Friends of the Deer Leap Swimming Pool

These are the photos from many contributors, taken from the old Ning site

From Richard Abraham: My grown up daughter Phil (now 36) used to swim there with Caroline Cooper, though I never did, I only swim - badly - when I can get out of the water into very hot sunshine; swimming in this country whether in or outdoors leaves me cold, if you'll pardon the intended pun! However, as the village 'Mr Plod' - for 22 years - I was on very good terms with Gaby Toth, the owner - and visited for coffee etc on a regular basis.... My most earnest recollection was the day when apparently someone had left a large 'brown floater' in the pool in Luton! This was one of the hottest days that year, a Sunday, and everyone but everyone descended on Deer Leap. Sadly it happened to be one of the very few Sundays on which the village Policeman was on duty! Both car parks - even the lower one - were full to overflowing and parking on the road thus ensued. Cars were parked, luckily on one side of the road only from Deer Leap Garage at the junction with the B4506 right up to Beaney Bend, if not beyond. This of course made the road one way with precedence from the village end so those coming from Ringshall were seriously disadvantaged. Evensong was at 6.30pm and some - including a member of the choir (who was born and brought up in Little Gaddesden) - didn't even get to Church! From that you will realise that serious discussions ensued, at Parish Council and Police management level. Over yet another coffee, Gaby was very sympathetic as were the Parish (and choir members) at least as far as your truly was concerned, but as a community happy they were not! Many logistical suggestions for overcrowding and parking were discussed but in the event such numbers were never seen again. Whilst the house now on that site is far from the worst 'ghastly mansion' I have seen -even in this village - it is a great pity that a well used (though not sound from a business perspective) swimming pool should have to go to accommodate it!

From Corinne Abrahams: I too was born in 53 and we lived in Luton. Most Sundays in summer mum, dad, sister and myself would drive over to Deer Leap for a wonderful day, taking a picnic and my sister and i bought bottles of coke from the shop. We used to spend half the time retrieving the coke bottles that were left all over the place and i think it was a penny we got on each bottle. If i remember it used to open at Easter and my dad and i would drive over to be the first ones... in the pool. I would like to know what the temperature was then, all i know it was bloody cold! I took my 25yds swimming test there and still remember the green cloth triangular badge that was proudly sewn on my costume. It was heartbreaking looking at the photos when it was derelict, i only said to my mother this morning about the wonderful times we had at deer leap and wondered if it was still open. Thought i'd take a look on the internet and was so disappointed with what i saw. When i was older i used to cycle over from Luton with a friend buying cream doughnuts on the way. There's been many open air pools but deer leap will always hold special memories. See more

From Michael Ghirelli, Pool Manager: I worked at the Deer Leap in the early/mid 60's, initially as an attendant, later as the manager. At that time, the local bloke in charge of the water was a fellow called Halsey (George?), a veteran of WW2; he'd worked for the water company since being demobbed I think, and he told me a lot about the early history of the Deer Leap pool. What he said (how accurate this is I cannot say) was that it had been built before the war about 1936, a...Continue reading

From Eamonn Montague: I have many fond memories of going to Deer Leap swimming pool every summer from 1974 to 1978. I was working at the Bell Inn, Aston Clinton at the time as a chef, and a few of the staff used to go there after working a lunch time shift in the kitchen to cool off. I remember that after couple of hours of swimming and larking about in the green area behind the diving boards. We would all head for the afternoon tea place at Albury, and tuck into a farmhouse tea (boiled eggs, scones, cakes etc). Can anyone remember what it was called?

I lived at Thorn Bank in Potten End from 1956 to 1972. I was born in '53 so it was my whole childhood. We went to the Deer Leap whenever we could in the summer. We used to compete to guess the number of cars there, which could vary from none to overflowing. I suppose I thought that everyone swam in cold water, because my school also had a large, unheated outdoor pool, but I ended up as a record-breaking Captain of Swimming, which I am sure was down to wanting to get out of th...e cold as soon as possible. I really think that you swim faster in cold water, although the professionals would probably disagree. I went like a bloody rocket because I was so cold. I loved the high boards and the slide, and climbing up the slide from underneath and holding your finger over the water outlet and spraying people as they came up the ladder! I loved the tiny wooden changing rooms that were always on a tilt, the cardboard boxes to put your clothes in, the ice-creams that you had to reach up high to the shop counter to be given, and the rat-tat-tat of the exit turnstile. We used to take picnics and go for the day. The field below the diving board was usually full of bikers or snogging couples, so as children we avoided it but as teenagers used it exclusively. The big field was for basking and playing games and the pool was for cooling off, seeing how far you could swim underwater, perfecting your pike dive from the springboard, water-polo and general water fighting. Bliss. Now it's gone, with a large new house in its place. So sad. So here we can wallow in nostalgia. Do tell us all your memories. See more