Tuesday 3 June 2014

You can come in now ........when Stretford got its new swimming baths

It is May 10, 1913 and the newspaper proudly announces “STRETFORD’S NEW BATHS TO BE OPENED TO –DAY.”

And for those that don’t know they were on Cyprus Street behind the Public Hall and served the community until they closed in 1982.

My friend Sally found the newspaper cutting and suggested I “store it up until an Esther Williams moment strikes us again” which I think has arrived.

More so because in the course of looking for material on the baths I came across a wonderful site on the Stretford Amateur Swimming Club which provides a fascinating bit of social history.*

And because I never try to reproduce what someone has done so well I will just suggest you visit it.

Picture; courtesy of Sally Dervan

*A Centennial History of Stretford Amateur Swimming Club, http://www.stretfordasc.org.uk/clubinfo/historyofstretfordasc.htm
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

2 comments:

  1. Unknown8 October 2018 at 10:43

    Does anyone know what happened to the wonderful old Stretford Baths on Cyprus Street? Girls on one side, boys on the other. I learned to swim there around 1950 and got a certificate for 25 yards breast stroke. I lost the certificate and would like a replacement copy please.
    I remember walking back after getting the electric train back from the baths at Stretford, from Warwick Road station to Kings Road with a bunch of other local lads, all smelling of chlorine with damp hair and damp towels rolled around our "costumes", and another nosey group of local yokels asked us; "Had we been swimming??!!" Met with appropriate derision of course!

    ReplyDelete
  2. steven forde31 January 2019 at 12:19

    Knocked down

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)