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Woman repeats feat of being first to swim at pool

John Devine
BBC News, Cambridgeshire
John Devine/BBC Hilary Butler, 76 is in a public swimming pool alone, she is wearing a black and blue costume and a blue swimming cap with swimming goggles on top of her head.John Devine/BBC
Hilary Butler was 16 when she became one of the first swimmers to use the previous outdoor public pool in 1965

A woman who was one of the first to swim in a town's public pool when it opened in 1965 has repeated the feat 60-years on at the newly refurbished pool in the same location.

Hilary Butler, 76, from March, Cambridgeshire, was a 16-year-old schoolgirl when she first swam at the open-air pool in the town.

The pool became an indoor facility in 1984 and closed in December for a renovation.

"It is very good to see the pool lovely and clean and hopefully it'll stay open for another 60-years," Mrs Butler said.

News Quest Black and white newspaper cutting from May 1965 showing two 16-year-old girls in a swimming pool. Both have short dark hair, the girl on the right is Hilary Peck who later became Hilary Butler and is wearing a dark swimsuit, her friend on the left is wearing a white one.News Quest
Hilary Butler (nee Peck), pictured on the right, was first to swim in the newly opened March outdoor swimming pool in May 1965, along with her friend, the late Jennifer Randall

Mrs Butler has vivid memories of the spring of 1965 when she and her friend hatched a plan to be the first swimmers to take to the water of the newly opened pool.

"I was off school and supposed to be revising for my GCEs with my friend at home, but we decided we wanted to be the first in the new swimming pool," she said.

"So we queued up for an hour and made it in to the local paper too."

The current pool is run by Freedom Leisure and is housed at the George Campbell Leisure Centre, a building owned by Fenland District Council.

John Devine/BBC six-lane, 25m (82ft) long indoor swimming pool, it has blue and white bunting strung up across the lanes at the deep and shallow ends. It has new bright white lights fitted in the walls and blue and white ceramic tiles also on the walls. The walkway tiles are a terracotta colour. John Devine/BBC
The refurbished swimming pool has been out of action since mid-December but has had new showers and lights fitted as well as a complete re-line for the pool itself

The pool was due to be shut for less than a week for routine filtration works costing around £15,000, but engineers discovered a leak and unknown structural issues which meant a £150,000 bill.

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