Inside White Rock Baths
|
- 636 of 1151
Inside White Rock Baths
Thank you to Victor John Bragger for contributing the photo
Comments
-
on 29 Jun 2012 Clive Wiltshire said Hey..I learnt to swim in there c.1960 ! -
on 31 Jul 2013 Anne Crawford said My great aunt, Lily Knowles was a swimming teacher at the baths. I am told that she taught the young Sir Anthony Anthony Eden how to swim.
-
on 10 Dec 2014 Rica Hare said Miss Knowles was held in very very high regard as a really excellent, if quite strict, swimming teacher. She taught my mother.
-
on 26 Jul 2015 Linda livingstone said I also learnt to swim here ( mid 60's)
-
on 02 Nov 2016 Valerie Brookes ][nee Renn] said I think that most of the school children in Hastings learned to swim here.
I got all my stripes in this pool - including the 1/4 mile [which if I remember rightly was 8 lengths!] [1950's]
There were swimming clubs too, including HESSA [Friday nights] Ducklings and Seagulls....and swimming galas were held during the course of the school year.
Happy Days! -
on 13 Dec 2016 Bill Hawkes said I learned to swim here in the 1970's, and remember a few teachers such as Mrs Avery, Mr Lucy and Mr Rootes.
I can remember swimming my mile here 32 lengths, and going through the bronze, silver, gold and honours awards, with a few guys I remember such as Steve Sherwood, Stuart Burchell, Steve Pepper and a few other who have slipped my memory.
Good times -
on 26 Jan 2017 Gerry Glyde said I remember Miss Penny who only seemed interested in the pupils who were good at swimming. She left a few of us sitting on the edge of the pool for ages and then we might get a few minutes of time between us. I failed to learn to swin
-
on 08 Sep 2017 Paul Bridger said I also remember Miss Penny and NO I didn't learn to swim here either. I hated the thought and was standing by the side of the pool when the said Miss Penny pushed me in saying that I would sink or swim. I SANK and never went back there even playing truant to avoid it.
Does anyone remember the knitted woollen trunks we had then? Alright till you got them wet and got out of the water whence they sagged down around your knees, also who remembers the Brylcream machine on the way out. We knew how to extract the stuff without putting in a penny and had so much on our hair it used to run down our backs. -
on 26 Nov 2017 Andy Clark said HESSA on Fridays and memories of woollen trunks - and chafing! My father played competitive water polo here in the late 1940s.
-
on 22 Apr 2018 Lois Blake said My sister and I were there too, in the late 1950's early 60's. I hated the changing cubicles, and it was always so cold there. But we had to learn to swim as our Dad otherwise would not let us go on the beach!!
-
on 03 Mar 2019 Tony Beveridge said I learnt to swim under Miss Penny's beady eye in 1951. She was a bit of a martinet, so it was advisable to learn as quickly as possible so that you could escape her clutches at the earliest opportunity. I had the added incentive that I had nearly drowned a few years earlier when in my ignorance I ran along the beach and jumped over a stone breakwater into deep water and had to be rescued, so learning to swim was essential! In spite of post-war austerity, Hastings was a great place to grow up in.
-
on 13 Jan 2020 Brett Boniface said Miss Penny was one scary lady! I hated putting my face under water so she made me do it in front of the whole class! I don't think any of us learnt how to swim!
-
on 14 Jun 2020 Linda Edwards said I thought this was a smelly, scary place. I went to Woodlands school during the 1960s, and we had swimming lessons there. I was terrified of the water and needless to say I never learnt to swim. I also remember Miss Penny, who seemed to give up trying with me. I would think of anything to get out of getting in the water. And I was so pleased when I got a verucva! I did enjoy going back to school on the coach and having digestive biscuits. Happy days.
-
on 02 Sep 2020 Ian Tullett said Can anyone tell me if there was a skateboard park in there maybe in the smaller pool area back in the seventies or eighties. I would be very grateful for your response.
Ian -
on 07 Jan 2021 John Devereux said I learnt to swim here in the mid sixties. One of my sister's boyfriends got me swimming underwater so I had no fear of that. I recall eventually being able to swim about a length and a half under water in the big pool. That ability disappeared when I started smoking at age 14. ???????? I swam in both of the pools here. I also swam at the bathing pool in St Leonard's. Good memories. Sad that they have all gone. Never did go to the new pool complex which by the time they built it ended up being much smaller than originally planned if I remember correctly. Swimming lessons were given by Barry Fletcher the PE teacher at Priory Road and the Art teacher Vic Friendly. Both great teachers.
-
on 23 Jul 2022 lynda caine said Hessa very happy memories for my dear old mum pat (nee) miller in her words great times Friday nights with good friends happy days of my Hastings childhood.
-
on 10 Nov 2023 David Jarrett said I remember Miss Penny. She taught me to swim, I was at Tower Road School, 1951-54. I don’t remember Miss Penny being scary or anything like it, but I did learn to swim fairly quickly so perhaps that was the reason she ok.
I was in a swimming gala in about 1956, I think it was a youth clubs competition. I started in a centre lane, it was a free style race. I had my head down, swimming as fast as I could, I hit the left hand side of the pool, then the right hand side, I still came second. -
on 29 Apr 2026 Tony Crittenden said Born in Hastings in 1940. Lived at 156 Victoria Avenue. Started at Hastings Grammar with Tony Beveridge in form 2J. Would be great to get in touch with Tony B or any other Old Hastoneans.from those early 1950's.
Fancy a print or enlargement?
Many of our Hastings area images are available as prints and enlargements. Contact Us with details of the picture you are interested in and we will ask the contributor for permission to produce a print for you.
Submit a picture for inclusion
We are always interested in adding new Hastings images to the gallery, all of which are credited to the photographer or contributor that supplied them. Use our Photo Uploader to send images for consideration.
