FRED HILL & BIDDICK SWIMMING POOL

Extracts from an anonymous article posted by the Washington Star, 22nd February 2013

• Fred Hill was a formidable character best known for leading the fight to save Washington Old Hall from demolition.

• One of his lesser known feats was organising the building of an open-air swimming pool for children at Washington's Biddick School, of which
    he was Headteacher.

• Local authority plans for swimming baths had been dragging on for some years without any sign of success, but Fred wasn't the kind of person to
    hang about for too long.  In May 1931, he drew up estimates for materials, and the month after, he organised a meeting of townfolk, among them
    unemployed parents willing to provide the labour without reward.

• The site of the pool - the first of its kind in what was then County Durham - was marked out that same day on land next to the school and
    excavation took only a week.

• The pool measured 49ft by 23ft and was 9in deep at its shallow end and 4ft 6in at the deep end.

• Such was Fred's tenacity that in July - just six weeks after the public meeting - the baths were opened.

• As Sheila Arbuckle says in her book Frederick Hill and Washington Old Hall: "It was a truly remarkable event given the time, the place and the
    economic climate."

• The opening ceremony was, at Fred's insistence, attended only by those directly involved in the pool's creation - workers and donors of cash or kind -
    about 120 guests altogether.

• The workmen and their wives received a 'good substantial meat tea' and the others were served light refreshments.

• Proud of his unemployed parents' efforts, Fred wrote to Jack Lawson, MP for Chester-le-Street and secretary to the Ministry of Labour, telling him
    how 46 jobless men had worked on the baths.  He added: "Don't you think mention of this is good material that you may use to confute the charge
    'lazy dole-drawers'?"

• During the following year, more than 50 children learned to swim, and in September 1932, the first annual swimming gala was held there.
    The gala involved several local schools and consisted of exhibitions given by local swimming champions, a diving contest and novelty events.

• The boy's champion cup winner was Fred's youngest son, also called Fred.  He later had aspirations to be an Olympic swimmer but was told by his
    dad to get a proper job instead.

• Sadly, by 1936, the baths had to be closed and, says Sheila, there are no records of why this happened.

• The land must have been filled in because it later became part of the garden of a house adjoining the school.

[Thanks to Washington Star]