Opening nearly 100 years ago on the 4th August 1927, WiveyPool is one of the oldest pools in Somerset! 200 people assembled on the opening day. The concreted pool with spring diving boards initially cost £778 to build, with the then 130 ticket holders charged a guinea for their yearly membership, approximately £59 in today’s money.
In those days swimming wasn’t allowed on a Sunday morning or when an evening church service was in progress, and the cold-water pool pulled water from the reservoirs at Withycombe and Coate meaning it often became green and murky!
All these years on WiveyPool is almost unrecognisable, with heated water, boilers, pumps, filters and dosing systems, costing approximately £60,000 to run. With a team of around 12 volunteers and one paid member of staff going up to 20 when we’re open, the pool is now a thriving structured organisation, with many more members of the local community volunteering their time; helping with everything from book keeping to cleaning the changing rooms!
In the past few years swimmers of all ages have enjoyed many new additions to the pool’s activities, such as working together to ‘swim to Australia’, New Year’s Day Dips and Cold-Water Lane Swimming. In 2018, the pool was even lucky enough to be mentioned as one of the Guardian’s lesser-known pools in the U.K and also featured in the ‘Lido Guide’, adding to its year on year success.
In 2021 after Covid restrictions were reduced, the pool was on BBC and ITV local radio and TV as being open on the first day we could in March. Check out the article here
