We spoke to a number of local residents about the history of the pool. No-one can recall when it was actually built (if you know this then please let us know) but we think it was in the 1960’s, and good guesses put it at 1968/9.
Bruce, who moved here in the 60s told me that he remembered a young boy (possibly around 2 years old) drowning in the river at Ham Green. He’d been playing with his brothers and sisters, fell in and was unable to swim. Before the pool was built at Crockerne the nearest pool would have been some miles away in Bristol.
Mary who was a teacher at Crockerne remembers it being open air at first and very cold. She said it didn’t get much use and remembered it being added to gradually, changing rooms, then roof.
John and Hetty Rich are two very inspirational people who were involved in the design and fundraising of the pool
John was approached by the head teacher at the time, Bert Short, their neighbour, who told him that he wanted every child to be able to swim before they left his school. John took on the role of designer of the pool and a committee of parents, teachers, PTA members was formed to raise the funds.
John came up with the design after visiting a pool in Lincoln- A hyperbolic paraboloid roof- a fibreglass dome arch covering that was self supporting. He specified that it needed to be heated and covered to maximise its use. John maintains that it was always covered. It was specifically designed to be a teaching pool, so that the children would be at the same level as their teacher. John and Hetty were unsure of how much it cost to build but they estimated about £3000, a lot of money in the 60s. Once they had the approval of the committee and the council they started an extraordinary fund raising effort.
They were given some money from a sporting association and also raised so much per month by a covenant scheme whereby they sighed up for 7 years and government gave tax back.
A sub committee of fundraisers was formed. The women sold handicrafts at a fete and the men made wooden toys.
The idea for ‘Happy Pig Week’ (HPW) came from a teacher at Monk’s Park. A huge series of events were organised over 1 week involving every establishment in the village.
To begin with they put a piece of paper with a blank piggy bank through everyone’s letter box which confused the villagers and got them wondering and talking. A few days later they put the same flyer through except this time it contained a list of all the events and details of HPW. It also told them that the ‘Happy Pig Man’ would be randomly giving £5 to people who displayed the flyer in their window. And he did. The Happy Pig man rode around the village in a model T4, dressed in a striped green and white blazer with a boater and a flashing bow tie giving out £5 to lucky Pill folk. He was also known as Don Knight (a union rep)
HPW events included-
Pig skittling competition for ½ a crown
Monday Night concert at the school- Male voice choir
Friday night disco at the marquee for the teenagers (they had complaints from Shirehampton about the noise and the police showed up)
Colouring competition/ Best garden competition
John and Hetty held about 4 events a year in their own home. The had a roulette wheel, escalado horse racing game, a different menu for each event (Spanish, Italian, Irish), home made perry provided by a friend of Bert Short which got everyone very merry.
A massive 5 pole big top marquee was erected at Ham Green on what is now the hospital grounds. It was complete with parquet flooring, a stage and a bar that was put in by the landlord of the Anchor. It open to the public from 11am and hosted a whole range of events organised by the committee. The BBC came with some daleks from Dr Who. There was a flower display, police dog display, RAF band, Formula 1 racing car, art exhibition, 5-piece band and DJ.
HPW culminated in a huge ball on the Saturday night that was the main event. People paid ½ a crown for a buffet of as much food as they could eat. Hetty had some amazing contacts and a huge community effort was made to provide the food at a very low cost. The milk marketing board supplied the milk, the bakery gave some rolls for a small amount, tea was donated by brook bond, a man in the village supplied the bacon, the ice cream man even gave 10% of his takings. They even borrowed a power station conveyer belt for people to skittle on outside. The winners would take home a side of bacon. HPW raised a substantial amount for the funds needed to build the pool.
Sadly once the pool was built some of the local residents objected to its colour. It was white and they painted it and damaged it.
If anyone has anything else to our history of the pool, we’d be interested to hear from you.