Posts Tagged ‘Ron Smith’

Memories from Tina Hughes

MEMORIES FROM TINA HUGHES I can remember when the children of Freshwater only had the swimming pool at All Saints School to use. There were other pools in the area at local holiday camps but these were restricted to use by their visitors only. It was mooted by some local people that we, the residents […]


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 […]


Memories from Barbara Richardson

MEMORIES FROM BARBARA RICHARDSON Attempts to avoid the ‘jumble sale’ tag Each Christmas and Easter during the fundraising frenzy, we tried to make our ‘Fairs’ stand out from the myriad of others taking place around the same time – not easy when they were basically exactly the same as all the others. I think our […]


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 […]


Trevor Collins – BBC Sports Personality of the Year

Trevor Collins – 2005 BBC Sports Personality of the Year – Unsung Hero My family joined the WWS club in 1975 as we felt that our sons should learn to swim in a properly structured environment with ASA teachers. From the moment we joined as with all other members we were made welcome to be […]


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 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 […]