I cant dive meself. Never been able too. Plus can tho-he taught the 'kids'. Knocks me sick the thought of it....and im scared of empty pools but my concious self dunno why?!
All the statistics are here, in a page from the Bebington Official Guide, dated 1966. Note the entrance prices, equivalent to 2.1/2p and 5p now! All gone, alas!
Great find, I used to know Fred Newton who was a plant man there for years. He passed away about 15 years ago. He used to swim at Byrne Ave with his wife after he retired. What a character. I only visited New Ferry baths once (I was a Derby Pool boy). It was my wife's regular haunt with her sisters when she was a kid.
I have a memory of New Ferry Baths. Getting to the top of the high board then looking down and nearly fainting. Luckily we only went to pick up girls, not dive off the high board.
Hello everybody,remember the baths in New Ferry and my memory seems to be the highest diving board was about 60 ft,will stand to be corrected,if anybody has definite info.
I suspect 60 feet is a bit wide (or high!) of the mark. I've found 2 photos of the platforms showing 5 levels, not 9 as mentioned somewhere else. The first clearly shows 12 steps and, at say 9 inches each, makes the distance from board 4 to board 5 about 3 metres. Scaling the heights of other boards from an estimated water level agrees with the above text figures of 10 and 3 metres. The heights of the person sitting at the bottom of the tower and the children to the right just about confirm my calculations. Photo 2 is less clear but, using the 12 steps again, there is a person on board 5 who scales about right.
'Seven' metres sounds unusual and it's surprising that metres are used at all, bearing in mind that the pool, 100 metres long, was built in 1934, when we had an Empire and used yards, feet and inches, etc., elsewhere! Presumably the metric measurements, also in athletics, came from the Olympic Games.
I used to dive off the top board at New Ferry, up until I was about 14yrs old. I always thought the top board was 66' high! Mind you, I was about 4' high, so maybe things were relative to my height!
I loved New Ferry Baths but couldn't dive and I swam like a brick . The water was freezing cold even on the sunniest days. The best thing about going to the baths was eating the food our Mothers had for us.
meself. Never been able too. Plus can tho-he taught the 'kids'. Knocks me sick the thought of it....and im scared of empty pools but my concious self dunno why?!
. The water was freezing cold even on the sunniest days. The best thing about going to the baths was eating the food our Mothers had for us.
