March Museum with Richard Munns

Swimming in March Part 1: The Early Days

by Richard Munns (on behalf of March & District Museum)

Photo by C H Budd, March shows the swimmers on July 14th, 1931 waiting to take the plunge

There is little or no early evidence of an organised swimming facility in March although the 1902 Ordnance Survey map shows a ‘bathing place’, approximately two hundred yards west of The Three Fishes public house in West End, roughly the site occupied now by Fox’s Marina.

This must have been closed or fallen into disrepair as alternative sites were investigated. In July 1930, the minutes of the March Urban District Council stated that there was no suitable site in the River Nene, west of town, and it was resolved to investigate the Twenty Foot River - it must be noted here that, until the sewerage system was installed in the town in the 1950s, the main discharge was into the river, close to the town bridge, with any flow, hopefully, natural or pumped to the east of the town. In August 1931, the Cambs Times reported that the new bathing shelter that was erected by the March Urban District Council on the riverbank beside Chain Bridge Road, opposite Graysmoor Pits, was now in use and was being taken full advantage of. For some years, the town had been without bathing accommodation and the provision that was now made would do much to encourage swimming among the young people of the district. Sometime later, the bathing area was fenced off from the road and a changing room for the gentlemen built to the left of the pavilion. In May 1933, the same paper reported ‘Improvements at March Bathing Place’. These consisted of the erection, by the March Swimming Club, of a larger wood and zinc changing room for the use of gentlemen, replacing the slightly smaller one previously used for that purpose, which was now left for the use of the ladies. Other improvements included the placing of sandbags just off the concrete stage for the safety of children and beginners, while the stage itself now had a tarmac surface and the installation of another diving board. The March Swimming Club, which formed the nucleus of patrons of the bathing place, was enrolling members fast and it was hoped to have an exceptionally large membership by the time the season opened in earnest. This facility proved popular, but the council thought that the provision of an indoor pool would be more advantageous. The minutes revealed, on November 7th, 1938, that it was considering the provision of a swimming pool and on the 8.8.1938 it agreed to purchase a piece of land at the G.E.R Sports Ground, Robingoodfellows Lane, at which point World War II intervened and the matter was dropped.