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Rivacre Baths.
A Memory of Little Sutton.
For those who never saw (or may have forgotten), the photo shows the view you had after coming in through the main entrance. The large fountain can be seen in the foreground, and was enjoyed by many children as they ran around underneath the cascading waters. Just beyond was the shallow pool, which tapered from practically nothing at each end, to about 30 inches deep in the middle.
There was a short wall which seperated this from the main pool which was 14 feet deep at the far end, and above this was the diving platform consisting of the low and medium height springboards, plus the top fixed board.
On the left of the photo can be seen a long low building with windows in the roof, which was the women's changing room. There was a similar building on the right of the pool (out of sight), which was for the men, and if you look to the left of the diving platform, you can see the water tower which was used for Bowater's paper mill.
The nearest actual location of the baths was not Little Sutton, but the village of Overpool which was about half a mile away.
From the baths, Rivacre Road ended at the crossroads by Cemetery Gates, where you could turn right past Shaw's grocery shop to go to Little Sutton, (another half mile plus) go straight on through Overpool past Sharples newspaper shop, the CO-OP, the chemist, and Burgess's butchers shop towards Whitby, or turn left past the local cemetery, and on for about a mile coming to Frosts Flour Mills and the docks of Ellesmere Port.
I was born in Little Sutton at my mother's parents' house (Mr & Mrs T Baxter) on New Chester Road (nearly opposite the Methodist Church) in March 1942.
When my father was demobbed from the RAF in 1945, we moved to his parents house at the family home of "White Stacks", very near to the baths.
Next to the baths was a detached bungalow called "The Croft", then "Overpool Dairy", a small farm run at that time by Charlie Dodd, his wife Maude, and Charlie's sister Mrs Passent. It was here where they milked the cows every day, producing and bottling the milk for sale in the area.
"White Stacks" was in fact semi detached with the farm. The original structure was built as a coach house back in the early 1730s, and was used as a half way stop for the coach which ran between Chester and Birkenhead. Here they would change horses and carry on, or if it was too late, park the coach for the night and provide shelter for the passengers until the next morning. In the late 1800s the building was converted into a semi detached house, with the dairy farm starting up on one side, and my fathers parents living in the other when they were married in January 1900.
A bit further up the road next to "White Stacks" was the continuation of the farm in the shape of a similar building owned by Charlie Dodd's younger brother Norman. Norman and his wife May had the larger farm with 30 acres of land, taking care of the barns, cows, planting wheat, plus hay as fodder for the cows in the winter.
I knew the baths very well, as during the summer and being so close, we went there many times to swim, play, and generally cool off. My father Frank, was a very good swimmer, and played water polo for the local team. During his youth in the 1930s, they used to hold a 'family weekend' each summer at the baths, in which he was part of a comedy team. They entertained the crowd doing all kinds of things, and one of his particular stunts was to ride a bicycle off the top board of the diving platform, and jump off in mid air before diving into the water. The bicycle was tied to the top rail by a short length of rope, but this was not apparent until he just entered the water, so adding to the oohs, aahhs of the crowd as they initially thought that the bike would land on top of him.
We had some apple, pear, and plum trees in the garden, and during the later stages of the summer when the fruit became ripe, we opened up a stand at the house, and sold the fruit to the crowds at the weekends, as they made their way down Rivacre Road to and from the baths.
It was a very popular place during the summers of the 1950s - 1960s, especially when the weather was hot, but as stated in another article, when the indoor baths were built near the Civic Hall in Ellesmere Port (and so could be used year round), that was the end of the 'open air' Rivacre Baths, so they were regrettably closed.
My father continued his interest with the new baths, and was on the committee for the swim team which organized race meets locally, and also with Ellesmere Port's twin town of Reutlingen in Germany. They had swimming galas every few years with Reutlingen, taking it in turns to go there for about a week, then the German team would come to Ellesmere Port the following year to carry on the rivalry.
Due to failing health, my father retired from the swimming club in his later years, before passing away at home in "White Stacks" in 1997 aged 82.
I have been living in the USA for the past 34 years, but my memory is still pretty good regarding the time spent in the Overpool/Little Sutton/Ellesmere Port area from the mid 1940s to the 1970s, so if anybody would like to contact me regarding this subject to add (or correct anything), please get in touch by leaving a comment in the box provided below.
David Copnall
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Comments & Feedback
May Dodd was my Godmother. Just found this awesome considering I live in Canada now, and have for 40 years. Anyone know anymore abut them?
They lived next door to Dave Copnall who's memories are catalogued above.
They had two daughters Anne and Joan (Anne was my age -now 72 ish) and attended John Street Primary School in Ellesmere Port in late forties.
I don't recall what happened to Anne but Joan remained in the farming business and married Ray Powell running a farm in Capenhurst Village and to my knowledge, still there.
When Norman died, May moved to a small bungalow in Church Lane, Great Sutton and became a great friend of my mother, Irene.
I will take the liberty of passing my memoirs to Dave Copnall who as you will see now lives in the States but being an old chum of mine, I regularly communicate with him.
As you went down Rivacre Road towards the baths, the farm house and buildings of Norman and May Dodd were on the right about 200 yds before the baths. Norman and May actually had 3 daughters, the eldest being Ann, then Joan and finally Norma.
I went to John St Primary School in Ellesmere Port at the same time as Ann from 1947 to 1953, and with living in the next house down with my parents, used to play with all 3 girls at the farm and in the large open hay barn, which with the many bales of hay provided plenty of material for building forts, tunnels and places for hide and seek.
As a small addition, the farm is where I learned to drive Normans tractor, when I would slowly drive it up and down the field pulling the low flat trailer for Norman, his helper Jack and a few others as they loaded the bales of hay onto the trailer. All this with the help of a cushion on the seat and Ann giving directions,,at the age of 9!! Such happy memories.
Ann married and went to live with her husband on a small farm near Stoke and Stanney, Joan married and lived somewhere just outside Ellesmere Port, but it was Norma who married Ray Powell, and moved into the other half of the semi-detatched building where my parents lived, and as far as I know, still reside there - otherwise the comments by Ian added a lot.
Regarding the comment above sent by 'sarnialadiesinc', if you don't mind me asking, how did May Dodd become your Godmother? Were your Mother and May friends/relatives?
I also went to John Street School after Berwick Road School in Little Sutton but left in 1949. Classes were taken to the baths by bus each week from May to September and it was freezing sometimes but we didn't seem to notice it and all went into the cafe there for jam butties before coming home.
I only got to know Frank Copnall and his wife in the 70s when I worked for NatWest in Little Sutton and we used to chat about local things etc.
Little Sutton was a lovely village and everyone seemed to know everyone. My grandfather Herbert Higgins lived in Black Lion Lane backing onto Tommy Jones and was Blacksmith at Bennions and later worked at Cartwrights he used to love his pigeons and canaries and kept a couple of turkeys in the garden. We used to cut through Stony Alley (the side of the old Kwik Save)
To the village and there were some cottages were the Hammonds and Edges used to live, now demolished, Like everyone I wish I had asked more questions when younger. My grandad always had a photograph of his mother on his wall and a picture of a cottage all done in beads, which he said his mother had done and she had been a pianist for Dame Patti the opera star at one time and was of Russian decent. When I used to go shopping in the village with my mother nearly everyone we met seemed to be related to us in some way. The Williams'from Carlton Cafe, the Ellis's, the Higgins, the Dodds were all cousins of my mother Ruth.
I would like to pick your brains, I am searching for information on a family who lived at 8 Berwick Gardens Little Sutton, Ernest Cecil Cromarty and his wife Margaret, they had only one child John b 1921, who may have attended Berwick Street School. I wonder you mention a John Street School was this follow on High/Secondary School.
Ernest was listed as a Swimming Pool Superintendant on the 1939 register set up for the start of war,i am not sure if it would have been at the Rveracre Pool but sounds likely as listed as Local Government Officer. he lived at Berwick Street until death in 1959 Margaret may have lived there for some time before moving from the area to live with family, they were all born in Liverpool so not sure when they came to Little Sutton, do you know when the Pool was opened.
John Cromarty b 1921 was killed a RAF Pilot Killed over Berlin in 1944 he was 23yrs, his plane was discovered in 1970's with the crew and all buried as unknown,they have now been indentified and the MOD are rededicating the grave to the named men next week in Berlin.
I have contacted Johns relations who are interested in his early years and espically any photos of John, I wonder if anyone has any idea if there are any old school photos or people from the atea that had family attend school at the time of Johns schooldays 1926-1936c
m.mcgreal@hotmail.co.uk
I
My email is dabaco42@comcast.net if you would like to get in touch about anything else.
Cheers,,,,,Dave Copnall
My ancestors were the Jones family who farmed at Pooltown farm in Overpool. If anyone know the site of the old farm whicjph I know has been demolished I would be very interested to hear from them.My email address is dentio@hotmail.co.uk