• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Birmingham Ladies Swimming Club 1886

L

Lynda Downing

New Member
I am researching Rosalia Vernon who won the Captaincy Prize silver medal of this club in 1886. She lived at 16 High Street, Aston at this time and later moved to Droitwich where she was a professor of swimming. I have found information about her from censuses and parish registers etc but I would love to know about the Swimming club and where they swam. I would be grateful for any info and help.
 
Welcome to the forum Lynda. This is a very interesting question and I'm sure someone on the forum will be able to help.

When I was researching pugilism during the last quarter of the 19th century I was recommended to look at copies of the Midland Sporting News. At the time I had to go to Colindale Newspaper Library in London but this has now moved to Boston Spa. This was several years ago so copies may be on line now (at the time it was a case of reading the original papers although a few were on microfiche). All sorts of sports were mentioned so there may be something although it did seem to be male-biased.
 
The newspaper archive list 112 references to the club, the earliest being 1892, though one for 1895 records what is described as the 4th annual swimming gala, so it must go back to at least 1891. In 1924 one member was a potential olympic candidate, and in the same year the club's secretary complained at the "ridiculous and prudish" regulation banning male instructors and officials from ladies swimming baths.
 
Lady Penelope said:
Welcome to the forum Lynda. This is a very interesting question and I'm sure someone on the forum will be able to help.

When I was researching pugilism during the last quarter of the 19th century I was recommended to look at copies of the Midland Sporting News. At the time I had to go to Colindale Newspaper Library in London but this has now moved to Boston Spa. This was several years ago so copies may be on line now (at the time it was a case of reading the original papers although a few were on microfiche). All sorts of sports were mentioned so there may be something although it did seem to be male-biased.
Click to expand...
Many thanks for this suggestion. I will certainly follow this up.
 
mikejee said:
The newspaper archive list 112 references to the club, the earliest being 1892, though one for 1895 records what is described as the 4th annual swimming gala, so it must go back to at least 1891. In 1924 one member was a potential olympic candidate, and in the same year the club's secretary complained at the "ridiculous and prudish" regulation banning male instructors and officials from ladies swimming baths.
Click to expand...
Many thanks for your response. I did find a ref in the Birmingham Mail of 30 August 1890 referring to this club, but nothing before that. This article referred to the unnamed fourteen year old captain who had swum two and a half miles at Kent Street Baths! The article also referred to a previous captain, Miss Browett of Edgbaston "who accomplished the great four miles swim in the sea at Tenby". The medal definitely says 1886 so I need to do more research and will look again at Kent Street Baths too!
 
Dear Lynda

I am a sports historian and currently, spookily enough, researching the early history of Kent St Baths for a paper in a Midland Journal.

Birmingham Ladies Amateur Swimming Club was formed in 1884 at Kent Street Baths. I would love to talk to you about Rosalie, I have a lot of her details as well as that of others who were founding members/committe members

Did you know as a matter of interest that the official swimsuit chosen by the ASA was based on the one that the Birmingham ladies wore as their official costume - here is a exert from a paper my partner wrote using my research -
".... using a model costume, provided by the Birmingham Ladies Club, as a guide. It had flat facings of turkey-red twill, buttoned on the shoulders, and gussets under the arms to enable a short sleeve. Its best feature was its cheapness, since it
could be produced in all the various sizes required, in quantities of not less than a dozen, at a fraction over 2s each."

Kindest
Margaret
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top