Does anyone remember new ferry swimming baths ?

yes

No

Yes

CLICKY

Used to bunk in water was freezing !

Where was it abouts?

Thank you all for your replies :-)

shorefields near new ferry shore, the other end of the road from where the great eastern pub was before it was demolished.

If anyone would like to add me on there buddy list please feel i like to make new friends :-)

Yes it was there Sue the great eastern pub shame they pulled it down

oh yeah, i remember the baths! such a shame they pulled it down and built the Wimpy estate on the site, we used to bunk in,sometimes we paid!!to me it always felt as tho you were stepping into another world once you you got through that turnstyle, i can still hear that turnstyle as you paid and went through! aaahhh the memories! it was great, there was a swimming instructer there by the name of Mr Chaukley does anyone remember him?

I remember it. We used to bunk in through the hedge and spend all day there. Packed off by our mums with jam butties and a drink and no money to get in. There was a baby pool which was shallow enough to walk right acroos, it was only up to your knees. The middle pool (the tip-toe pool, cos i had to tip-toe to keep my head above the water) and then a swimmers only pool.... for swimmers not splashers. There was a slide and diving boards, 3 of them i think. Huge and freezing cold changing rooms. Dont ever remember seeing a lifeguard. But the water, my god, it could only have been colder if they had an iceberg floating in it. But i lived to tell the tale.

Aaaahhh yes chalky white we used to call him. I actually passed my first certificate with him by walking along the bottom of the centre pool.
No wonder the place shut down, no one seemed to pay. i had a yearly pass and i'd still bunk in, either through the fence in the park or over the hospital wall!

didnt the slide have a pipe thing at the top spraying water down the slide to make it slippy or am i remebering somewhere else.and yes it was bloody cold.

I remember them being there yes but never went. I do however remember going to Port Sunlight Baths. Were the summers warmer back then or did we just think they were?

NFBaths remembered with great affection, like most people used to bunk in there mainly on a Saturday as Sunday was the family outing to Hoylake beach, the bench by the small toilets was "our families" spot before bunking into Hoylake baths.
Oh the shame bunking into both places !

NFBaths was great for sitting on the grass bank watching all the lovely girls in their cozzies !!! drinking lemonade and butties and cold potatos

Is my mind playing or did somebody really hurt themselves off the top board may have even died? Any body know?

There was a slide with a water coming down it to make it extra slippy. A spring board next to the main the diving boards which you used to scare the **** out of me they where so high - anybody have the courage to go off them? Me only the 3rd highest if I remember and then only jumped - big brave boy ha ha

lots of childhood memories mirror what others have said, family days out with mum,dad,sister,auntie,uncle and cousins with a picnic and pop (pop was a treat) but yes it was very cold water ha
strange that we used to sit off on the grass but i never remember it floating in the water or maybe i just didnt care lol

Like new brighton baths the water was Bl--dy Cold even when the weather was hot...Happy Days

Yes the water in NB baths was very cold but in the Derby pool baths for some reason it was even colder

Hoylake baths even colder.

no, the summers did seem warmer then,not like now! lucky to get a hot day,and when we do we have to make the most of it lol

just had a thought----summers must of been hot then cos i remember my brother fell asleep in NFbaths and got sunstroke!!

My Grandad used to be a really good swimmer and did dive off the high boards. I have never been to those baths, I have no idea how high the boards were.Apparently he was quite fearless about it. I on the other hand would be scaed stiff!
Lyn

i know the deep end was 13 feet.

The parents from the Vine Street and Brook Street area used to hire a bus and all go up mob handed to New Ferry baths, it must have worked out cheaper than going by route bus, also the men never went, just the mums with sandwiches for a bite to eat. It always seemed to be good weather in the summer, melted tar bubbles etc. Mid you the winters were bloody cold, still remember the 1947 one and I was only a nipper.

A big gang of us from our street went there one day when it was absolutely chucking it down. There was only us there.Great.
As already said by many, the water was always freezing but it was also very muddy with the odd sod of grass.

yes live close by and can go back 50years great big pool high board 2 slides great cafe always full water was freezing even in hot weather brrrrrrrrrrrrrr

derby pool was brill water cold but ok once you were in new brighton baths best ever baths i used to sit on top of fountain and try and stop the water comming out great place for bathing beauty contests held an enormous amount of people and water great days 50/60 better atmosphere than indoor baths and more people ha ha ha

we were more hardy them days anyone remember berne ave indoor baths rock ferry please re-open when someone jumped in you were flooded out of changing rooms ha ha which were around poolside hated wearing those rubber bathing caps

Great memories of New ferry baths. I went there in the sixties and seventies. Yes the sun always seemed to shine. There was always a constant hum of chattering adults and shrieking children. We like so many used to take picnics and sit amongst the shade of the trees. The water was always cold, but it was great when you went into the pool side sweet/snack shops as they always felt really warm after the chilly water.

Use to hate going down the slides though as you were often dunked under by other kids as you came off the end.

I once fell in the pool aged four and I couldnt swim at the time. I was walking past the pool and some kid rushing by knocked me in.
I remember clearly going right under the water and seeing all these bubbles around me and I bagan to panic.
Then suddenly I saw an arm from up above enter the water and go straight towards me and it grabbed me and pulled me out.
It was the lifeguard who happened to spot me drowning!

He then tipped me upside down, and held me by the ankles and patted me on the back whilst I coughed and spluttered,(obviously resusitation techniques were maybe slightly different back then in 1964 lol!) then with my anxious family he took me to the lifeguard hut and wrapped me in a towel. I remember all the crowds by then gathered outside to see if I had succombed to the watery depths. But I emerged triumphant a few mins later clutching a handful of sweets that the lifeguard had given me and walking out to a round of applause!

Thank goodness for the lifeguard.

I was only aged four.. but I began swimming lessons the week after that and learnt to swim at Byrne ave.

I was very sorry to see the place closed, it always had a wonderful happy atmosphere.

Some pics clicky

To see period film footage of Wirral's open air pools, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkU95hH424s

hi just came across the forum I was trying to find out wot year the baths closed an noticed wot u said about someone being hurt. I lived not far from the baths an was always there.there were five diving boards in the middle at the bottom end of the big pool an one day I was pushed off the third one by another lad roughly the same age as me,apparently I landed on the concrete and went into the water then spent a week in hospital don't remember much tho and wondered if that mite have bin wot u were thinkin of,but I suppose there must have bin other accidents tho.i loved them baths.

ouch! that is nasty

cba lookin but if this is byrne av baths i want to visit.

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