Roundhay Park Open-Air Pool

rikj · Post by **rikj** » Sat 30 Jun, 2007 12:27 pm

Phil and I decided to have a look at the overflow system and it looks a lot bigger from down below than it does from on top!Hidden away there are also the remains of what could be another, older overflow system.More pics here filed under "Roundhay Park" for anyone interested.

simonm · Post by **simonm** » Sat 30 Jun, 2007 12:45 pm

Bloody quality, as usual. How far do these tunnels run? Are they just around the immediate vacinity of the lake, or do they venture further afield?

Phill_d · Post by **Phill_d** » Sat 30 Jun, 2007 6:22 pm

Hi Simon.. I'm old enough (unfortunately) to remember the open air pool & waterfall. Rik can't remember the really small overflow as it was but this tunnel seems to have been part of the old overflow (that never had any water in only skateboarders) & the run off from the waterfall given the direction there running in..

Phill_d · Post by **Phill_d** » Sat 30 Jun, 2007 6:25 pm

This looks like the bricked up section of the old overflow channel where it went subteranean. I dont know how they expected this small thing to cope with bad flood time like we've just had :-0

rikj · Post by **rikj** » Tue 07 Aug, 2007 10:59 pm

After rootling around in some old archives the other day I found out that early in WWII the level of Waterloo Lake was lowered by 15ft to "minimise the danger from enemy action". Presumably this means to minimise the danger of the dam being breached by bombing. At this early point in the war there was a great fear of enemy bombing; "the bomber will always get through".After a year or so of keeping the level low in winter the Chief Constable decided that it would be safer to keep the level as normal to act as a static water supply for fire-fighting.

wiggy · Post by **wiggy** » Tue 21 Aug, 2007 12:25 pm

Phill_d wrote: Hi Simon.. I'm old enough (unfortunately) to remember the open air pool & waterfall. Rik can't remember the really small overflow as it was but this tunnel seems to have been part of the old overflow (that never had any water in only skateboarders) & the run off from the waterfall given the direction there running in..

wiggy · Post by **wiggy** » Tue 21 Aug, 2007 12:26 pm

Phill_d wrote: Hi Simon.. I'm old enough (unfortunately) to remember the open air pool & waterfall. Rik can't remember the really small overflow as it was but this tunnel seems to have been part of the old overflow (that never had any water in only skateboarders) & the run off from the waterfall given the direction there running in.. i concur,i was usually on that skateboard in the old dry semi circular run off.as someone said earlier,the water in the baths was icelandic,but we still talk to this day about just how they managed to get it so bluddy cold!i was going out with a girl that lived in the old house next to the car park,it is known as church srteam cottage,her parents are still there.i wonder if you can still buy fresh goats milk from the farm over the road?

raveydavey · Post by **raveydavey** » Fri 24 Aug, 2007 10:43 pm

wiggy wrote: Phill_d wrote: Hi Simon.. I'm old enough (unfortunately) to remember the open air pool & waterfall. Rik can't remember the really small overflow as it was but this tunnel seems to have been part of the old overflow (that never had any water in only skateboarders) & the run off from the waterfall given the direction there running in.. i concur,i was usually on that skateboard in the old dry semi circular run off.as someone said earlier,the water in the baths was icelandic,but we still talk to this day about just how they managed to get it so bluddy cold!i was going out with a girl that lived in the old house next to the car park,it is known as church srteam cottage,her parents are still there.i wonder if you can still buy fresh goats milk from the farm over the road? Good news wiggy - I was down there only last weekend and the little farm still has a sign on the gate advertising goats milk for sale!I've had more than a couple of pints over the years as I've walked back from the park - it was always really ice cold too, perhaps they used the same refrigeration gear as the old baths, eh?

Phill_d · Post by **Phill_d** » Sat 25 Aug, 2007 3:36 am

Next house down from goat farm towards Easterly road was an old police station in 18?? whatever! Easy life then eh?

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Mon 04 Aug, 2008 11:45 pm

There was an item on "Coast" the other day about the Hastings open air pool which has been filled in. There used to be two in Scarborough - one at North Bay which was converted to water slides and which I believe has now been knocked down and one at the Spa end, which the last time I looked was still there but abandoned. In the summer of 1964, I and my mates had a craze for visting the Roundhay pool nearly every weekend. Like all crazes after the summer it died and we never revived it. The next time I thought about the pool was a few years ago when I had to inspect an excavator that was involved in filling in the site.Many of the country's open air pools have gone including those at most seaside resorts. I remember the one at Morecambe being used every year for Miss Great Britain.We photograped the one at Newquay, which is till open the other week.I believe there's still one at Ilkley.It's funny really, most of them seem to date from the twenties and thirties, can it have been warmer in the summer then or were our parents and grandparents generation just a lot hardier?If global warming and climate change are a fact perhaps warmer summers will mean that there is once again a call for open air "lidos". Who knows?