Our Community

As a community pool, our customers are people who know each other or who make new friends through coming here. Early morning lane swimmers like to stop afterwards for breakfast and a natter over a hot cuppa while those who can’t dash off feeling invigorated and ready to seize their day. Don’t swim? Don’t worry, come along anyway for a cuppa with like-minded souls!

We’re a pool focused on finding a healthy body/healthy mind balance. Swimming here is about boosting mental health, not just through the exercise of swimming but through the friendships we develop. And because we all get so much from this community, not only do we want our children to be able to swim but for them to enjoy it so that swimming becomes a part of their long lives. It’s a lovely place with a welcoming atmosphere that fosters involvement … as a result, our customers become volunteers, trustees or the pool manager while our children become helpers and then lifeguards. (We have very old folk swimming who spent long summer holidays here as kids).

The pool is a valuable community asset that we didn’t want to lose, which is why so many locals came together in 1970 to save the site by setting up our charity. To survive, we’re obliged to make money as a means of keeping the pool open but we put the community first wherever we can. That’s why we price pool hire to schools and other groups very competitively. Our inclusive sessions don’t make any money but when it comes to our less able bodied swimmers, we focus on what’s more important … and that’s allowing them to feel as good as everyone else in our community.

We’re also very focused on green policies, notably recycling and maximising green energy. Last year, we got rid of all the on site bins so that people would have to take their rubbish home and recycle it if possible. However, if it’s rubbish that’s resulted from using the tuck shop,  our customers return their wrappers and lolly sticks back to the shop to be recycled.