Millhouses baths

[Albatross]

I remember a gang of us that used to go down at night in the summer climb the fence and go skinny dipping.

[maria67]

does anybody remember lido at millhouses . fantastic summer days !!!!!!!

 

i used to luv going there.I also used to like the open pool at longley park but the water was a lot warmer in that 1. kids wouldnt like the lido now cause the water was always freezing. there all to pampered now a days

[sharrovian]

Millhouses Baths was as I remember being told 100 meters long and 30 meters wide, it was 3 feet deep at the shallow end and sloped to a depth of 6feet at the deep end but also sloped into the centre under the high diving platform to a depth of 9 feet. Millhouses Lido came much later. As a young lad I went regularly on a Sunday morning with my father (who as a youth used to swim at Endcliffe Park after walking from the Havelock Bridge area) and later I met up with a lad (Maurice . . .?) from my school and he and I were befriended by the attendants Sam Lauder and Bill Hodgkinson. We more or less lived there during the summer holidays, we both became "Spartans" after swimming every Sunday morning throughout the winter and Christmas

Day and broke the ice on several occasions. I remember the admission was

9d. but if you were a "Spartan" you got in free, I have many happy memories of those years.

[ricky36]

not only as the baths gone but also the summers that we always had when the baths were open.you could always go to the baths at millhouses because it was always sunny

antbody remember how hot the flagstones got

[Dave650]

My great uncle used to break the ice every morning in millhouses baths swimming training just before the war.

[Chelle01]

I used to love going to Milhouses' Lido and also the one in Longley Park. We were certainly occupied for hours in those long hot summers.

 

It seems such a shame, to me, that our city, which used to have such cheap, well maintained and interesting facilities, now has run down paddling pools in the parks and very expensive leisure centres. It's no wonder that the next generation seek to occupy themselves with computer games.

[Runningman]

Must add to a posting about the baths after seing the contribution from my brother.

 

Remember walking up Abbeydale Road towards Millhouses Park with Mom and Dad one summers evening in the 50's and who should come cycling towards us on his way home from the baths, yes big brother, who had no doubt been there all day !

Dad took us both to the baths for many years and we carried on visiting with pals as we grew older. I learned to swim there and during a school holiday when I went every day for a week with a pal called Billy Radford, I eventually was able to go home and announce that I could swim unaided, without the help of Dad.

We used to travel there on the tram from Highfields and on those memorable summer Sundays, there were times when the trams were full and we thought nothing of walking the 3 miles to get there. We also walked down onto Heeley Bottom and caught the tram which took us up to Woodseats, along Abbey Lane and then down to Millhouses.

Coming home on a summers day, you often had to wait a while at the Millhouses terminus as hundreds of families emerged from the park and baths on there way home.

Remember queuing at the turnstile, taking the wire basket in which you placed your clothes and then receiving the rubber ring with the number on.

Amazement as a child that there were a few men sunbathing in the nude in a corner at the deep end of the pool.

On many occasions the pool temperature was b----y cold, even on a very warm sunny day.

The temperature didn't seem to rise until after a week of good sunshine.

 

There are locations and experiences which stay in your mind forever. For me and my brother, the baths will always be a special memory.

[Steptoad]

Ice cold water and sun burn, sitting on the fountain, boiling hot flagstones and drying off in the sun. The long hot summer days at Millhouses Lido. (Is it pronounced Lie do or Lee do?).

 

By the way, the old paddling pools might look a mess, but last summer the puddles of water in them were attracting some fabulously coloured red and blue dragon flies.

[Tooeg]

when I went it was a Lido,(posher than baths) not really my side of town that was about 66 or 67 when was it filled in

[sband]

I am 60 and used to go to millhouse baths with mates when we were in our early teens.