Ramsbottom Baths

I'm spending a couple of wintry weeks in England visiting family. It's been quite cold and wet, but we've only had one day of ice and snow so far. I'm hoping to do quite a bit of moorland walking while I'm here, but I've also set aside time for a swim or two.

My first swim of the English winter was at the heated London Fields Lido in the open air. My next swim was indoors at Ramsbottom Baths, near Bury in Greater Manchester. 

I've got a wee bit of history with this pool. I used to come here way back at the end of the 1970s, and used to swim length after length of very lazy breaststroke. Actually, it's a bit cheeky to describe it as breaststroke - I don't think I ever dipped my head below the water when breathing. Length after length wasn't much of a stretch either as they are only 25 metres.

Today I found it quite odd to swim such short lengths in a chlorine pool (as opposed to a small rock pool). I had done about 20 when they roped off half the pool for aqua aerobics. After that I swam 10 metre breadths to the sounds of "My Boy Lollipop" and "Is This The Way To Amarillo?"