Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 04 June 1910
Denaby in Luck,
Recreation Ground and Swimming Bath In Store.
Parish Council’s Scheme
We have received information of an interesting scheme which the Denaby Parish Council are preparing to put into execution. This is no less than the leasing of a field, to be utilised as a recreation ground and to contain an open air pool.
The scheme involves considerable cast; how much is not definitely known, but the expense will be lessened by the magnanimity of the Colliery Company. The land proposed to be taken adjoins the Denaby football field on the east side and is the property of Mr. J. S. H. Fullerton. The Denaby and Cadeby Colliery Company at present hold it on a lease, but they have expressed their willingness to give up in order that the Parish Council may take it over and make a recreation ground of it.
Mr. W. H. Chambers, the managing director of the Colliery Company, and Chairman of the Parish Council, has been the mediator in the matter, and the thanks of the Denaby people are due to him for the excellent prospects held out, of one of the open spaces which are so greatly needed in congested areas like Denaby Main. The ground is from three to four acres in extent, and it is pro- posed to wall it in with a high timber fence, the only entrance being from Thrybergh Terrace road.
The most notable feature is the open-air swimming bath which is to be incorporated in the scheme, a feature which is an entire novelty in this part of the world. No other public authority has exploited the idea in South Yorkshire outside Sheffield, and the ultimate effect of teaching the young idea to swim, and also the rearing of a hardy race of young men, is a very desirable one. The bath will be excavated to the depth of five feet at one end, and three feet at the ether. It will be concreted, and the size will probably be twenty or thirty yards by ten. The water for the bath will be supplied by the Colliery Company.
Aquatic exercise will not, of course be confined to the children, and it is anticipated that pre-matutinal dips will be fashionable. A dressing shed is to be erected alongside the pool. The chief attraction to the children will be the ground itself. They will be able to forsake the dangers of the streets and play their cricket and football in comparative safety and in healthier surroundings: while’, retreats in the shape of garden mats will be provided for the more mature and staid motion of the population, and the Denaby folk will be able to take their rest in the refreshing open. Swings, stalls and other childish delights will be included in the attractions of the ground, which, in one corner at least, will bear the nature of a fair ground. Some thousands of children are to be accommodated in this field, the site of which is moat suitable for the purpose.
The scheme is rapidly approaching fruition and we may expect shortly to hear something more definite concerning it.