Settle Area Swimming Pool

Work on the long-anticipated major redevelopment of Settle Area Swimming Pool will start later this month. And, in a move certain to be welcomed by users, the pool will remain open on a limited basis for most of the planned 42 week project.

The £800,000 scheme involves the creation of a flexible dry-side area, suitable for health and wellbeing activities, including exercise classes and events. The changing facilities will be modernised, based on a cubicle and locker model – with additional facilities for families and disabled users. There will also be new shower and toilet facilities. The reception area will also be extended with catering and a viewing area.

This amounts to the biggest programme of work undertaken at the pool since it was constructed in the 1970s.

Following competitive tendering, the pool trustees awarded the contract for this work to the Kirklees-based Adamco company, who have extensive experience of construction work on comparable projects across the region; many of these involved working whilst normal business continued on site.

Plans for the redevelopment have been under discussion for a number of years and planning permission was given by Craven District Council earlier this year. It had been hoped to start work in the spring but difficulties posed by the Covid lockdown and subsequent rise in building costs delayed the project until now.

The work is being financed partly as a result of funds built up over the years by the pool itself and the associated charity The Friends of Settle Swimming Pool. There have also been major grants from a national sports body and from Craven District Council as well as grants and loans from other funding bodies.

One source of funding for the pool over many years has been through the paper recycling scheme run by the Friends of Settle Swimming Pool, however in recent years income has fallen as a result of the ending of North Yorkshire County Council recycling credits scheme  and subsequent drop in world paper prices. The scheme was suspended at the start of the Covid lockdown and it had been hoped to start again but a lack of volunteers has made that impractical and the pool trustees have now decided that there is no prospect of resumption in the foreseeable future. 

But whilst income from that source is no longer available the pool charity shop opened in 2017 has more than made up for the loss and is now generating income of up to £50,000 a year and as such is helping secure the long term future of the pool. 

Trustees’ chair Pat Taylor said: “We are delighted to have got to the point where building work can start. There has been a lot going on behind the scenes over a long period of time so it will be great to see the construction workers on site. Being able to keep the pool open during most of the work has been a great achievement and I know will be welcome by our loyal users.

“This is a community pool and the strong links with local people and local business have been a strength from the days when people worked hard to raise the funds to build the pool in the first place.  

“In this new phase we will be looking to strengthen those links. We are grateful to all the funding bodies but there remains a need for local fund-raising and we will be continuing to look to local people for their support.”

It is with regret that the trustees of Settle Swimming Pool have concluded that there is no prospect of resuming the paper recycling scheme at the pool car park in the foreseeable future. 

A year-long effort to recruit new helpers produced some welcome volunteers but unfortunately not enough to off-set the loss of those who for various reasons are no longer able to work on the scheme.

The option of opening part-time was considered but rejected based on our previous experience; when we found that, despite all our injunctions, people left paper and card beside the containers when they were closed. If this happened for longer periods there would be a real danger of materials building up and becoming a serious hazard.

The recycling of paper and card has been a significant source of funding from the time in the 1970s when the community was raising money in the hope of building a new pool. For many years the scheme was run by the Friends of Settle Swimming Pool, a separate charity associated with the pool, but responsibility was transferred to the pool trustees in 2019 as part of move to bring together the work of the two organisations.

Over the years it is estimated that the scheme has raised more than quarter of a million pounds and this has helped pay for repairs to the building. However in recent years the income has fallen significantly. 

For a period up to 2018 North Yorkshire County Council’s recycling credit scheme contributed about £10,000 a year: this more or less matched the income from the sale of paper and card and so its loss cut scheme income by half overnight.   

A further setback came with the collapse of world paper prices in 2019, meaning that In the final year before the Covid regulations led to the suspension of the scheme, total income was only just over £6,000 and for a period in the winter of 2019-2020 the scheme was generating no income at all. We continued in the hope of better times ahead but instead Covid led to closure. Paper prices have now risen again but are expected to remain volatile.

In the meantime however the pool charity shop opened in 2017 has proved to be a significant new source of income for the pool and means that despite the loss of the income from paper, the trustees are in a position to go ahead with the major redevelopment programme at the pool, due to start later this month (there is a separate item on this on the pool website).

Pool trustees’ chair Pat Taylor said: “We are immensely grateful to all those who have supported the paper recycling scheme over many years. We would have liked to resume what was seen not just as a means of fund-raising but an important link between the pool and the community. However without adequate numbers of volunteers it would be irresponsible to try and start again.  After a year of saying we hope to start again soon, it is now time to say clearly that regretfully we can see no prospect of starting again anytime soon. Thanks are due to everyone who has worked hard over the years to make the scheme work. Finally, we would urge everyone to continue to dispose of their paper and cardboard waste in an environmental sound way through the council blue bins and the recycling centre at Sowarth Field Industrial Estate.”

In the summer of 2021 one of the windows by the entrance to the swimming pool charity shop in Duke Street featured a number of photographs submitted as part of the Pool Your Memories project. The aim of the project, is to record the stories behind the way in which Settle created and has sustained its community swimming pool over the past 47 years.

One of the photos that attracted a lot of attention showed a group of men in the pool wearing wellingtons, not on their feet but on their hands. The photo was taken by the Craven Herald and includes the intriguing half headline “Farmers take the plunge to …”

The remarkable story behind the photo and headline has its origins in the last disease to cause at least as much misery in this part of the country as Covid 19 has done over 2020-21. That was not a human illness but one that led to the slaughter of much of the area’s livestock in 2001.

Everyone who was around the Settle area at the time will have bitter memories of Foot and Mouth, but what is perhaps less well remembered is that in the years after the disease, the government funded an initiative offering ‘Bite Size’ courses to encourage adults in rural areas back into education.

As part of that project, in partnership with North Yorkshire Adult Education, Settle Pool launched a synchronised swimming course.  

Ed Roe, assistant manager at the time, was not content with attracting the sort of folks normally seen performing what amounts to underwater ballet and so he encouraged a group of farmer friends to sign up to learn the sort of skills not normally associated with the agricultural sector and have a bit of fun in doing so. All were all great supporters of the pool and keen to help raise the profile of the pool at a difficult time.

Betty Sedgewick, herself a synchronised swimmer and long- time swimming trainer and supporter of the pool, readily agreed to train this group. She spent many hours working with the group to ‘perfect’ the routine.

Not surprisingly the sychronised swimming farmers attracted a lot of media attention. Besides the Craven Herald photo and headlines, both BBC and ITV brought camera crews to the pool and for a short while our little community pool got almost as much attention London’s Olympic one. 

Sadly, to date, we have not been able to locate any recordings of the story, but perhaps some readers have a tape or two. If so we would be delighted to see them.

The swimming farmers were not the only ones to benefit from the courses, others followed, including a slightly more practical, if less newsworthy, one teaching life-saving skills.

We are on the lookout for more on this and other stories from the pool’s history, so do let us know if you have any photos, cuttings or just marvellous memories. You can get in touch through  sasp21@settleswimmingpool.co.uk .

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Plans for a major rebuild at Settle Area Swimming Pool have taken a number of big steps forward over the past few months, despite all the difficulties arising from the impact of Covid 19 regulations.

Tenders for the construction work have been received from a number of potential contractors and discussions are now taking place with a preferred contractor with the aim of work taking place over the autumn and winter.

It had been hoped that work on the first major rebuild since the pool was constructed in 1974 would have started by now, but rocketing building costs as Covid restrictions have been lifted meant that the initial quotes from potential contractors came back far higher than the £650,000 originally estimated. Detailed discussions have helped reduce the initial estimates, without any loss of quality and at the same time work has been undertaken to find additional sources of funding.

The new build will include a flexible dry-side area, suitable for health and wellbeing activities, including exercise classes and events. The changing facilities will be modernised, based on a cubicle and locker model – with additional facilities for families and disabled users. There will also be new shower and toilet facilities. The reception area will also be extended with catering and a viewing area.

The principal sources of funding remain the funds built up by the pool over many years, most recently supplemented by the highly successful charity shop in Duke Street; the funds generated by the Friends of Settle Swimming Pool; together with support from Craven District Council and a major national sporting body. A number of different bodies have now either agreed to make grants or long term low interest loans, or are in the process of doing so and the trustees aim to make a final decision to go ahead by early September.

Chair of Trustees Pat Taylor said: “the pool was created over 40 years ago thanks to the efforts of the local community. The people of Settle have continued to support the pool and it is thanks to all their efforts that we are now in a position to plan for a programme of work that will make the pool a major asset for the next generation. We have had  some serious difficulties but have worked hard to keep costs down and to raise the additional funds. I am very hopeful that in the next few weeks we will get over the line and start work on a project of which the town can be proud.”