• 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

Swimming Lessons

G G Jean said:
Mike better still icy cold salt water even denser. Don't fancy it though. Mind you us ladies are better floaters more fat and natural boyancy aids if you get my meaning. Jean.
Click to expand...

So0 thats why I make a good mermaid then ?
mermaid3.gif
 
Yes, I did enjoy swimming lessons - except the one time I smacked my knee on the big round heater at the front of the coach we went to the baths in as I got on!
We used Harborne baths, and they were always clean and modern-looking to me. I learnt to swim, but never took my proficiency test to get the free pass for the baths as some of my friends did. There was a school or inter-school gala every year, the ones I went to (as a spectator) were at Woodcock Street, which seemed a very dingy Victorian place after Harborne.
 
I really enjoyed my swimming lessons. It was an outing out of Junior school and Secondary School. Outings were pretty well non-existent back then. I have my certificates for one width, one length signed by Mr. Basford, Head Master at Marsh Hill J&I. From Fentham Secondary School I have my 28 lengths cert. My father came to encourage me to do this. I almost fell back into the Baths afterwards I was so tired and dizzy.
I learned to swim at Kingstanding Baths.
 
Hi Jean My picture was in the Birmingham mail - sitting on the diving board and on the knee of one of the Ladies Couldn't tell you what month the year might be 1936 we wore Black swim suit and red cap
 
Sounds like i was lucky when i read some of the horror stories on here, i learnt to swim before i ever went to school, all my family could swim and me being the youngest i must have been introduced early. Of course as kids we would swim anywhere the water was deep enough, mainly Sutton Park pools but having free passes meant we could always go to Kingstanding Baths. Just glad i made sure my kids could swim as now they all do the same with their own kids and it is so much fun


bren
 
I just hated swimming lessons at Grove Lane and my dad taught me to swim in the lido at Minehead. Hopefully Lyn will takes some photos when she is there. Mo
 
14yrs young sent from work to Cadburys Bournville Day Continuation school 1 day a week 1943, they gave us swimming lessons in their pool on site the instructors were very patient but i never learned to swim and still can`t!. Len.
 
Used to go to Kingstanding baths from Beeches road School in the late fifties. Best part was the coach ride (poor driver) and the cup of oxo at the end. Teachers used to push you in to see if you could swim.
 
We used to go to Kingstanding baths, but from Kingsland Rd School, Coach? we had to walk it, all the way there and all the way back, one string of children. I used to prefer the walk back! We had to enter the pool down steps at the shallow end, and move around the pool holding on to the rail, the water was so cold, with that icy cold ring around your body climbing up your chest as you got closer to the deep end. I know now that a quick duck under would have cured all that but it was a nightmare then, They didn't teach me to swim, just seemed to be shouting at us all the time. I taught myself a few years later. Happy days ?
 
Lloyd you're right Harborne was a lovely pool and Woodcock street a bit of a dump. Jenny have you been to the new Kingstanding pool only it's more of a fun pool now with waves. Bren Pete used to swim in Sutton park pools and the lads used the lido there. Len will have to meet up for a lesson [free of charge]. Mo and Goffy I hated the old Grove lane baths and not long before they closed a panel of glass came out and fell into the water. How someone wasn't hurt or killed I will never know. Jean.
 
Goffy said:
We used to go to Kingstanding baths, but from Kingsland Rd School, Coach? we had to walk it, all the way there and all the way back, one string of children.
Click to expand...

That was my old school, last time i passed there it looked like they was knocking it down, not before time i must say. I remember the trees on top of Bandy Wood, they was the tallest for miles


bren
 
Mo, I used to go to Grove Lane with the school every week. Quite liked swimming until I got old enough to worry about getting my hair wet !!!
Also used to go on Sunday mornings as all the boys and girls went there, then either up to the cafe upstairs, where my sister would always have a Bovril or Oxo which I hated, or on to the Hollygate Cafe near the park.
 
It was Grove Lane I went to, walk though Handsworth Park from St Mary's swimsuit wrapped in towels - played on the dswings come back LOL
 
Yes Beryl - we sometimes used to go after swimming lessons at Grove Lane to play on the swings in Handsworth Park as well - the boys from the Grammar School and Tech used to be there !!!

Judy
 
Jean, It was Kingstanding Baths not Grove lane, It was the swimming lessons I hated not the baths, I used to go to Kingstanding baths indepenantly when I could swim, most enjoyable. Grove Lane baths, I used to go there when I was going to Handsworth Technical School, but Judy, I didn't know anything about the swings in Handsworth park, and Bren, they were tall trees on Bandywood, full of crows nests if I remember. used to play up there as a kid quite a bit. Goffy
 
Sorry Goffy didn't read it properly. Judy that would be telling. Used to live next door to where the onion fare was and we all met up there. Patty and all. Jean.
 
Well Goffy - you missed out a lot by not knowing about the swings in Handsworth Park !!!

Jean - No need to tell me, I can guess!!!!!!!! I used to go to the Onion Fare with my Dad every year - loved it.
 
Last edited:
Hello. Mixed feelings ! I can ,thank God ,lol, ,enjoy swimming but can still panic, because I was pushed in,ducked etc. I'v swam in Ladywood Baths,Wood Cock St ,Grove Lane,but lived at times in Green Lane baths Small Heath which is begin a Muslim centre for years,oh and in Stechford and if I have it right, wasn,t there a big one out Solihull way?
 
Judy - We had to walk to the baths and they always made us go in the deep end. I think it was my fear of the water that made me dislike it.
After I nearly drowned in Cliftonville/Margate lido I was terrified of the deep end. It was my own fault I went down the slide in the deep end and went under the water. I was only about 5 and had long braids. I'm told a man saw me and drag me up by my hair. My mom had bought me new ribbon for the holidays and she was more interested in how fast the new nylon ribbon dried than how I was. She never lived it down.
icon7.gif
Mo
 
Mo - What a frightening experience at Cliftonville lido that must have been for you, I'm not surprised you had a fear of water. Hope the hair ribbon was OK as well as you !!

I think I would mostly have gone to Grove Lane baths on the No.70 bus which I would have caught at Soho Hill near my school. I would also at times walk through the back roads and gulleys from Rosehill Road to Handsworth Park and that way to the baths.

Grove Lane baths were a big part of my life in my early teens as I was there at least a couple of times a week as apart from school swimming lessons we used to meet friends there regularly as well.

Judy
 
Does anyone remember the Lido at Rowheath Bournville? we spent many a happy summer day there, I took my kids too and they loved it just as I had.
 
Judy - As I said earlier my dad taught me to swim but it wasn't until after my son was born and I started swimming with a friend every week in Northfield that I got good at it. I learned to dive off the side and could go almost across the pool under water although I was still afraid of being under water I did it. I haven't done that for many years, so I'm not sure how I would be now. I can still swim but not the distance as I don't go very often, I should I know.
icon7.gif
Mo
 
Mo - I haven't been swimming for ages, but they say it is excellent exercise, so we should make an effort shouldn't we ? It's just getting started and making time !!

Judy
 
Sakura said:
Judy - As I said earlier my dad taught me to swim but it wasn't until after my son was born and I started swimming with a friend every week in Northfield that I got good at it. I learned to dive off the side and could go almost across the pool under water although I was still afraid of being under water I did it. I haven't done that for many years, so I'm not sure how I would be now. I can still swim but not the distance as I don't go very often, I should I know.
icon7.gif
Mo
Click to expand...

I used to go to Northfield Baths a lot, Ireally enjoyed the Cow and Gate hot chocolate from the cafe there when we come out
 
Mysterymaid there are photo's of the lido at cadbury's on a thread somebody started of the same name. Jean.
 
judy39 said:
Mo - I haven't been swimming for ages, but they say it is excellent exercise, so we should make an effort shouldn't we ? It's just getting started and making time !!

Judy
Click to expand...
My intentions are good but as you say it is getting around to it. Mo
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top