Skegness: Scarbrough Avenue:

The Turkish, Hot, Cold & Swimming Baths:

the pipes which carried sea water to the swimming pools, 2009


Pipes with fittings   Pipes from the sea


 

Oblique view of the pipes

© Skegness Magazine

   skegnessvideo.com

 

© Skegness Magazine

   skegnessvideo.com

 

© Skegness Magazine

   skegnessvideo.com

              

The water pipes looking towards Scarborough Avenue

© Skegness Magazine skegnessvideo.com

 

There were several Victorian swimming pools in seaside towns which used sea water in their pools and these were usually sited near the beach. But the Scarbrough Avenue baths in Skegness were a considerable distance away.

Their two pools benefitted from the site of the baths building being at a naturally low level. This allowed them to be supplied with water directly from the sea, partly by gravity and partly by pumping, a powerful steam pump being provided for the purpose.

The water had to pass through quite a lengthy pipe to reach the baths. Though the building itself was damaged during World War II and demolished in the 1950s, some at least of the pipework still remains.

The three upper images, taken when the tide was out, clearly show the water inlet pipe.

The image on the left was taken from the sea looking at the remains of the pier leading to the promenade. Scarbrough Avenue is directly in line with the end of the pier, so the pipe would have been fairly straight along its length.

The danger sign, which would show the inlet's location when the tide was in, was probably also the spindle of a gate valve to open and close the water flow. At the baths end of the pipe there would have been a series of graduated filters to ensure that only water entered the pool.

 

   

  Angela Gooch, for telling me about the pipes and allowing me to use her images of them

This page enlarges an image or adds to the information found on the following page:

Skegness: Turkish, Hot, Cold & Swimming Baths

 

Victorian Turkish Baths:
their origin, development,
and gradual decline

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The right of Malcolm Shifrin to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him
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