Dear Subscriber,

Yes, it hardly seems possible, but we’ve made it through to December after a year like no other. As we edge ever closer to work beginning on-site in the New Year, we’d like to thank you for supporting us in 2020 and wish you all a very Merry (and safe) Christmas!

This month we introduce the volunteer behind our planned Wildlife Bench, give you a tip for some unmissable TV and update you on recent tree work on-site. We also share with you sad news of the death of Janice Dreisbach, Campaigner and Founder Trustee of the Cleveland Pools Trust.

Our people

This month, we’d like to introduce Jess Pollitt, who has combined her love of swimming and nature to create wonderful prose for the eagerly anticipated Wildlife Bench. It will be the perfect place at Cleveland Pools to sit and watch the world (and the kingfishers) go by...

When we asked her why she decided to volunteer with us, this is what she said:

“ A love of swimming came to me late as I only learnt to swim at the age of 40! I was born 13 weeks premature and was one of those weedy kids with troublesome ears: swimming was more of a penance than a joy. (I didn’t feel I was missing out to be honest as everyone looked cold and far from resplendent in their swimming caps and verruca socks!). But I found a love of water after a couple of years living in Sweden; it’s hard not to want to slip into the water when you live 2 minutes from the sea and can warm up with Schnapps afterwards! So I nervously signed up for weekly classes at my local pool. At my first lesson I could swim only a few strokes and after 3 months I could swim 40 lengths of front crawl in the fast lane!

I’m delighted to now be able to bring together my new love of swimming with my long-standing love of natural history and help create the Wildlife Bench. It’s been great to research interesting facts about flora and fauna that are likely to be seen near the pools. Sam (Grief) took me down to visit the pools and a beautiful kingfisher swooped down into the baths to show us their blue flash. Happily, the kingfisher was one of the animals that features on the Wildlife Bench!”

Bargain Hunt - on today!

We’re delighted to let you know that the Pools will feature in a segment on the popular BBC1 show “Bargain Hunt” today at 12.15pm. It was filmed way back in July and features Paul Simons, Chair of the Trust. No need to set the video these days as it will be available to view on iPlayer for 7 days after its transmission date - we do hope you enjoy it!

Tree Works

In late November we carried out tree work on-site, in preparation for construction work to begin in the Spring. The trees removed comprise an overgrown conifer hedge of Lawson Cypress Chamaecyparis lawsoniana and two ash trees which were exhibiting early signs of Ash Die Back Disease caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxinea. This allows the remaining Horse Chestnuts to flourish while allowing light into the pools, helping to reinstate the close connection of the site to the River Avon and enabling an understorey screen shrubbery to be replanted using evergreen shrubs of early nineteenth century species that might have been used when the pools originally opened.

Felling and removing trees is never a decision taken lightly, at least not by us. It is a significant intervention to remove mature trees, one that impacts on a landscape scale and we recognise the responsibilities that accompany those decisions. This is why we have engaged the best professionals to advise us, whilst striving for a longer term vision of betterment. The short term disruption can be upsetting and we understand that, but the broader picture and long term benefits can mitigate this.

Janice Dreisbach: Campaigner and Founder Trustee

We were saddened to hear the news of Janice’s death earlier this week and asked one of Janice’s fellow Founder Trustees, Ann Dunlop, to share some memories of Janice with us:

“Janice was a quirky individual, slightly eccentric, idiosyncratic and passionate about Bath and the Cleveland Pools in particular when the site was for sale in 1984.

I had known her for 30 years and we were Board members of the London Road Partnership and have campaigned on London Road and Kensington Meadows issues. She had a wicked sense of humour which many did not appreciate!

She worked tirelessly researching the history of the Pools and wrote a small booklet about its early history and explored all the legislation and possible designs for bridges, pool covers, water treatment and heating etc.

Janice was truly a ‘one off’ and the Pools project would not have happened without her persistence.”

Fundraising

We are always fundraising, so if you’d like to make a donation (large or small!) we would be very grateful. Please follow this link: https://bit.ly/2MxFkhv

Stay safe, and do please stay in touch. Have a wonderful Christmas - onwards and upwards in 2021!