Culgaith Swimming Pool

This is a great story of a pool that came about because a group of 1921 school children were tasked with writing an essay about what they thought their local recreation field should be used. One young girl wrote her essay about an open-air swimming pool. Whilst the idea was not taken too seriously at first, it sparked the enthusiasm of school master W Huddart.

He decided that he and the children would dig the pool themselves and work commenced on 14^th September 1921. The pool was marked out as a 60 ft. by 20 ft. rectangle with depths from 3 ft. to 5 ft.

The children did an amazing job, excavating 12 cubic yards in the first week. Huddart gave them a goal of one cubic foot each per day. The children dug after school and at weekends.

It was a slow task regardless of the enthusiasm and it took until on June 1st, 1923, the children commenced putting in the drain to carry away wastewater from the bath. Five days later they started laying the water main to the bath. The only part of the work undertaken by others was the concrete lining, which was carried out by a local builder.

The job was complete by 24^th August 1923. And the bath was able to be used during the late summer holidays.

At one end of the pool there was a concrete diving stage, but it was built for children and into 4 ft of water so not very high!

A small pavilion was added later and this was upgraded to a more substantial building but no dates can be found for either build.

A village survey and action plan mentions the lack of proper upkeep of the pool but sadly it did not feature on the extensive action plan and was filled in by 2009. It is remarkable that it lasted for many more years than most of the 1930’s pools that fell into disrepair and started off as an essay subject by a young girl.