lot of his training before he swam the Channel.

"Another one, a friend of mine, became pool manager and was a painter and decorator. He used to work with me in the winter painting and was the pool manager in the summer. He was Tommy Owen, a lovely man.

"Bob Larby was manager of Whitchurch indoor pool and also head of Wem pool. Market Drayton outdoor pool came under his umbrella. He managed all three."

George, who for decades was involved in the upkeep of the pool as a painter, says it was 55 yards by 17 yards. The deep end was 6ft 6ins originally and 3ft at the shallow end.

The depth was later supposedly reduced to 6ft, which is the figure he painted to mark the depth, although he suspects it was more like 6ft 3ins.

"They insisted I put 6ft rather than 6ft 6ins so it would not tempt people to dive too deep."

Originally the water was not heated - he says this continued to be the case until around the early 1970s.

"The water originally was horrible green. You could see the algae on the sides. My father, also called George Edwards, was one of those who worked at the council and had to go and scrub it out."

Instead of life belts the pool had, at either side, a metal pole with a ring on the end.

The pool was very popular and drew people from far and wide.

"People from the Potteries used to come. It was one of the best outdoor pools in the country.

"I always remember a little story. On a Sunday when it opened the queue used to be across to the car park, but if you were a season ticket holder you didn't have to queue to go in.

"I remember this one occasion, a friend of mine who is dead now, Gordon Beeston, going straight past the queue and they started shouting : 'Get back in the queue.'

"He was a local and he said: 'Hey mate - they're our baths.' Which was quite funny."