Castleton Health and Leisure Centre wants memories of the former swimming baths

Do you have any interesting or fond memories of the former Castleton Pool? If so, Castleton Health and Leisure Centre wants to hear from you.

The centre, formerly Castleton Swimming Pool, was taken over by Crewe Industrial in a community asset transfer in August 2017 and renamed Castleton Health and Leisure Centre.

Recently, the Leisure Centre had a special visitor from America, Dan Beech, whose father, Bert, learned to swim at the baths, which are over 100 years old.

Facility manager Jo Potts said: “I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting to his extremely proud son Dan when he came to visit his relatives and swim in Castleton Baths. It seems Bert was a real character and was recognised by the ladies in the swimming pool on his last visit to the UK in 2003.”

Dan had been determined to pay a visit to ‘the old Castleton Baths’ as his father had always spoken fondly of it. 

He said: “I felt compelled to visit the Castleton Baths and swim in the same pool where my dad learned. Seeing the same walls and ceiling he did as a boy was very nostalgic for me, almost a rite of passage and made me think of him.”

 

 

Bert, who was born in 1918, talked extensively about learning to swim at Castleton Baths when he was a boy and from then became somewhat of a swimming addict. He swam across Hollingworth Lake and Loch Ness, amongst lots of other open waters, which as Dan says ‘were so cold they put car grease on the boys back in 1925 for swims’ as they didn’t have the luxury of wetsuits back then.

Bert, who died at the age of 97, whose specialist stroke was the backstroke, won many trophies and had the potential to be in the Olympics had he not been conscripted for World War Two.

It was when The Lancastria ship was bombed in 1940 that Bert’s swimming skills were really put to the test.  He removed his heavy uniform and kept two other men afloat until they were all rescued; a real heart-warming story when the tragic event saw the largest single loss of life in World War Two. It is said 6,000 – 7,000 people lost their lives, and Bert was mentioned in dispatches for saving the two men.

Jo herself isn’t without her own memories.

Smiling she said: “I can share my own fond memories of spending all day in this pool when my mum Emily worked here in the 1980s.

“She put a good word in at Middleton Pool in 1986 when they were looking for extra staff for the summer holidays and I started my first lifeguarding job three days after my 16th birthday.

“I can also remember coming for a bath with my sister Emma when we were young because our dad was renovating our house on Hanover Street and we didn't have a bathroom for a couple of weeks.”

She added: “It's lovely to see St Edward's still coming on a Friday morning as I came with them in the 1970s and my daughter, Kaia, followed later in the 2000s.

“It is really good to see this little pool being well used again.”

Share your memories of the former Castleton Baths at:

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/sites/castleton-health-and-leisure-centre/contact