A Stroll round 1960s Saltcoats

[Penny Tray]

Susan,

Nipping back to the Bathing Pool, your first photo is deceiving because the floodlit sessions, I can asssure you, were extremely popular. I don't think they were planned too far in advance either, more likely just slotted in when a good spell of weather was being experienced. Your second photo is also deceiving because I never saw the water that colour in my life. Never!

Other memories include - Mr. Bob Hamilton the Bathmaster; the device on the outside wall above his office door which indicated the daily temperature of the water; school visits when we were walked back and forth via the Plantation from Eglinton School; being taught to swim by breast stroking towards a metal railing fixed to the pool wall and Mr. Hamilton rescuing you with a long pole if you got in difficulties; feeling crabs and eels about my feet, real or perceived; dodging jelly fish; a cafe with a juke box; sun bathing around the dome on the top level; membership of the Saltcoats Amateur Swimming Club; swimming galas in June/July and August and the annual 'big swim', not that I ever took part in it (this was where the better Club members swam from the Pool to the Inches in Ardrossan and back, if able.

The facilities at the Pool included - diving dales; a spring board, chutes, rafts and rolling cylinders.

There was also a lady from Stevenston who came to the pool every day that I was ever there, swam a hundred yards or so and left. The name Ritchie is running in my mind but this may not be the case and it was always said that she was a Minister's daughter? She apparently was a member of the Club and allegedly followed her routine every single day of the year? Brave lady if she did!

[Penny Tray]

Susan,

I must have been typing my last post when you were querying whether or not there was a cafe at the Bathing Pool. You will see that I mentioned the cafe. It was a bit of a spartan affair but then everying at the Pool was a bit spartan - tea/coffee/crisps/lemonade; basic furnishings but it did have a juke box. And it was a great meeting place for youngsters, a lot of whom, I'm sure, went to the Pool to 'meet' as opposed to 'swim'. I can't remember who was credited with running the cafe. It's location was bang in the centre of the Pool building on the lower level.

[Meg]

I worked in Cavani's West End Cafe weekends and school holidays from the ages of 13 and 16 (1969 to 1972) and was paid 15p per hour)

You have hit the nail on the head with this post. I too worked in the WE at this time, think you were paid more than me!
John

I worked in the Melbourne around that time and got paid 1/9d an hour which rose to the dizzy heights of 2/- an hour. 3/- an hour (15p) would have been a kings ransom!

Meg

[reidsville]

Always remember a guy called Buff Clegg at the bathing pool in the sixties a fantastic swimmer always winning competions and swimming to the inches and back regularly
Cheers Reidsville

[wellparkno9]

He was the manager at the Garnock pool at Kilbirnie at one time .

[down south]

That sounds like a name I've seen among the winners in some swimming gala results I have from the late 1960s, and which I've just posted, along with some accompanying pictures.For ease of future reference I've put them in the Photo Forum, and they can be found here.

Meanwhile,thanks once again PT; great to have life at the pool so completely portrayed by someone who knew it well. There's a much better picture by the way of floodlit bathing in the " Old Saltcoats " book, but it only seems to appear in tiny versions online.

But here at least is a link with a version of that photo of model yachts you were hoping to post earlier:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pondyacht/3226591676/

I see the diving chute is quite prominent in my picture of the pool in the 1960s ( what on earth are DIVING DALES, by the way ? ). This picture must be quite a bit older, but you can see all kinds of little platforms of that sort distributed around the edge of the pool:

http://www.s1saltcoats.com/files/photo/max-278760.jpg

Must have been quite useful having them there to mark it out, because I would guess the actual sill might disappear underwater at high tide.

According to the Herald article, " It is only fair to say that for about 30 years a good deal of the popularity of the pool was attributable to the personality of the permanent bathmaster, the late Mr Robert Hamilton. "; so he was obviously a fixture throughout its golden era. From the sounds of some of the past postings about him,not all of you would quite agree with that eulogy.... I think he's supposed to be in this picture, perhaps someone could confirm that for the record.

Susan

[westendcafe]

Hi Susan

The gentleman in that picture at the putting green end of season party is Mr Battersby. I remember swimming lessons from Mr Hamilton. We were marched down from school to the swimming pool. Then we would have to sit on the steps going through the different strokes under his eagle eye. When we finally made it into the ice cold sea water he would keep the bamboo pole just out of your grasp.

[Penny Tray]

Susan,

A wee word search would reveal that there are a few of us, including Hughie, Little Plum, Meekan and myself who always refer to Diving Dales as opposed to Diving Boards. Clearly it's an "auld' word .

[Hughie]

According to the Herald article, " It is only fair to say that for about 30 years a good deal of the popularity of the pool was attributable to the personality of the permanent bathmaster, the late Mr Robert Hamilton. "; so he was obviously a fixture throughout its golden era. From the sounds of some of the past postings about him,not all of you would quite agree with that eulogy.... I think he's supposed to be in this picture, perhaps someone could confirm that for the record.

No Susan, that's not Bob Hamilton. Below is a photo of him as most of us will remember him:

[Penny Tray]

Hughie,

That's a great picture of Mr. Hamilton. My recollection is that he necessarily ran a tight ship at the 'pool' but was always approachable and a great inspiration to those of us who wanted to learn to swim; and then an equally great motivator to those who had the ability thereafter to compete in galas and championships.

[mike mccann]

Here is a 1951 photo of a summer afternoon on the balcony .

[Penny Tray]

Under the clever headline - 17 LIGHT YEARS LATER - the Evening Times reported that on Thursday 21 July 1955, Saltcoats Bathing Pool was floodlit for bathing for the first time since 1938. More than 500 bathers had a late night dip and several thousand spectators watched from the promenade.

I was also reading that on 9 June 1938, Sir John Boyd Orr opened Saltcoats Boating Pond (Bond's Pond). The pond was constructed at a cost of £2,000 and occupies an acre between the Beach Pavilion and the Saltpans Bathing Place. Over 230,000 gallons of fresh water are required to fill the pond.