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Building a Swimming Pool (continued)

The end in sight

During the Autumn term 1963 work consisted mainly of moving sticky masses of earth, either for back-filling or for digging drains. A beginning was also made with the foundations of the plant house which was to house the pumps, filters and heating apparatus. The system used for this last was steam injection, operating through grills in the floor of the pool.

During the Spring term 1964 work continued on the filter house foundation, manholes and pipes; the clay was sticky, the going was slow, the labour force was a little low in numbers, though full of enthusiasm. Nonetheless, 86 children worked on the job throughout the term. This was the stage that any project knows, when only the really dedicated carry it through to completion. There was never any lack of these; in particular, from the School, Hugh Levinson, who had worked on the site from the very first day and now emerged as a natural leader who could use his brains as well as his hands, and from the Staff, Heinz Franzen from Köln University, who spent his "vacation" doing some slogging hard work for us over a period of many months. Seventeen children and twelve adult volunteers who attended an Easter work camp managed in a single week to set three-quarters of the pre-cast scum trough sections, to dig and lay three-quarters of the surface drainage, outlet and inlet pipes, and to set three-quarters of the filter house floor slab. During the early part of the Summer, in which a labour force of 144 worked throughout the term, the rest of the scum trough was set, and the concrete wall bases of the filter house were cast. Then came the biggest transformation of all, in which the whole appearance of the site was enormously improved: within a space of four days, a giant "traxcavator" earth mover, weighing fifteen tons, shifted the familiar mountains of earth that had surrounded the pool for the past two years, built up the earth to pool-side level and spread top soil where it was needed for grass growing. The surroundings now really suggested those of a finished swimming pool, and the pool itself was bathed in regularly throughout June and July. Though the filtration plant was not in operation, daily chemical treatment kept the water pure, and home-made diving stands lasted out the season.

Swimming, Summer 1964 Swimming and external drainage work go together, Summer 1964.

The last lap

During the Autumn term work was begun on the brickwork of the filter house. The inner tanks (each 6 ft. 6 in. long, with a diameter of 5 ft. 6 in.), set in their special curved concrete cradles, had to be thoroughly cleaned inside and painted with bitumen solution and an enamel finish. This meant applying two final coats after the priming, and applying them hot; it was clearly too difficult for children to manage, and was therefore put out to contract for the sum of £50. The contractors, when they came, explained that they usually got some boiling tar dropped on themselves, but it always miraculously seemed to miss their eyes. The School's workers were quite content not to rely on a similar miracle happening to themselves, and concentrated on preparing the insides of the tanks - two Sunday afternoon sessions with wire brushes. Though the tanks were large, their manholes were small; still, the Headmaster did just manage to squeeze inside, and - what is more important - to emerge later, a splendid rust-red colour. In addition to this work, concrete retaining walls were cast at each end of the spectators' stand, and along the edge of the deep-end surround paving.

During the Spring term 1965 work proceeded on the filter house, and preparations were made for the concreting of the 4,000 square feet of surround. Gangs of volunteers made thirty journeys with a tractor and a trailer, bringing back 120 cubic yards of rubble from a local building site. During an Easter holiday work camp, attended by twenty children and five adults, a four inch layer of concrete was put down over the whole surround, topped with a three-eighths of an inch "skin" of non-slip resin cement supplied by a school parent at little more than a nominal charge.

It remained to install the three sets of pool steps, two of them the gift of parents, the diving stands and the springboards. The erection of the five-metre stand was planned for the Summer of 1965, a one-metre laminated pine springboard, costing £42, was given by one family of Old Scholars, and the Parents' Circle gave another, of fibre glass with an adjustable fulcrum, costing £240.

Cleaning the filter tanks - a tight fit. Cleaning the filter tanks - a tight fit.

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