It seems to me that pretty well all youngsters can swim nowadays. Cheap holidays in exotic locations have seen to that.

This was not the case in the sixties.
Weekly swimming lessons were the order of the day in the summer term.
My first encounter with a swimming pool / the idea of learning to swim was at the age of 12 - too late, I fear.
We would traipse along to the new heated pool in Central Park. I thought it was freezing. I donned my floats and proceeded to sink for 45 minutes, despite the entreaties of the ladies on the poolside. Had they entered the water with me, then things might have turned out differently.

The following year we crocodiled with Slouch Vanstone to the pool at Mount Wise. That was definitely NOT heated! Water straight from the sea in April / May - 10 degrees, perhaps? All I got from that was a severe dose of Brass Monkey Syndrome I'm still surprised that I was able to father children!

To cut a long story short, I still can't swim and I tend to give all swimming pools a wide berth.

Give me a double lesson with Nick or Ossie any time!!

Any fellow sufferers / sympathisers out there?

Yep, I can't swim either. I was lucky (I thought at the time) to contract athlete's foot in my first year, which allowed me to skip swimming lessons at Mount Wise which consisted (as far as I got) of being pulled through the cold salty water on the end of a pole with Blobbin on the other end.

I wish I could swim now though. The local swimming pool won't put on lessons for adults because there isn't enough demand; I've asked.

P.S. I remember Central Park too, where my dad took me a few times when I was at primary school. There were three showers in the men's changing rooms, all at different temperatures; the only one you could actually use though was the "tepid" one. The "hot" one was scaldingly so and the "cold" one was like being out in an ice storm. Also, people would throw up in the urinals which was pretty offputting for a nine year old.

I remember attending the Mount Wise baths and did not manage to swim one stroke during the lessons, I did learn to swim at Torre Abbey sands when visiting Torquay and during my last term at DHS quite a few of us would bunk off and bike to Yelverton and swim in some quarry type pools, they were quite small and I think some were very deep. My other lasting memory of Mount Wise baths was when we spread the word that the Stoke Damerel Swimming Gala was being held and there were so many DHS boys in attendance that we were asked to leave and report to Dr. Cresswell.

In our era swimming lessons were held in the "big" pool at Mount Wise. The procedure was as follows. Each pupil had to lie on a bench and simulate breast stroke. After 15 minutes of this we were led outside and one by one ordered to jump into the 5 foot shallow end (I was about 4 foot tall in 1C). You then held the rail and practiced the legs. Progression to arms and journeying the 50 yards to the deep end took all summer term.

My first visit was in the year when Easter was at it's earliest in March. Water temperature approached zero. Nevertheless I was grateful for learning to swim and remember winning the 50 yard backstroke at the DHS swimming gala at the same baths some year later.

Following on from the style of my Open Days query - did the swimming gala (sports day in the water) continue after the 50s?

I was quite a good diver but, unfortunately, before I learned to swim. That meant I had to dive from the board into the pool at Mount Wise at an angle to make sure I surfaced close enough to the side to survive, which aways lost marks for me!

@John; what a spoilsport Doc Cresswell was that time!

@ Dave; that must have brave, diving in when you couldn't swim.

@ Arthur; yes it did, we had swimming galas in the early 70's at least, usually right at the end of the school year (one evening in the last week or two). As for the methods of instruction; did they lose a few each year who couldn't quite make it to the deep end?

I'd be interested to know too whether or not the Mount Wise pools still survive. It's been more than 20 years since I've been in that part of the city.

If my memory serves me right I don't think that we were punished, we had taken our exams and were idling our time away before the end of term. I didn't like the Mount Wise baths though but my father would tell of when he swam in them during the winters in the war time when we lived in Cornwall Street. We lived in the old flats and the area has now been completely redeveloped.

I've just Google Eathed Mount Wise, Devonport and scanned the coatline Hoe to Hamoaze. If my memory serves me right, where the Mount Wise swimming baths were has been redeveloped into a play area.

Anyone with better geographic memory might confirm using the same technology.

Thanks Art, I think my computer's too old to run Google Earth properly. I had a look at Google Street View recently and can fully understand why so many people are up in arms about it - the level of detail shown was truly amazing. I could even read thge street signs (about 18 inches square).

John; good that you weren't punished, but surely Doc was remiss in not allowing you lads to get a few ideas from your attendance - on how to improve your breast stroke technique of course