Hathersage Swimming Pool
By Deborah, People’s Pool Founder
Where: Hathersage, Derbyshire
The pool: 33m, heated, year-round
Hathersage has one of the most beautiful settings of all the lidos, and a particularly gorgeous extra feature: its own bandstand. On a lovely June day the drive from Liverpool through the Peak District was stunning, and the pool certainly lived up to its setting.
It’s 33m long (as I only realised later: I thought I was having a bit of a slow swimming day) and heated to a toasty 28 degrees, which was a wee bit much on a hot June day but will be exactly right on winter days, now that it’s open year-round, when the pool steams invitingly into the chilly air.
Alongside the pool there’s a patch of well-kept grass for sunbathing, a covered seating area, and there’s a great little café outside.
While I was swimming, (look away, veggies) the smell of sizzling bacon wafting over the water added an extra level of sensory delight, and my post-swim bacon butty rounded off the trip in perfect style.
The fact that such a tiny village can sustain a year-round lido, especially in the north of England, is testament to the vision and passion of the Parish Council and the team who run it. It’s supported by modest but essential grants from its two district councils, and its swimming community is boosted by the larger population of nearby Sheffield. Thanks to successful fundraising drives, the Pool has been regularly and very recently refurbished, including expanding the use of renewable energy to heat the water.
The Pool, together with tennis courts, bandstand, playing field, a sand pit, and a large paddling pool, was originally made possible by a generous donation from Mr George Herbert Lawrence, a Sheffield manufacturer of razor blades. It opened in glorious sunshine on 25th July, 1936 and, despite the funding struggles common to all lidos during the last century, it’s been an oasis for the community ever since.
