Going up and coming down: not quite 50 years of Coseley Baths
The man who led the way on public baths
Public Baths were born at a meeting of Coseley Urban District Council in 1959, when the chairman, John T. Wilson, first proposed them.
His suggestion was given unanimous support and Wilson was given unprecedented powers to act in the matter, singlehandedly overseeing the project.
Land
His first task was to find a suitable plot of land. The extensive historic mineworkings beneath much of borough proved a problem but eventually a site was settled on in Pear Tree Lane. The existing houses there were cleared and a neighbouring cow pasture was bought, all for £3,000.
Architects Scott and Clarke of Wednesbury were chosen to design the new baths and Wilson and Lovett of Wolverhampton were the contractors; the total cost of construction would £252,000, a large sum of money for a small urban district.
There were snags along the way. A hitherto unknown mine shaft was discovered on the site, which led to additional costs of £20,000 for extra strengthening work. Then a spring was found under the proposed carpark and some 750,000 gallons of water had to be pumped out to drain it.
On August 25, 1962, Councillor Wilson laid the foundation stone but later there were further delays when one of the coldest winters in history struck and the frozen ground meant that work came to a halt. Even so, Councillor Wilson visited the site every week to view progress.
The pool itself was supported on a platform made from 25 miles of steel bars, weighing 170 tons, with thousands more tons of concrete. The pool was 110ft long and 42ft wide; at the shallow end it was 3ft 3in deep, increasing to 14ft 3in at the opposite end; it held 220,000 gallons.
Tax
Originally, there were high diving platforms and spring boards. HM Cus