Longley Park History / Memories

[Jon]

Cycleracer could you please email me regarding Longely Park and Wentworth Thanks Jon

[ginger]

what is your best recollection of longley park

mine is throwing rocks at the conkers to get them down also taking cardboard boxes to slide down the steep grass slopes and in winter sliding down on sledges

[little malc]

Flying model aeroplanes, yhis was my local park before leaving to live in Scarborough, I was still flying models here at the grand old! age of sixty only two years ago, great fun, i'm activly trying not to grow up!! Lovers lane in the park was also my first introduction to girls, although no more about that!

[Bushbaby]

One of the great things about Longley in the sixties was the Lido (we just called it Longley baths).

On the half dozen or so sunny days of the summer, we used to flock to it in our thousands, often spending the whole day there. I remember once taking a visiting cousin from York and he was amazed. Said we didn't need to bother with the seaside!

It was a great place to meet and mix with girls. I recall a bunch of them coming up from Buchanan Road, (did they breed them special on Buchanan? There were loads of them!) and my mates and I were like the proverbial flies. I even had a summer romance, at the age of fifteen, based around Longley baths.

One time, Tony Ball was showing off and cut his head performing a spectacular double-half-flip-with-a-twist-and-turn dive. (In some circles that dive is now known as a Tony Ball!!)

Luckily, the City General was just round the corner. We laughed for weeks, horrid things that we were.

Mind you, the water was absolutely freezing.

[Timbuck]

Was He the one with more suntan than anybody else?, had a curly black hairdo, and wore salmon pink "he man trunks"..used to do a lot of handstands etc (when the girls were around) and seemed to be there every day???.

[Bushbaby]

That's the very chap...

[Cycleracer]

These days i live in Longley and never really knew the area until i got married as i married a Longley lass, however i did visit the lido in 1976 a couple of times and i came once as a lad in the late 60s and remember the water being very green.

The baths remained until about 10 years ago locked and derelict and i heard on the grape vine that it may come back though i won't hold my breath.

[pietro]

Cycleracer,

 

Liked that, "I wont hold my breath".

 

Seriously though, Anyone, If you've not seen it try to get a hold of a copy of:

"A Home of Our Own"

 

This was published by the Longley and Southey local history group in 1988. They also published an earlier book which I think went under the title of:

"It Was All Fields THen".

Both books give a brief history of the Longley area and there's quite a bit about Longley Park and the baths, including photo's.

I know Southey Library at one time had both books on the shelf.

 

In the 60's and 70's I was a regular user of the baths, even now the thought brings a shiver to my body, the cold, cold water. BRRRRR

[fuzbuz]

Mine was my dad sitting me on a sledge at the age of about 3 and shoving me down the hill. Then id fall off and hed do it again i used to think he enjoyed it more than me!!

 

Im too young to remember the baths but my dad and his brothers (Wayne, Dale and Craig Salvin) always tells me how good they were.

[cheeky boy]

i remember going there , must have been in the fifties with mam and dad.

goin in the open air pool , cold but great fun......all gone now