"I first discovered the Pools three years ago when my sister moved near the site. We were exploring the local area and I spotted the Pools across the river. When I saw that the Trust had funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to start the restoration, I was keen to get involved.
I grew up in Bath and wanted to reconnect with the city having moved away some years before, and as a consultant for museum and heritage learning projects it seemed a perfect fit. I love that the project is so community-focused and that when the Pools open, they will be a venue that aims to welcome everyone. It would have been so brilliant to have a facility like this when I was growing up.
I support the Trust in delivering our strategic aims; completing the restoration project and getting the Pools reopened for swimming. I support Sam, our Community Engagement and Volunteer Officer, and the delivery of the project's community programme. I also sit on the Heritage Assets, Diversity & Inclusion and the Fundraising Working Groups and was part of the team that coordinated our recent crowdfunding campaign.
I am particularly proud of my contribution to making the Trust’s archive more accessible. When I joined in 2020, we set up the Heritage Assets Working Group to catalogue the items that the Trust’s volunteers had collected over the years, including photographs, objects, oral history recordings – and of course some swimming costumes! Over the past two years, a small team of volunteers have catalogued nearly 1,000 items from the collection making it much easier for us to care for them and share the history of Britain’s oldest lido."
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