NF01 November/December 2023
Issue one of nearfield celebrates new beginnings across the region. We get excited about the reopening of Bristol Beacon, meet the hardy dippers revelling in the cold waters of the restored Cleveland Pools, find out what the Bristol Old Vic's new artistic director has planned; and explore the vintage shops, upcycling workshops, and reclamation yards breathing fresh life into old. We also keep readers moving through winter with a guide to indoor and outdoor activities, and meet the Icebreakers in our first community takeover. Plus we round up all the best events, experiences, and food and drink in the southwest this winter.
Issue one of nearfield celebrates new beginnings across the region. We get excited about the reopening of Bristol Beacon, meet the hardy dippers revelling in the cold waters of the restored Cleveland Pools, find out what the Bristol Old Vic's new artistic director has planned; and explore the vintage shops, upcycling workshops, and reclamation yards breathing fresh life into old. We also keep readers moving through winter with a guide to indoor and outdoor activities, and meet the Icebreakers in our first community takeover. Plus we round up all the best events, experiences, and food and drink in the southwest this winter.
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52 Cleveland Pools<br />
ids skiving off school in the summer.<br />
Jehovah’s Witnesses baptising one<br />
another with a dunking. A baboonkeeping<br />
Victorian-era superintendent<br />
called ‘Captain’ William Evans performing<br />
daredevil diving stunts. Women and men<br />
segregated. Trout doing, err, trouty things.<br />
If the walls of Cleveland Pools’ crescented<br />
caretaker’s cottage could talk, they’d<br />
probably never stop yammering away, not<br />
with a history that goes all the way back<br />
to 1817. Yet, left abandoned after its brief<br />
stint as a fish farm in the 1980s, this Bath<br />
lido became a thing of myth, its memory<br />
vanishing almost entirely. But thanks to<br />
the determination of the Cleveland Pools<br />
Trust, a cast of volunteers numbering<br />
hundreds, and a restoration project 20<br />
years in the making, the UK’s oldest lido is<br />
back. And in a nod to its past when it was<br />
river-fed and chilly, the pools will remain<br />
unheated right through winter for anyone<br />
seeking a frosty endorphin rush. We<br />
decided to meet a few of those who are.<br />
“When the cold-water workshops came<br />
up at the pools, me and a friend decided<br />
to give one a go. It was interesting to hear<br />
about the kit you should have, and none<br />
of it costs a huge amount of money – like<br />
a hot water bottle. It was all about being<br />
sensible, and making sure your hat and socks<br />
are next to your hot water bottle. There’s<br />
nothing better than hot socks. There’s a lot<br />
of chocolate cake, too; what’s the point in<br />
doing this otherwise?”<br />
“I don’t like leisure centres. I don’t like the<br />
noise, the heat, the smell. You don’t get any<br />
of that here. You get in, you swim. It’s a lovely<br />
atmosphere, and even better if it’s raining.<br />
The air around you is so much nicer. I’m<br />
planning to swim all the way through winter.”<br />
Growing up, Megan Jones would spend<br />
countless hours every summer at Cleveland<br />
Pools – not that her parents or teachers always<br />
knew this. Now, like many others who remember<br />
the pools before its long period of disrepair,<br />
she’s back in its waters and has added it to the<br />
list of cold-water swimming spots she dips in<br />
with a friend every week.<br />
“I used to swim here as a child, so I was really<br />
pleased to see it open again. It was river-fed<br />
back then and the water was green! But it was<br />
a good place to skive-off school – and then it<br />
closed and they turned it into a trout farm.”<br />
<strong>NF01</strong>