Another gem of an image courtesy of Peter Wilson – a busy Hoylake Outdoor Pool.
Whenever I hear people talk or write on local forums about the Hoylake Outdoor Pool there seems to be a varied opinion about just how cold the water was! What memories do you have of the old pool?
On a slightly related note, was there once a woman who regularly enjoyed a morning swim in the Irish Sea off the beach at Hoylake? I have a vague recollection of someone mentioning this to me many moons ago.
Well, the pool traditionally was open from mid May to mid September and could be very chilly at the beginning of the season. There was a temperature displayed in the entrance and it could be as low as 52F but in a hot spell it would get up to about 84F. Anything above 66F was pretty good I reckoned.
I don’t know about your lone bather but my family frequently walked out from the bottom of Curzon Road ‘over the banks’ and swam in the sea off the East Hoyle Bank. Seals sometimes used to pop up and look at you from just a few yards away. At low tide there is a glorious sandy beach out there but I bet 99% of locals have never seen it.
I think there were a couple of lone bathers. One was my Mums cousin,Kathleen Evans who is still alive and zipping around Hoylake now in her 90`s.
The other lady that lots of people must have seen in her little old Mini, used to walk over the bank by the boating pool and swim most days, i`m sure i`ve seen her around in her car until quite recently.
As a Parade School pupil we used the pool from Easter to the end of term for swimming lessons, The first swiming lesson after easter in 1963 was particularly cold it was 39f, very very cold, we were only able to swim 1 width at a time and then had to get out to get warm.
Yes it could be cold- but how we loved the Baths. It was the focus of the summer for us and we spent many hours there. I remember hot Horlicks in the cafe after if the water was particularly cold- do others recall the swimming galas there- big events at the time. I have very happy memories of Hoylake Baths in the ’50s and again in the glorious summer of 1976 when I returned to live, briefly, in Hoylake with my 2 young children. We’d been in tropical Africa for 10 years but that summer was so good that they too came to love the Baths and indeed one of them did a junior lifesaving course there.
I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that the demolition of the Baths was a bad day for Hoylake- refurbishment would have been a better option and might have helped to maintain visitor levels.
One particular memory is watching my youngest brother, a non-swimmer at teh time, jumping off the top board into the deep end- for a dare!! I was convinced that he would drown and that I’d have to go home and tell my Mum !! Needless to say he survived.
Yes Sue it was a sad day when the Pool went but at the moment we have a major task to save the Boating Lake next Door to the old Pool which, when the Trust had the Pool, we turned into a splash pool with sand and sea painted on the bottom. The other day the ATC Team were sand blating it off to be replaced by Resin to make the Lake water retentive. I hope the Residents will once more save this facility and bring some interest back on the Prom next to the RNLI station.
I grew up using the pool from the sixties to the seventies. I loved rock feature fountains at each corner as you entered. I can still smell of the changing rooms to this day (how sad). Does anyone remember the name of the slightly large gent who would jump in of the top board and everyone would tread water around the landing area. What a laugh. I still have a handmade wooden yacht that we used to sail in the boating lake. Memories. G
Hi Graham….we used to call him “bubble” He had an inflated lorry tyre instead of a rubber ring. He was from West Kirby. I remember us all watching the temperature guage. If it hit 60F we felt great and all jumped in. The pool would close for lunch…they blew a whistle. When they blew it, we local lads…your brother,my brother Mike, Rob Parry, Tim Hazelhurst, Mike Roberts et al…all jumped in and they had to get us out. Social misbehaviour! It was a nuisance because to get back in you had to queue again and, on a sunny day, the queues could be very long. Moustachioed Sid Dutton ran the baths, a real gentleman and until recently still alive well into his nineties. I hope he is still alive and well. The Berman family from Elm Terrace ran the cash desk and kep the place going for years. My Dad used to collect the takings on a Saturday and Sunday afternoon in Hoylake UDC’s “company limousine”…a black Morris Minor 1000.
The chute in the photograph was, of course, the “curly” and quite the favourite.
But gosh it was cold. It made me tough though…I’ve often said Hoylake baths prepared you for anything!
I remember Mrs. Berman with her red hair and red lipstick ,i can also remember like it was yesterday the noise the ticket machine made when you showed her your contract. Mrs Bermans son still lives in Elm Terrace and Vi her daughter still lives in Sandringham Ave.
Loved the curly, where is Mike now, whats he doing? I think we both worked at The Stanley as students aswell as living near to each other in Chapel and Hazel Roads?
My brother Mike is married with 2 little girls and lives in Manhattan. He has been in New York 25 years and works for Wells Fargo. I ask him if he rides on the stage coaches but he’s an insurance broker. I’ve told him about this superb website. I think you may hear from him. So you both worked in The Stanley! The Manager had been Hotel Manager of the original Queen Mary, I remember. Saturday night in the cocktail lounge was quite swish. Alan Galloway playing the organ in the main room….
Thats right the Manager was called Mr.Humphries and he was old school ,had very exacting standards as you would expect after working on Queen Mary. I was a student and worked in the restaurant waiting on at the weekend and doing silver service at functions and weddings , which in the 70`s there were a huge amount of.I remember Alan on the organ too.Say hi to Mike , i can still remember him in his choir boy surplice! Best wishes, Judith.
The good old days at The Stanley Hotel,worked there for years,it was the QE1 by the way.
Went to school with you and Mike do you remember me? Lived in Queens road,not been back for years how is old Hoylake,has the Stanley gone now?
Hi John, i certainly do remember you, fun days, no the Stanley has been flattened, before they knocked it down it became Flatfoot Sams, a bar mainly for youngsters, when that closed it was sold for developement, the building that is there now is quite controversial amongst the locals and is referred to as “Colditz” or “that monstrosity at the roundabout”
I remember your Mum worked on reception aswell, remember all those weddings we did? Where are you now and did you stay in the Hotel industry?
Hi Judith, good times back then,yes stayed in the business just moved back to the uk after running my own place in Lanzarote. sadly a victim of the BIG R, living in Shrewsbury at the moment. One day will visit Hoylake again, so pleased to find the Hoylake Junction its great to look back, and also catch up with Hoylake as it is now,dont know how long the site has been running, but its great for people like me that moved away.
Do you remember Mrs Mac the old girl that lived in the states and stayed at The Stanley for 2 or 3 months every year. What a caracter she was, remember Humph treated her like the Queen,he was a real pro.
Only missed this post by a year John…which is good for me !
Very long time no speak. My mother (Sheila) used to work at The Stanley…..until she was asked to wear Hot Pants back in the early seventies….by which time she was waaay too old and wrinkley for such attire.
Although long out of touch with the old Hoylake Primary and Junior School crew, I have managed to re-establish contact with Mike Parr over in the States. Keep meaning to get together….but, well you know how it is ! Drop me note if you pick this up…..
Hey Soaf…Do you remember opening day??? first 100 kids in the water got a summer contract..It was a big deal if yours was in the first 10.
Happy Memories
Kev Radford (Radish)
What great memories!
We moved to Meols in 1975 and so I remember the wonderful summers of 1976/77, and have many happy memories of HOPT.
One thing which does stick in my mind, on the matter of water temperature, is the little board which used to be displayed at the entrance and was supposed to infrom of the temperature. It seemed to be remarkably constant, in my recollection, 65 degrees for weeks on end which was definitely not the case!
I remember too, each summer we would get the ‘best value’ contract which allowed off peak [evenings] swimming and come rain or shine we had to use it…. £1.40 I thing for the whole summer.
Such good memories of the pool.From when it opened in May to the end of the season,I practically lived there.Great times waiting in the queue to buy your ‘connie’ and the thrill of having a low number.One time I even had Number 1!!!!
Seeing who could stay in the ‘low’ temps longer than anyone else.Charlie Tranter and’ Pinkie’ thrusting her baracuda!
Like Graham,the smell of the changing rooms is ingrained,haha!
In the 70′s my mum worked for the Trust and they did such sterling work,with the Parish Hall too.So sad to see everything go……………………….progress backwards!
Yes, getting a low number on the ‘contracts’!! I’d forgotten about that – one year I think I got 2 or 3! They cost about 10/- (50p) from memory and a whole season of fun lay ahead.
My GCE O’ Level results suffered in ’76 as I was much more interested in painting the pool than in revision.
Geoff Fenney, Norah Simpson, Pinkie…….. What great times they were!
Never swam there myself, but my dad used to take me over just after the war, he loved swimming there, i just watched..i remember Hoylake being a nice place for an afternoon out, we travelled from St Helens..That ,as i say,was years ago and i remember the beach as well..I bet the old place has changed a lot now though, like West Kirby and New Brighton has..Gone,never to return.
I remember my mum going to buy my sister and myself contracts the day before the first day of the school summer holidays and after that she didn’t see an awful lot of us until September when we has to go back to school!!! We would be there from the moment it openend in the mornings and would generally be the last ones to leave in the evening. I still remember the smell of the changing rooms, the turnstyle at the entrance and temperature of the water displayed (generally very cold!) It was a very sad day when they eventually closed the baths. Some freinds and I would climb over the wall into the baths via the paddling pool end after its closure. I remember that there was talk of us chaining ourselves to the entrance so that they couldn’t demolish our beloved pool. Big ideas for 11 and 12 year olds!!!!!
Does anyone remember the big old mangles to dry your towels? I remember getting my sisters (sorry Joanne) fingers caught and having to go to the cottage Hospital which had a mini A/E in those days, Around 1970 i would say.
I remember ‘Uncle Stan’ and his sausage sizzle on the beach by the paddling pool. I got sunstroke the summer of 1976 as my friends and I always bagged a spot on the far side by the killer slide as the sun lasted nearly all day!! Happy times indeed.
1976 was the year when we had a red hot summer and I was running a lifeguard crew on the beach and one day we had to close the beach off after two of our crew, and a few others had to go to the cottage hospital with stings from huge red Lion’s mane jelly fish. That infestation lasted a couple of days. It was also the year when I arrived at Meols slip with a couple of my seniors to find a family on the beach with two cars, several beach chairs and a windbreak and they were busy trying to get a cooking stove to light.
We watched them for a few minutes then went over to them and explained that the tide was on its way in. They told me yes we can see it over there. So I said, in that case you have probably noticed the channel over to your right and they said no they hadn’t. So I pointed to the channel to their left and they hadn’t seen this either so I told them that in about fifteen minutes those two channels would come along the sea wall and meet up at the slipway and the water at the slip would go from six inches deep to nearly three feet deep.
It was amazing how quickly they got all their junk off the beach, which shouldn’t have been there anyway.
I too spent eveyday i could in the pool, a contract was 10/-, we got in at 10am ,stayed til 8pm. After getting changed the first thing to do was to go and look at the temp and regardless of what it said got in anyway. I too remember the smell of the changing rooms, do you remember the noise made by the red gate as you left, i can hear it now?
Do you remember how good the Horlicks tasted if you were shivering and nearly blue[ i don`t even like Horlicks], do you remember June Rogerson sitting on the fountain wall, elegantly in a black bikini. looking like a model?
Whoever decided to bulldoze it should have been locked up, ok it costs to run a pool like that and the climate isn`t quite L.A. however the plus side is kids exercising, less crime, aswell as pure pleasure.I must think about the baths and the fun we had nearly everyday, plus when “Uncle Stan” was in town, totally torn but usually did both everyday. Pity our kids and grandchildren haven`t been able to.
June also had a young daughter. Does anyone know what happened to them. They were both an attractive decoration to the pool.
Sadly June passed away a couple of years ago, Lesley her daughter still lives in Hoylake with her children.
Spent most of the school hols in Hoylake baths, loved it when you could go on the roof before it was deemed unsafe. The mangles were a great idea, the rocky fountains were great but you were not supposed to climb them!! Bottles of Fanta in the cafe, Charlie Tranter!, the killer slide, the boating lake, sand castle competitions, Uncle Stan and the sausage sizzle, the water was always so cold though, but the atmosphere was amazing, always packed, had to get there very early to get a spot near the killer or the spring board. Innocent times the 70s or is it rose tinted?
Not sure about the killer slide but remember with affection, the curly chute. Also the time web spent chatting to the girls in their ruched? bathing costumes and rubber swimming caps. Don’t see many of those these days.
I worked at the baths as a lifeguard with George Fleet of Rudd street, and Charlie Tranter….at lunch time when we closed for an hour, sid dutton would dive in and float on his back till he fell asleep.
re Uncle Stan on the beach, I had his church from fort worth texas, on tour on my coach from toronto (where i now live), they toured north east US for 12 days, and they still do the same thing (without the sand)!!
this is a great website, keep up the good work.
Great to know you read this in Canada. I remember the good old days in the YMCA and the Pantos???
You mention names to conjure with and I could add many more. I was out with Lee Ireland on Friday she is 92 and still as lively as ever and remembers you all.
Hoylake has always been a lively place and still is, keep reading this site.
Martin Carran’s comment relates to the 1970s! It could just as well have referred to the 1950s! Including Charlie Tranter!
50s, 60s or 70s Hoyalke Baths was an institution that shaped many of our young lives – innocent and otherwise!
Hoylake bathing pool in the 50′s. Getting sun burnt on the plateau, looking for our favourite girls bikes outside, the sound of the ticket machine and the turnstile, checking the water temperature on the notice board, and never believing it, wandering all round the pool to check who was there, and always finding everyone there, because nobody ever missed a day, the smell of the changing rooms, the cold water, the rough tarmac on the roof of the changing rooms, leaning over the parapet to see if there was any cleavage on view on the beach below, continuous bombing off the 3 meter springboard to impress the girls, sliding down the curly slide backwards, or the big slides standing up then diving off at the bottom, the Platters singing “Only You” over the Tannoy, saving a penny to buy Brylcreem afterwards, Horlicks in the cafe on cold days. Yes Peter, very happy days and mostly innocent. What a great place to grow up.
You captured it beautifully Mike, as does this much loved photograph. As you say, what a great place – and time – to grow up. Very many happy memories.
Those halcyon days – back from school ;- grab my ncozzi and towel off the clothes line, pick up my sarnies and belt down Hoyle Road to the Baths. Show my two and six contract (once I had number 4! – join the “gang” and plunge in! – - fight to achieve a space on that old wooden raft—- Oh! to experience those days again! A n old gent, I think he was a Mr. Angel – however – he seemed to be always there, would keep some sort of order in the “Mens corridor” — We never sheltered in the cubicles – it was raw nature—-! We used to jump off the high board, down into fifteen feet of water, to retrieve a bit of iron, just to prove we had made it!. – Home again, sometimes through the gardens to buy an icecream and jump up on the stage where Sam Lloyd and his band would perform. On to the slipway, if the nobbies were coming in. Buying a parcel of dabs for sixpence if – - – - So on, perhaps I was due on duty (St. Johns Ambulance cadet) on the back row, at the kingsway —– that`s another story! Happy Days!
I have just found this site – wonderful – I worked at the pool from 1976 along with my brother Steve we were in charge in the pump house and i have to admit we sometimes made the temperature up, sorry
They were the best of times, so many locals worked there ,if any of you are reading this , hi.
If it took you a year to join the conversation, it’s taken me even longer Pete so please forgive me. I remember your mum well of course but could never quite see her in hotpants. Hope life is treating you well……be good to hear from you johnwilliamparr@aol.com. Mike is home today, funnily enough. We had great times in Hoylake Baths.
my mum and dad both worked at hoylake baths,billy mac was my dad,think my uncle duncan worked there aswell,the summer of 76 eh,i was at the parade school 2nd year in 76 would cross the road and have a swim after school to cool off,jock boyd was always after us for wagging last lesson.i live in new zealand now been here since 99,am about to jump the ditch as they say here and re locate to brisbane.visited hoylake in 09 with my partner she loved our guided tour of the new lifeboat ,big thanks to dave dodd for showing us around.i remember the killer slide and the diving boards,me and steve mcgowan worked all summer scraping paint off the changing rooms,peter cottriall gave us our contracts at the end,we must have swam everyday.what memories.
Received a link to this page via my brother in law, who received the link from his son, my nephew, who thought my sister, his mother, would be interested to read about Hoylake baths in the 60′s, whilst also noting the comments posted by his uncle, our brother….John Johnson!
Bit of a shock then, on opening the link to find a 60′s photo of Hoylake baths, to see myself, aged around 11 yrs, sliding down the curly!!
Happy happy days…
Sue, that’s great! So can you date the photo then? It was widely available as a post card in the 60s and early 70s.
Hello Peter
I would date that photo 1963/4, and expect ‘House of the Rising Sun’ would have been continuously blasting through the tannoy at the time!
It is just amazing how one single photo can evoke so many happy childhood memories for so many of us around at that time, sights, sounds and smells…all so vivid still. Do you have any of Red Rocks or Hilbre? We too used to swim off Curzon Rd, we used to kid ourselves that the sea was cleaner there, but still recall emerging from a swim in the sea with loo paper draped around our legs…don’t remember it ever putting us off! Our family home was in Queens Road, directly opposite the lighthouse but I spent most of my spare time in Curzon Road where my friends the Ellis’s lived!
The Ellis family (lovely neighbours) were at No. 3, we were at No. 7 (big red brick one with a turret) two doors further down towards the beach. I have been watching the Women’s British Open Golf on TV this weekend, great to see the beach and everything on the telly and as you say it jogs great memories.
I’m sure you could find a copy of the baths post card on eBay if you keep an eye on it. They have a lot of Hoylake post cards.
Yes, the sea wasn’t so clean in those days although I don’t think we ever came to any harm…! Next time I’m in Hoylake I must walk out and swim off the sandbanks again. I used to love doing that so much!
I was secretary of the Pool with Hoylake Pool and Community Trust and have all the press cuttings at Melrose Hall if anyone wants to see them,
I have also put Postcards of the Pool in 1976 in the Help Shop to take for a donation.
Blimery Sue…John Johnson !! I used to come round and play when you lived in Queens Road..but not when it was raining of course, that wasn’t allowed ! Lost touch with all things ‘Hoylake’ inc John, when I moved away back in the mid seventies. How is the old boy doing ? Still playing the drums ?
Hi Peter
I am fascinated to know why you couldn’t come round to play when it was raining???? Yes John is fine and living in Shropshire. He still has his drums but am not sure how often he gets to play them….he’s pretty good with the spoons too! Expect you could catch up with him on Facebook?
Regards
I am 99% certain that I am the chap climbing out of the pool. I recognise a number of my chums queuing or on the slide and recall a photographer setting up. It was a great place and I well remember the competition to be first in the pool at the start of the new season. This involved arriving very early to be at the front of the queue. You had to have your cozzi under your clothes so that just before the turnstile opened you could take your clothes off, pay and then dash for the water and just hurl yourself in. God it was cold! I spent most weekends at the pool and often went there after school. Certainly got the full value out my season ticket! The great thing was that you could use flippers and mask and snorkel so I would spend hours cruising around scanning the bottom for coins. The music that always takes me back to the pool is Roy Orbison’s ‘Pretty Woman’ which was released in August 1964 which may well date the photograph.
I used to work with John Johnson at The Stanley, when we were both poor students, i was a silver service waitress and John was front of house, we did a huge number of weddings. Mr. Humphreys was the Manager and ran the place with a rod of iron as he`d been head honcho on The Queen Mary i think..
My God. The noise of the red gate!
Well remembered, Judith.
I’d completely forgotten that CLANK CLANK CLANK.
But I can actually hear it all over again in my head right now. That and the hissing, gurgling, splashing that used to come from the rocky corner fountains.
I realise now that that delightful noise really was the sound of summer.
Those ten bob contracts were a passport to months and months of endless fun and adventure, even if the water was always ice-cold and the rough concrete surrounds a total hazard.
I loved the Killer slide and the “Springy” dive board on the far wall, I remember gazing jealously at the “cool” crowd who used to gather in the right-hand corner sun-trap there; the girls all seemed impossibly glamorous. I used to dread walking past in case one of them said something to me – not that they ever did, of course.
But they never bothered me that much as I was usually far too busy bombing round the place with a gang of pals all pretending to be the Man from Uncle, Troy Tempest or Steve Zodiac off Fireball XL5.
Well, I was only eight at the time. That’s my excuse anyway!