Dear Subscriber,

Wow, how time flies! A month has passed since we last wrote to you, and we’ve been busy. So here’s a quick update on everything from what motivated Frank Tompson, our volunteer website guru to get involved; why we’re in the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s good-books; and Queenie – a fictional character whose acquaintance we’ve just made. If there’s anything more you want to know about the project, please do get in touch.

Our people

This month, we’d like to tell you about Frank Tompson, a longstanding, valued volunteer.

When we asked Frank why he originally volunteered with us, this is what he said:

“I joined as much as anything out of selfishness, because I would love to be able to go for a cycle ride on a sunny summer’s day, then stop off at the Pools for a dip. What could be nicer! I had seen the Pools on a Heritage Open Day, when, like many people, I was delighted to see the actual site for the first time. I learned that volunteer trustees were tackling difficult stuff like funding, planning permission and getting a lease from the council, and it struck me that here were all these other people doing practical, voluntary work keeping the place maintained. So along with the others I pulled out weeds and supported a few events and met a lot of new and interesting folk in the process.”

“Whilst I started out helping with maintenance, I also got involved in developing the new website for the project. A team of us were keen to update the look and content of the website. It was great when it went live and I enjoyed the challenge. When I joined, many years ago, it was largely a case of choosing a broom or a spade to keep the site up to scratch. Since then things have changed significantly now that we have staff to guide us through what needs to be done. That cuts both ways, they look after us and we offer our help to them.”

And would he recommend this kind of volunteering to someone else?

“Of course. It’s a chance to be part of a rare opportunity to bring a priceless piece of history back into good, practical use. When people mention the Pools in the future, you can say with pride, yes, I was one of the people who made that happen.”

Our community

• Telling our story. In our last update, we mentioned the work that’s been going on to develop displays which tell the story of the Cleveland Pools, and inspire visitors to find out more. We now have a final draft ready, and we’re gathering community feedback to ensure we make this as interesting and accessible as possible. This is one of the panels that will be on display:

• Volunteer ‘Virtual’ Social. Just because we can’t meet in person, doesn’t mean we can’t get together and enjoy being part of the community bringing the Pools back to life. Just this week, we held a ‘Volunteer Social’ via Zoom for over 40 people which offered a chance to update our valued volunteers on project progress, share more detail on the hard work that is being done, and enjoy waving to each other from the comfort of our sofas!

And it wasn’t just a success from our perspective. The National Lottery Heritage Fund have told us they plan to share the initiative with other projects as an example of ‘best practice’ in engagement during lockdown!

Would you like to volunteer too?

We’re always keen to hear from anyone interested in volunteering with us. There are lots of opportunities to help develop our various community-engagement projects. Interested? Click here: https://www.clevelandpools.org.uk/volunteer

Building works

Not surprisingly, Covid-19 has impacted progress on the main building and restoration project. Some of our consultant teams have been furloughed and contractors are understandably cautious about timelines. However, we still hope to sign a contract in late summer and we are working hard to ensure none of this impacts on our overall budget. We remain committed to opening fully to the public in Spring 2022.

Something different!

Have you met Queenie yet? Bath street theatre performer Sarah McCluskey has been working with our volunteers to develop the fictional character of ‘Queenie’, charlady to Captain Evans, proprietor of the Pools in the 1800s. This is just one of the things we are working on to engage as many people as possible with the rich history of the Pools.

Do follow us on social media and keep an eye out for more characters and stories to come…

https://www.instagram.com/clevelandpoolsbath/

https://www.facebook.com/clevelandpools

https://www.linkedin.com/company/cleveland-pools-trust/

We are still fundraising

If you are able to donate to our ongoing fundraising efforts, you can do so by following this link: https://bit.ly/2MxFkhv - we are aiming to raise at least £250,000 to supplement the grant funding we have been given to date.

If you would like to support us, but can’t manage a donation right now, we’d love you to sign up for Amazon Smile - https://smile.amazon.co.uk/

Via this scheme, Amazon will make a donation of 0.05% of the value of any purchase made, to your chosen charity - hopefully us! Every little helps so please do share this with friends and family.

Stay safe, and do please stay in touch.