O/T sheffield road baths

[Lasterman]

Yep, I’d concur on the top level being 15 feet. When your ten it feels like a hundred. It was always incredibly noisy in the New baths (incidentally opened, I believe, In 1935 to coincide with George V’s Silver Jubilee - so not that ‘new’...) Also that footbath you had to go through to get from the changing rooms to the pool was always perishing cold! I went in the building shortly before it was knocked down just to have a look around. It had hardly changed from the late 1950s - but was oh so small! I couldn’t believe it had shrunk so much! I even went up the (concrete) steps to what had been the cafe behind the diving boards. It was being used as a storage area and a bit run down but recognizable and still with the view over the water. That was a real ‘memory lane’ trip!

Spent a lot of time in there. Rotherham Neptunes on a Monday night. Used to try and jump that footbath! One point I'm going to disagree on - the café was at the opposite end of the pool to the diving boards wasn't it?

[avondalemiller]

Lasterman, yes it was, upstairs. Good view from up there.

[CAMiller]

not sure - only went there for the fishing at the time


just looked up the Blackpool one - 10 metres/33 feet - not surprised they used to clear part of the water before someone dove off it...

https://www.lostlidos.co.uk/1999/05/...by-baths-1939/

Those 10m boards are terrifying, I wouldn't jump off one with a parachute. We lived in Santa Clara for 7 years and they had one there. It was the pool where Mark Spitz had trained as a high school student. Like at the Olympics it was separate from the 50m pool and I think had a depth of 6m of water.

I think I only visited Rotherham Baths on a couple of occasions and seem to remember neshing out of the big jump. Rawmarsh Baths is where we used to go as kids/school swimming lessons. No diving board there but the same recollections of the freezing foot bath and vending machines along with the bully boy towel flickers who picked on us weaklings

[CTMilller]

Spent a lot of time in there. Rotherham Neptunes on a Monday night. Used to try and jump that footbath! One point I'm going to disagree on - the café was at the opposite end of the pool to the diving boards wasn't it?

You could well be right, Lastermam. Looking at the picture Lincsmiller put up earlier in the thread, it looks like there’s only an external window above the diving boards. I need to reconstruct my memory of it, now!

[sota]

CT, the cafe was indeed at the opposite end to the blocks, as we called them. I also remember diving off the concrete tiered seats at the sides. It was quite scary diving off the first row, making sure you cleared the walkway and the edge of the pool. I sometimes made it by the skin of my teeth, or feet lol

[CTMilller]

CT, the cafe was indeed at the opposite end to the blocks, as we called them. I also remember diving off the concrete tiered seats at the sides. It was quite scary diving off the first row, making sure you cleared the walkway and the edge of the pool. I sometimes made it by the skin of my teeth, or feet lol

Thanks, Sota, for confirming. It's funny how the mind plays tricks...

I can't imagine diving from the tiered seats at the sides - but, then again, it's my nine year old self imagining the scale of things in about 1960.

Mind you, my dad told me he dived off the balcony that used to surround the pool at the Old Baths (that would have been in the late 1920s) so everything is possible...

[LincsMiller]

CT, the cafe was indeed at the opposite end to the blocks, as we called them. I also remember diving off the concrete tiered seats at the sides. It was quite scary diving off the first row, making sure you cleared the walkway and the edge of the pool. I sometimes made it by the skin of my teeth, or feet lol

Those very same steps were responsible for many a worn out pair of woolen trunks , when the steps were wet and a prevailing wind you could cover quite a few yards sliding on your backside !

[crashbang]

Bill Burgess. Bronze statue. Well shiny nose.

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

Bill Burgess. Bronze statue. Well shiny nose.

Now here’s an odd thing

As most know Bill Burgess was the second man to swim the channel.

Born in Rotherham at Lyndhurst Place, which is now gone, but the new leisure centre and swimming baths is built just about bang in top of where the house was.