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Longley Park Swimming Pool


mickjj

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Who else remembers hot summer days at Longley Park swimming baths. It had a three tier grass bank for sunbathing. A pavillion with a concession shop and what seemed at the time to be pretty high diving boards. The only problem was it was not heated and the water was freezing. If you stayed in to long you turned blue lol

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Who else remembers hot summer days at Longley Park swimming baths. It had a three tier grass bank for sunbathing. A pavillion with a concession shop and what seemed at the time to be pretty high diving boards. The only problem was it was not heated and the water was freezing. If you stayed in to long you turned blue lol

Hi Mickjj

I can remember Longley Park Baths from my childhood you did not seem to feel the cold them days.

Happy Days??

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Why have people stopped using parks ?

I can understand families who are rushed and have 'too much to do' etc

But what about the retired folk - where have they all gone ?

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Hi Mickjj

I can remember Longley Park Baths from my childhood you did not seem to feel the cold them days.

Happy Days??

Welcome to the site and what a great picture on your first post.It really is a shame that the pool disappeared.

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Hi Mickjj

I can remember Longley Park Baths from my childhood you did not seem to feel the cold them days.

Happy Days??

It's amazing to see how busy the park itself was - all the time I lived near there I never saw so many people ! Here's another photo from the 1930s

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I think the reason the park is so busy is that the policy was that unless you were going to be swimming you could not go into the baths to say just sunbathe. A lot of parents used to send the kids in and keep an eye on them from the grass bank behind.

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There were always a couple of empty crisp packets and used sticking plasters foating in the water.

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Guest graham101

has anybody got any pictures you could put this site of the swimming pool in longley park i was talking to my neighbour today and he could not remember it so if anyone has got any pictures then i could show him

thanks

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I wonder if anyone knows when Longley Park open air swimming pool was built - opened. I came across the article

http://www.chrishobbs.com/sheffield/georgelawrence.htm

who mentions that George Lawrence, the razor blade manafacturer, was instrumental in the building of the pool.

1938 September 3

Longley Park open air swimming pool. paid for by Mr GH Lawrence. opened.

Happy 70th Birthday! or not.

Cheers!

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There were always a couple of empty crisp packets and used sticking plasters foating in the water.

Biscuit Head I have vivid memories of trying to breaststroke through piles of leaves and when you are only 10 it was like swimmimg through mud lol

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A shot of Longley Park - November 2008

And the old Park building now converted to a home :rolleyes:

That first photo took me way back! I used to walk to and from school at the Redcaps every day (including going home for lunch a lot of the time), rain or shine. Isn't it funny how when after a long time you see a place you knew as a child it always seem so much smaller?

The morning after the great gale I walked to school over that top part, and remember leaning 45 degrees into the wind, and still going backwards!

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That first photo took me way back! I used to walk to and from school at the Redcaps every day (including going home for lunch a lot of the time), rain or shine. Isn't it funny how when after a long time you see a place you knew as a child it always seem so much smaller?

The morning after the great gale I walked to school over that top part, and remember leaning 45 degrees into the wind, and still going backwards!

Brought this back to the top, any more memories

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The buildings in the background of the top right picture are Longley Hall Farm. It belonged to the then City general Hospital, and supplied them with milk etc. In the 50's I was at Junior school with the farmer's son, Eric Rigby. In the late 50's/early 60's I remember sitting in a sunny classroom in German lessons at Firth Park Grammar School, looking over the cornfield with the wind swaying the corn, and wishing I was somewhere else!

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Longley Hall Farm

Robert Binder, Farmer and Cowkeeper (1893)

Herbert Lee Ibbotson, Bailiff to the Sheffield Guardians (1919-1925)

The buildings in the background of the top right picture are Longley Hall Farm. It belonged to the then City general Hospital, and supplied them with milk etc. In the 50's I was at Junior school with the farmer's son, Eric Rigby. In the late 50's/early 60's I remember sitting in a sunny classroom in German lessons at Firth Park Grammar School, looking over the cornfield with the wind swaying the corn, and wishing I was somewhere else!

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Our mob used to get the number 20 bus from Scott road, (2p fare), straight into the changing rooms, I remember the heavy iron clothes horses they gave you for your clobber. It was a race to be the first in, absolutely freezing all the time !!

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Our mob used to get the number 20 bus from Scott road, (2p fare), straight into the changing rooms, I remember the heavy iron clothes horses they gave you for your clobber. It was a race to be the first in, absolutely freezing all the time !!

It was indeed paid for by George Lawrence. He also built the outdoor pool in Hathersage, which still does a roaring trade. That pool of course is heated. If Longley pool had been the same I wonder if it too would still be open and doing good business?

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The buildings in the background of the top right picture are Longley Hall Farm. It belonged to the then City general Hospital, and supplied them with milk etc. In the 50's I was at Junior school with the farmer's son, Eric Rigby. In the late 50's/early 60's I remember sitting in a sunny classroom in German lessons at Firth Park Grammar School, looking over the cornfield with the wind swaying the corn, and wishing I was somewhere else!

I used to go out with a girl who lived on Crowder Road and after taking her home at night I had to walk down Longley Lane to get back home. I stopped seeing the girl because I was frightened to death by this heavy loud breathing that seemed to follow me. It got so bad I was actually running by the time I crossed the bridge at the bottom. It turned out it was the cows that were making the noise. Anyway it buggered up that love affair!

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And the hill behind the pool was our very own winter Cresta Run with many of us receiving a bruised arm after failing to stop before the sledge hit the wooden fence. In summer, as others have remarked, the pool was always freezing and usually had a scum of grass clippings around the side. I remember the Park keeper( seated) regularly giving us a chase after some infringement or other.

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