Cockleshell Heroes training pool set for demolition

A century-old swimming pool once used to train World War Two's Cockleshell Heroes is set to be demolished.

Eastney Swimming Pool in Southsea, Portsmouth, has been closed since the first Covid-19 lockdown on 23 March 2020.

Portsmouth City Council said the pool needed to come down as it was unsafe and at the end of its life, and work is due to start on a new pool and gym 750m (2,500ft) away costing £23.4m.

Leader of the council, Steve Pitt, has dismissed campaigners' claims it would be cheaper to refurbish the existing pool site.

Kevin Gardner, from the Eastney Pool Redevelopment, said the site of the planned replacement pool and gym would mean "six sports courts, trees and a grass area would be lost".

"It just doesn't make sense almost twice the money to end up with fewer sports facilities," he continued.

Mr Pitt said the group's claims were "not true at all".

He said: "It doesn't take much common sense to realise that if you are proposing a facility mix that is going to cost £22m to deliver, putting the same facility mix in a different location is not going to cost half the price it's going to cost the same or more, so it's not a sensible argument.

"I always promised that we would not knock down the building until we had certainty and planning consent that the new leisure centre at Bransbury Park was going ahead."

He said with planning permission approved in December the "dangerous building can now be knocked down", adding: "It is no longer fit to be used."

The council will make a decision on knocking down the pool on 5 March - with the ground set to be left a clear level site.

The pool was built on the site of an old gravel pit in 1904 as part of the Eastney Royal Marine Barracks.

It was used to train the Cockleshell Heroes - 13 Royal Marine commandos - ahead of their secret mission in six canoes to Bordeaux in December 1942.

Historic England declined to support listing the pool over its association with the group of Royal Marines.

The pool was also one of the first to host underwater hockey - octopush - matches.

The Royal Marine commandos trained around Portsmouth for four months ahead of their secret mission in December 1942.

They set off from Portsmouth on Royal Navy submarine HMS Tuna and were only given the details of their highly dangerous mission once on board.

Their target was a fleet of about 25 ships that were shipping essential materials - such as oils and natural rubber - needed for the Nazi war effort.

On 7 December, 10 marines were launched near the mouth of Gironde river in five two-man canoes.

Just two crews made it the almost-100 miles to the port - canoeing solely by night and resting by day - to plant mines on the enemy ships. Five were badly damaged in the raid.

Only two men survived the mission - Major Herbert "Blondie" Hasler and Corporal Bill Sparks.

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