The Tamar is full of yachts, boats and jet skiers but it's very rare nowadays to see anyone swimming there. If someone was spotted in the waters today, the police boat would probably be called out, together with the lifeboat rescue team.
A hundred years ago, things were very different. The Tamar was a very popular place to swim especially down by Saltash Passage which, at the time, even had a bit of a beach.
The photo shown here was taken beside the Royal Albert Bridge and shows children in Victorian times paddling and enjoying a dip in the waters there. It's hard to imagine a similar occurrence today especially with the river's muddy banks which are littered with sharp rocks and various broken bottles. In the background is the training ship for wayward boys, the T S Mount Edgcumbe.
Marshall Ware remembered:
Most of us could swim across the Tamar before we were 16 and we received life-saving training from the Devonport Swimming Club. In those days, boys were allowed to bathe in the nude although I wasn't because my father was a local councillor for the St Budeaux Station Ward so I wasn't allowed to take part in the local activities without a bathing costume. When the women arrived on the scene to bathe, the boys were turned out lock, stock and barrel, often in a state of undress, from the eight bathing cubicles.
It's strange how times change and if this photo didn't exist, it would be hard to believe that children ever once swam in the waters beneath the Royal Albert Bridge.
No comments:
Post a Comment