CHARNEY HALL Swimming Pool

The swimming pool was constructed at the end of the school vegetable plot which was lovingly cultivated by Charlie and Herbert, the school groundsmen. Whether it was because of cost or convenience that it was decided to go independent of the town’s 1930s open air, salt water pool, we may never know.

All we have at the moment is Maxwell Duncan’s famous scripted sketch and a photograph kindly sourced by Christopher Wilson (1959-1963) showing the dig in progress. The project appears to have been a combined effort shared more or less equally between staff and boys....

The appearance of bedrock, seen in the photograph, in one corner of the pool may have been an inconvenient surprise. Did this have any affect on the pool design? Was dynamite used or did this just become the shallow end? Did they provide pool bar and sun loungers....?


Maxwell Duncan’s scripted sketch

Extract from the School Brochure of the late 1960s
Philip Fawcett in attendance with Maxwell Duncan at the far end as long stop





Comments

Andrew Holmes-Higgin said…
I was one of those kids whose parents were working overseas in a warm country where swimming pools were warm all year round. So it was a bit of a shock my first summer at Charney when the pool temperature on a nice day still felt like a cold bath. Though it was always kept very clean since the pump and filters in the back of the Carpentry shop did a great job. I also remember the wooden log kept in the pool over the winter which prevented ice damage somehow.

Once we were all taken down to the Outdoof pool in Grange for some occasion, and I remember how bitterly cold both the weather and the water were.

That's a great aerial photo as it shows all the grounds and the gardens and everything. Though I wasn't hugely enthusiastic about the pool, I did always enjoy roaming around the grounds both with and without permission!
23 March 2021 at 16:45
Anonymous said…
I have just come across this page my name is arnold cartwright from edinburgh, herbert the groundsman was my uncle bert married to my auntie lizzie we came to grange on holiday every year when kids and reguarly went to charney with uncle bert we have very fond memories of this and believe it or not i am now 60 and in grange at the moment, it is very nostalgic to see our uncle bert who we loved dearly.
10 July 2021 at 21:37
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15 July 2021 at 18:16
Keith Smith said…
Thanks for your comment Arnold Cartwright. We loved Charlie and Herbert too! They were always working away in the background - on the mowers, in the kitchen garden - they seemed to do everything together and they never stopped, or so it seemed to us. A fine example of commitment to work which impressed me for a lifetime. I can’t remember them ever speaking to the boys, perhaps that was the school protocol of the time. If you come across my comment Arnold and you have any photos of Herbert that you would like to share please contact me. Best wishes Keith Smith
21 July 2021 at 07:22
Andrew Holmes-Higgin said…
I remember Charlie and Herbert very well. It seemed they worked from sunup to sundown every day except Sundays, and never spoke to us, nor did we ever speak to them for some strange unwritten reason, though I do recall when they spoke to each other it was with a very heavy Cumbrian accent. It was also rumoured the "CH" letters on the Charney Hall school flag that was flown from the flagpole during Cricket matches *ACTUALLY" stood for "Charlie" and "Herbert", not Charney Hall. At least that's what we liked to think.

And I do remember one odd story about them both working in the cellar during a thunderstorm and they opened the door to the boiler or heater down there and a bright glowing thunderbolt flew out and exploded in front of them. Don't know why I remember that, and possibly I am mis-remembering the actual story, but I would like to think that neither of them would have been ruffled much, and likely made some kind of sardonic comment to the other in thick Cumbrian dialect and gone on with whatever they were doing.
6 August 2021 at 18:59
Keith Smith said…
I too remember watching a thunderstorm with a group of boys in the Memorial Hall porch which was open to the elements.
The rain was unrelenting and we were waiting for a chance to run across to the main school building when there was an enormous bang
and a bolt of lightning ⚡️ earthed down the copper conductor which ran down the gable end!

We couldn’t have been more than 30’ from the strike but I can’t remember there being any panic just a silent vote of thanks for the person
who had the bright idea of installing a lightning conductor!
6 August 2021 at 20:57
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