Sarah

This weekend I will be diving in this pool

…..and I can’t wait.

In the 1880’s the swimmers had to cope with this:

Unlike today, where the water is always kept clean & warm, the pool used to be filled on a Sunday morning and emptied on the Saturday evening. At the start of the week the water would be clean but very cold about 58 degrees, by the end of the week the temperature might have crept up to the early sixties but the water had got increasingly dirty, until on Saturday afternoon, covered in green slime and full of leaves, bathing was free for those who were not too fussy.

For me Cirencester Open air pool will always be swimming at midnight at the end of the summer. With the air being a bit cooler the full moon was highlighting the steam coming off the water. There was also a slight air of drunkeness and nakedness, which made it all the more thrilling.