A photo of the early work on the Derby Pool. A Wallasey Borough Engineer and Surveyor's Department photo dated 14th October 1931, annotated: "Harrison Drive Baths. Excavation in Bath." The name is interesting - I wonder at what stage it was named the Derby Pool. From memory, the baths opened in 1933.
Doesn't look as though it was a warm day. I bet they were wondering what idiots would swim in an openair pool in such an exposed spot! (Well, me for one, but only in the summer...)
By the look of it thats before the main prom was built?
That would be right. At the same time as this photo was taken work had just started on the first section of King's Parade prom which only went as far as the Red Noses. This was completed in 1934 and included the building of New Brighton Bathing Pool which opened the same year. The second section to Harrison Drive was not finished until 1939 (don't know when it was started but assume shortly after 1934). Presumably the only way to get to the Derby until then was through Wallasey Village.
According to the the "Rise and Progress of Wallasey" the Derby opened in 1932. Looking at the photo it seems work had not long started by October 1931 so for it to be completed and open by the following year is pretty damn quick even by today's standards.
Quite possibly my grandfather is one of those doing the digging. Killed him though!
You're not going to leave it at that are you, Helles? Sounds like a sad but interesting story there!!
Not really, he worked on the new promenade and associated works, had an accident which caused septicemia (sp?) and he died. Nice bloke I understand. Left a widow with nine children to bring up. Oh for antibiotics then!
They must have had quite some wealth in Wallasey back then, to be taking all all those mammoth building works and build 2 major swimming pools... makes you wonder how it was all funded? What would it take to do all that today?
They must have had quite some wealth in Wallasey back then, to be taking all all those mammoth building works and build 2 major swimming pools... makes you wonder how it was all funded? What would it take to do all that today?
I was wondering something like that yesterday. It was the height of the depression years and must have been a god send to some families to have regular work.
They must have had quite some wealth in Wallasey back then, to be taking all all those mammoth building works and build 2 major swimming pools... makes you wonder how it was all funded? What would it take to do all that today?
Don't know about the Derby, but the estimated cost for King's Parade and the infrastucture was £1,023,328 which in today's money is approx £29.5 million.
I am just amazed by these - I was beginning to think there were no more pictures anywhere, of my teenage years' summer holiday haunt! (my brother & me, we were there, almost every single day, every summer (school) holiday!
There's a talk at Greasby library on 6th June 2011 - "Wirral Lidos" a history of all the open-air swimming pools on Wirral. Details - www.wirral-libraries.net/events?layout=view&eid=654 How many is "all"? You'll be surprised.
The talk is preceded by the AGM of the library 'Friends'.
Certainly was. On 8th June 1932 to be precise, at a reported cost of £35,000. If my memory serves me correctly it was designated Harrison Drive Bathing Pool on the original plans, but was renamed Derby Pool in honour of Lord Derby when he agreed to open it. It was meant to complement the adjoining Bathing Station which had opened a few years earlier. Before the construction of the Prom extension allowed access from the New Brighton side both the Bathing Station and Pool were always referred to as being in Wallasey, never New Brighton
Quite so the Derby Pool was not in New Brighton as far as I know. My mother tells me that they (living in Wallasey Village) thought of it as 'the pool intended for the locals', whereas the New Brighton pool was more for the tourists. Don't know if she's right or not but that's what she says....
Thanks for the info, marty99fred. It's called 'Harrison Drive Baths' on the photo I used to start this thread. As that photo was dated 14th October 1931 I find it amazing that it was completed and opened less than eight months later. I wonder why the Council didn't follow the naming precedent and call New Brighton's new baths the Leverhulme Open Air Bathing Pool ?!!!
CVCVCV - your mother is quite right, the Derby was always regarded as the locals' pool.
I've still not been able to find out when and why the Derby Pool was demolished.
The buildings of the Bathing Station can be seen just beyond the pool excavation in Nightwalker's original photo. They contained changing rooms and showers for use by swimmers, toilets and a cafe/restaurant. I'm sure I remember at least some of the buildings still being there in the late 60s or early 70s, but I'll have to check up on that.
The buildings of the Bathing Station can be seen just beyond the pool excavation in Nightwalker's original photo. They contained changing rooms and showers for use by swimmers, toilets and a cafe/restaurant. I'm sure I remember at least some of the buildings still being there in the late 60s or early 70s, but I'll have to check up on that.
I remember some concrete constructions with trampolines inside and sandpits - I wonder if they'd been converted. I must have been there dozens of times, walking from where the chalets were along the front to the Derby Pool - but trying to piece it all together in my mind is so difficult!
I remember the bathing station. Strange having that an a pool but I suppose some people just wanted to swim in the sea or have a paddle at least. Probably a bit cheaper as well.
The Bathing Station was set up at Harrison Drive in 1927 for those wishing to swim in the sea - some five years before the Derby Pool opened - though I think the main facilities (changing cubicles, showers and tea room) weren't built until early 1931. Incidentally, during my research I came across the info that Wallasey Council purchased the site of the Bathing Station & Derby Pool from E M & H Harrison on 27th February 1922 - hence Harrison Drive.
As far as the Pool is concerned, I haven't yet found out exactly when it closed, but the remaining buildings on the site were cleared in March 1984. I remember there being a lot of controversy when Wirral Council earmarked part of the site for development as a hotel/leisure complex in the early 90s. It was finally sold to Whitbread in 1997, I believe, and they eventually built the Derby Pool pub on the site - ironically, I don't think that the pub is actually on the site of the Pool itself, it looks to me as if it's on part of the Bathing Station site. I'll have to get my maps out and check up the location...
Incidentally, one thing that is puzzling me is that if you examine the picture at the start of this thread carefully, you can see that the workmen are not actually building the pool, they're actually excavating sand out of an existing lined pool-shaped hole! It looks as if the pool had been dug out, the sides lined and then the whole thing filled in with sand again for some reason.
If I remember correctly, just below where the pub is now, was a holding tank of water for the pool & the pool proper was further down again. We used to swim in the tank in the evenings when the pool was closed.
Quite so. We never swam in that tank though, it always looked too forbidding...!
I still wonder why they have to obliterate everything so completely and leave virtually no trace of anything at all behind - it's almost like it was never there. I find it rather disconcerting really, considering how much of my young life I spent there... All I recognize now is the sandy gorsey hills that were at the deep end and wrapped around the far side of the pool. I suppose it's no different for all the houses and streets that are now gone without a trace too... must be even worse, must give you a kind of homeless, empty feeling, if it happened to your childhood home (I'm lucky, I suppose, the house I grew up in is not only still there, in WV but my parents still live in it...!)
Still I really wish there was some more pictures of the heydays or details of the demolition or of the last days of the Derby... <sigh!> I have no clue why we don't seem to have any, I guess we never took a camera with us when we went there, back then!
Isn't the Pub today about where there was car parking and the spot where the Wallasey Corp. Derby Pool bus used to stop? I remember they had a covered bus stop there and a big concrete circle where the buses used to turn around, to go back....! I also remember having to walk there or back whenever we missed that darn bus - did it used to leave WV from somewhere around where Blockbuster is, now?
The bus stop to get to the Derby Pool, was just up from Wallasey Grove Road railway station, outside the station masters house which was demolished (shame) to extend Windsors Garages.
The Derby Pool car park was where the new pub is now & was huge. I did some serious snogging in there several times!
Can i throw these Chalets in to the mix, maybe i should remember them but i don't, Were they by the bathing station or pool, they were in or off Harrison Drive
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.
As an interesting comparison, here's the mid 1930s OS map of the Derby Pool area and the same area in an early 1970s aerial view. The aerial photo clearly shows the Bathing Pool and Bert's chalets, by the West Cheshire Sailing Club slip, were still there - but the main section of the Sea Bathing Station that contained the cafe and changing cubicles has clearly been demolished and replaced by another building, with what appears to be a crazy golf course behind it.
Brill! The aerial shot so clearly shows the Derby Pool, even the storage tank (= after hours pool?!) and the car park / bus stop - complete with the bus 'turning-circle' thingy!!
Where DO you get these pictures from, you guys???!!???? Wow, this stuff is fantastic!
That car park early 60's would be half full after 10pm with couples having a little er quiet time!!--memories!!
I remember having a bit of a fumble there one night when a car came in with bright lights shining on my car, so I switched on my headlights, then my full beam, followed by my spotlight, then fog light. With that the police car pulled up alongside & the office said " Can you see all right now sir". Lights off --- end of fumble!
My grandmother had a chalet for years & it was almost next door to the Westerly end one that was kept for the nurses from the old Cottage Hospital on Claremount Road. Unfortunately I was too young to appreciate the attraction!
Just as well you were to young, you'd have had it full of women, Were they rented or owned, where they still exist they seem to change hands for quite a few bob.
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.
They were rented from the council & were only supposed to be for one season, but that all depended on who you knew! If they were still there, they would be worth a few bob now.
They must have had quite some wealth in Wallasey back then, to be taking all all those mammoth building works and build 2 major swimming pools... makes you wonder how it was all funded? What would it take to do all that today?
They borrowed the money. It was a scheme similar to todays private finance initiatives. The Council were still paying back the cost of building New Brighton pool to investment companies after it was demolished.
Bert's picture of the chalets looks as though it predates the prom between the slipway at the end of King's Parade and the Derby Pool. My memory of the chalets (early 70s - had a friend whoise family used one) is that there was just the width of the prom between the front of the chalets and the steps down to the beach. That could be a false memory of course - don't have any photos to prove it.
I think the chalets were more or less destroyed in the storms around new year ?1977/78.
This has been a great thread - many memories, particularly of the play area next to the Derby Pool that I'd almost forgotten. What are the three lines in front of the that play area on the aeriel photo?
That takes me back! I co-owned an Enterprise dinghy for a couple of years or so, with my father and we sailed her from that very slip... ...can't remember the E-number now, though!
I never saw it but I know my Mother did - apparently it was taken away after some people (more than one I think but not sure how many?) had drowned - apparently, they got stuck underneath it, somehow...?
I remember most years, some days there were so many dead flies floating in the pool, that it was hard to find a clear spot to dive in or get out...!! Yuckiest thing about the Derby, really, apart from the water being so damn cold of course!
Cracked concrete, hot from the sun, freezing cold water and an incessant replaying of "Unchained Melody" (must have been the Inkspots). That was in the early to mid 1950's.
I think it was Jimmy Young's version that was played.I belive it reached number 1 in the charts! Strange,you could understand the words,and there was actually a tune. Must be getting old!!!!
Thank you marty99fred and others for taking the time to respond,i very much appreciate the pics and the story behind the pool, the pics are so clear, thank you all
