BC - RECORDS OF BATH CITY COUNCIL AND BATH & NORTH EAST SOMERSET COUNCIL
- BC/13 - Bath as a Spa, Cultural and Tourist centre: records of Bath City Council and Bath & North East Somerset Council's responsibilities for culture, leisure and tourism
  - BC/13/12 - Records relating to the Thermae Bath Spa
    - BC/13/12/1 - Records relating to the Bath Spa Project (1997-2006)
      - BC/13/12/1/1 - Audio recordings of interviews conducted to aid in the development of displays for the Spa Visitor Centre, Bath

Interview with Bob Whittaker who recalls his children learning to swim in the Cross Bath, Bath.

Reference Number: BC/13/12/1/1/6
Alternative Reference Number: 0779
Level of Description: Item
Title: Interview with Bob Whittaker who recalls his children learning to swim in the Cross Bath, Bath.
Date: c.2005
Extent: Extent: 1 minidisc
Description: An audio recording of an interview with Mr Whittaker, who recalls his children learning to swim at the Cross Bath, Bath.

The interviewer is Giles White and this interview, along with others, was conducted to aid in the development of visitor displays at the Spa Visitor Centre, which opened in August 2006. The location of the interview is not specified.

The recording is 00:02:56 long with Giles White's voice coming in at 00:00:03. Below are the extracts of what Bob Whittaker said during the interview. Please note this is not a complete transcript as the superfluous conversation in between questions has been removed:

[Giles White] ‘So this is Mr. Whittaker, local resident, recalling how his children learnt to swim in the Cross Bath'.

[Bob Whittaker] 'Both of my children learnt to swim in the Cross Bath in the mid-1960s. The person that ran those swimming classes was John Dagger, but the lady that actually taught them to swim was a Mrs. Shepherd. And I remember when children first began to swim, she had a long pole with a piece of rope with a sort of strap on the end of which she put the children in to swim around this extremely hot water. And of course you could swim there at any time of the year, so they were sat swimming in very, very hot water while their parents had to sit on the side even if it was raining or occasionally snowflakes falling'.

[Giles White] 'Okay, and Mr. Whittaker also has more direct experience than most of the heat of the spring water'.

[Bob Whittaker] 'In 1968 the River Authority were involved with the University of Bath School of Chemistry to look at the chemical composition, the temperature and the flow of the hot springs. At that time the King's Bath was still in position with the fountain in the middle. And there was a manhole which led underneath into the Roman cistern. And we had as part of this project to dive into that cistern in wetsuits with cylinders and diving equipment and remove a wooden structure put there by Dewar to enable us to get to the hot spring itself. Water temperatures were about 45 degrees Fahrenheit and it was necessary during those dives to circulate cold water through the suit because otherwise you just became totally overheated and had to come out quickly'.

[Giles White] 'Alongside the wall, the Beau Street wall, there are some mysterious cavities in the wall'.

[Bob Whittaker] 'Yes, at the entrance to the Beau Street Baths where children used to queue up to go swimming, there are a number of hemispheres cut into the bath stone at the entrance port. And this was done by children who were waiting for the swimming bath to open. They put coins against the stone wall and rotated them until these stone hemispheres occurred. That's a very early form of vandalism which is now part of the history of that structure'.
Existence and Location of Copies: Digitised MP3 versions are available on Preservica via internal access at Bath Record Office.