NF01 November/December 2023

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