Diving into memories of trips to the lido
THERE had to be a bonus from being placed under house arrest for 12 weeks and now I have found it. Since the bank holiday, every day has been constant sunshine. Throughout my life there have always been things I have to do which take me away from home, but now I can lie in the sun every day without a guilty conscience.
The other day, as I was gently roasting in the heat, I started to think back to those years when as I got hotter I could simply drop into a swimming pool and cool off.
I haven’t had a pool at home, but I never had much opportunity to use one anyway. Holidays were the usual source of a swimming opportunity and my mind was thinking back to some of these pools since the very first Olympic-size pool we found on our honeymoon!
I had now jogged some memories and next recall was senior management’s birthday in 1967. That was June and I was in the middle of my technical exams and needed a break. A hot day meant an escape to the Deer Leap Lido near Ringshall, in Hertfordshire.
That turned out to be a brilliant day. I lay in the sun doing some swotting and then having a swim.
We were there for around six hours and guess I had my money’s worth. A visit to the internet tells me that the Deer Leap is now derelict and has been since 1997.
Nothing else so far has been done with this site in over 20 years. It seems this lido and our great day in 1968 will just have to remain a memory.
I was well into day-dreaming and the one that I now had in my mind took me way back to when I was but 10 years old and yet to learn to swim.
Four of us caught the 301 bus in Walton and travelled to Peterborough town centre, where the lido was on the edge of the River Nene, a short walk from the town centre. There was a big pool, a paddling pool and a learners’ pool.
Remember, I could not swim then so although I can recall getting in the shallow end of the big pool, I cannot remember too much of that very hot day.
I assumed that lido had long become a memory for everyone, but I had a fabulous shock when I consulted the internet again. Not only is that lido still there, it was fully operational in 2019 and would have been this year but for the coronavirus. It has had a somewhat hairy life, even a bomb dropping on it in 1940 before I was born. Since then, a fire and anti-social vandalism have wreaked some havoc.
But despite a large indoor pool being built in Peterborough since it became a “new town”, the lido soldiers on, providing a cooling opportunity on the hottest of days, just like the one when I paid my visit so many years ago. Given it will likely open again next year, it is worth a visit to the internet. If I was a tad younger I might get down there myself.
One memory I cannot allow to slide past. This was my weekly trips to the indoor swimming pool at Watford during my first year in secondary school. The expectation was that we made our own way to the pool and after swimming, hopped on a coach back to school.
I used to ride my bike to school as there were no buses, so that is how I got to the pool.
I did not know about the return coach, so after swimming I rode my bike back to school. It was there the teachers found me some time later after searching the swimming pool for me! They appeared glad to see me again!