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Bishop’s Stortford Swimming Club was formed on Thursday, 22nd May 1884 at a meeting presided over by Mr. F.J. Nash at The George Hotel, where it was unanimously agreed that the town was in need of a swimming club. Rumour has it that this makes us Hertfordshire's longest established swimming club!
The very first committee was voted in with Mr. E.L. Swift as Secretary and Major Darby as Treasurer. The remaining committee members were: Mrs. T.A. May; Reverend R. Alliott, Mr. E. Slater; Mr. C.V. Thorneycroft and Mr. H.W. Wilson. At this meeting it was agreed that only persons holding tickets from The Bathing Association would be eligible for ‘active membership’ and that the entrance fee to the club would be as follows:
It was also agreed that several prime race meetings would take place in the course of the season and these would be free for members to enter. Bishop’s Stortford Swimming Club held their inaugural ‘race meeting’ at the Bathing Association Baths in Rye Street on Monday 16th June 1884.
According to the write up in the Herts and Essex Observer of the day ‘the course was 50 yards in length, extending from the north end of the baths to a point at the south a short distance beyond the extremity of the bathing house. Here was moored broadside to the current in mid-stream a punt, which was connected to either side of the shore by planks. The north side of the punt was used as platform for the start’. Mr. F.J. Nash officiated as Starter and Judge, with Mr. W.A. Evens and Mr. A.R. Hudson as timekeepers. The events were:
Under 14 - 50 yards; Under 17 - 100 yards; Open - 50 yards and Open - 300 yards. Medals were awarded by a Mr. Henry Cribb.
Swimming during this time was only possible during the summer and was held in part of the River Stort, near the cattle market, which had been railed off as a town swimming pool. Here such things as broken glass could be found on the muddy bottom.
During the 1950’s the town had a cold open air pool situated approximately where the multi-storey car park is now to be found. The gates are shown in the photo above, and the inscription reads "This bath was presented to the town of Bishop's Stortford by Mrs. Tresham Gilbey in memory of her father Sir John Barker who resided in this town for many years. 1924".
Our sincere thanks to Hannah Kay, Curator at the Rhodes Museum, for this photo, and also for the copies of the tickets below!
Every week, the late Kenville Jackson - who subsequently became President of Bishop’s Stortford Swimming Club since 1983 - used to coach the swimmers, even in the pouring rain! An added difficulty was the ‘shallow end’ was quite deep. Until a filter and chlorination system was installed, the water used to get thicker and thicker as it was drained into and also refilled from the river. The temperature rarely got above 60 degrees but somehow the teacher and children managed to stay in long enough to see the lessons through.
Our Dinner Dance in 1957 was evidently held in the Chequers Hotel. The ticket prices at 12s/6d (Senior) and 7s/6d (Junior) would be about 62p and 37p each in today's currency. It would be great to hear from anyone who was actually there!
 
Thanks again to Hannah Kay at the Rhodes Museum for these images!
Bishop’s Stortford Swimming Club moved to the newly opened indoor pool at Grange Paddocks in 1974. The Committee up until that time had not been used to paying for pool hire and had suddenly to find adequate funding from its members. The club had to cope with a great influx of new members who were charged the princely sum of 25p for their annual subscription. There was also a demand for more training sessions instead of just once a week. The Committee therefore had to set about the task of finding a paid coach and trained assistants.
It was probably around this time that the swimming club started its long association with The Bishop’s Stortford College. The arrangement was a reciprocal one in that the boys from the college trained with the swimming club, whilst the Club had additional training facilities at the college pool. Sadly this arrangement ceased during the mid-1990’s. The nineties saw some great successes for the Club. During the early part of the decade the juniors won the prestigious Daplyns Trophy in 1991 - a feat which was repeated in 1996 and again in 1998. The juniors also had further success by winning the Peanuts League in 1993 and were runners up in 1994.
It was decided by the Committee to venture into pastures new by holding the swimming club’s very first open meet. This was held at Grange Paddocks pool in September 1994. The open meet has been held annually since that time and has proved more successful with each year.
Possibly the greatest achievement of the swimming club to date was winning the Herts Major League in 1995. The year 1997 saw Bishop’s Stortford bounce straight back into Division One of the Speedo League after winning the Division Two Championship.
No doubt, Bishop’s Stortford Swimming Club with its new strategy, together with the new coaching staff can look forward to further successes in the new millennium.
Just to end, individual successes within the club have proved too numerous to mention and I apologise to all those swimmers for not mentioning names. Perhaps at a later date I may try and fill in the gaps that are so obviously missing.
Original article by Emma Dunkley
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