The Pool

Our first snorkelling lessons in 1989


Auctions for West Wight Swimming Pool

AUCTIONS SPLASH held yearly auctions at the Memorial Hall and our first auctioneer was the late Steve Ross MP, who was a very valued supporter of our very ambitious project of building an indoor heated swimming pool here in the West Wight. These auctions were run very professionally with viewing during the morning, catalogues already […]


Slave for a day

The fundraising efforts of turned to the selling of slaves for a day to raise money for the West Wight Swimming Pool. Slaves dressed in togas, beads etc sold for a days labour.


Pool work started at Ceremony

After 18 months of fund raising, work on the new West Wight Swimming pool was officially started on Saturday 23rd April 1977. Mr Ron Smith , chairman of both the West Wight swimming Club and the Pool trust fund, dug the first piece of soil on the site in Freshwater near the west Wight middle […]


Champagne Charlie

CHAMPAGNE CHARLIE Of all our fund raising activities, Champagne Charlie deserves a section all to itself. We have often said that the West Wight Swimming Pool was built on hot dogs and Pomagne – let me elaborate. I have already covered the fame of our hot dogs, but Pomagne was totally different. Pomagne was a […]


David Wilkie

Being the only indoor heated pool on the Island and being the only swimming club here we always aimed high and to this end we arranged for David Wilkie and his coaching team to visit us for a coaching weekend. He is pictured here with Dawn and Shirley, both West Wight Swimming Club Coaches.   […]


Hoist for Main Pool

HOIST FOR MAIN POOL We desperately needed a hoist for those who could not use the steps to get into the pool. It was to cost more money than we could not afford. 1981 was designated the Year of the Disabled and luckily for us a lot of local organisations decided to hold events in […]


Minutes of Parish Council meeting 18/3/76

EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL PARISH MEETING OF THE FRESHWATER PARISH COUNCIL HELD ON 18 MARCH 1976 AT 7.30 P.M. IN THE MEMORIAL HALL FRESHWATER DEVELOPMENT OF LAND ADJACENT TO WEST WIGHT MIDDLE SCHOOL The Chairman (Captain J Riddet) explained that the reason for including this item on the Agenda was partly because […]


The Black Hut

THE BLACK HUT There was a black hut on the green opposite All Saints School which had been previously used by the Freshwater Scout Group. The owner, Mr Ninnis, who ran and owned the local ‘proper’ sweet shop (now the village bakery) with his wife and daughter, Betty, very kindly allowed us to use the […]


The Kingfishers’ Swimming Group

Bernadette and Keith Pinkard started the Kingfishers swimming group, which was a swimming session for young people with special needs, quite a number of the young people coming over from Haylands Farm. The Special Olympics was held on the Island in 1986/1987 and the swimming events held at the Westridge Pool, Ryde. Our young people […]


The Opening Ceremony of West Wight Swimming Pool by Earl Mountbatten

Earl Mountbatten

THE OPENING CEREMONY OF WEST WIGHT SWIMMING POOL – 14 JULY 1978 BY HIS EXCELLENCY, ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET, EARL MOUNTBATTEN OF BURMA, GOVERNOR AND LORD LIEUTENANT OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT Although the pool was nowhere near completed we had to go ahead with the opening ceremony. Luckily the weather was kind to us […]