Rochford Primary School
Swimming Lessons
By Len Bickford
I was born and lived in Rochford until I got married and when I was a youngster, I went to school locally. First of all, I went to the infant intake in the St Andrews church hall on the corner of Ashingdon Rd, then into the main school building where I remember being in Mrs Brazier's class.
When I went up into the Junior school part of the complex, we used to have swimming lessons. As there wasn't a swimming pool in Rochford, we were bussed to a swimming pool at Battlesbridge; if I remember rightly, it was an open air pool that was reached down the narrow lane by the side of The Hawk public house. It was very cold and again, if I remember rightly, it was filled with water from the nearby river so there was salt water in the pool.
Does anyone else remember this? It would be nice to hear from you to compare memories etc. I can't remember if the lessons were weekly or further apart. The headmaster when I was there was Mr Baltrop (not sure of the spelling). I was there from 1955 until 1961.