BUDE SEA POOL: Over The Decades
The Sea Pool looks very different now to when it first opened in 1930. Constructed with financial support from the local Thynne family, the Pool was placed in one corner of the ‘gentleman’s bathing beach’ at Summerleaze. Before the Sea Pool opened, ladies bathed around the corner at Crooklets’ beach – men and women definitely didn’t bathe together in the 1920s!
Built during 1929 and 1930, the Pool opened in the summer of 1930 to great celebrations. Swimming in the sea itself at Bude was dangerous, and the local paper reported ‘tragic happenings… through people bathing at low water.’ The new Sea Pool meant that locals could ‘proclaim worldwide that there was absolutely safe bathing at Bude… In all probability precious lives will be saved.’
The Sea Pool’s value to the town became obvious very quickly, as did the need for continual maintenance to keep the structure sound. ‘At the end of last winter it appeared that Bude’s greatest asset would be washed away by the sea’ reported the local paper in 1933, when steel reinforced concrete was used to bolster the earlier construction. To this day, the Sea Pool needs regular maintenance to keep it up to scratch.
Originally, the main Sea Pool was accompanied by a small paddling pool for children but this was filled in by the mid-1930s to form the level poolside area which exists today. This was reported in the local press as being ‘a further improvement so that there is now an excellent platform for deckchairs.’ As well as deckchairs, pool users could also use the changing facilities – a row of tents which were put up each morning so that bathers didn’t have to wriggle into their costumes in full view!
During the 1930s and 40s the Pool hosted regular diving competitions. That isn’t possible today because the water is much more shallow now, as sand and rocks have been allowed to accumulate inside the Pool. You may also notice that in all of the historic photos there are no barriers around the Pool wall, as there are today. That’s because for 60 or 70 years the public were considered intelligent and capable enough to walk around the Pool without falling onto the rocks or beach below; it’s only in the last decade that these barriers have been deemed necessary to comply with Health and Safety guidelines.
The sun-bathing terraces on the cliff were built during the mid-1960s. Today, some Sea Pool enthusiasts would like to see something similar done to the far side of the Pool, where the unstable cliffs are being gradually eroded. However, there are others who feel that the natural beauty of the rocks are an important part of the Pool’s attraction. Either way, the Sea Pool will require considerable maintenance work over the next decade.
All being well, the Sea Pool will celebrate its centenary in 2030. The Friends of Bude Sea Pool would like to see it restored to its former glory, and enhanced with more facilities for its users. It would be nice to have some deckchairs back, for a start! We need your help to do this: please JOIN the FoBSP, or make a DONATION.
Thank you.
If you have any photos of the Sea Pool during the 1970s and 80s which you’d like to share, then please send them to us at info@budeseapool.org
Grateful thanks to Ray Boyd for all his help gathering material for this page, and to Des Gregory and John Stedwill for the use of their images
