Housewives’ toffee, school jumble sales and sheer determination helped pay for Inverurie Swimming Pool when it opened to great fanfare in 1970.
Desperate for an indoor pool of their own, the Inverurie community made calls for a facility as far back as 1958.
Residents were told, quite bluntly, if they wanted one they would have to help find the money for it.
A meeting between Inverurie Town Council and Aberdeen County Council in 1965 cast doubt on the scheme.
It was revealed the town council would have to meet half of the total £62,000 cost of the pool – and a new additional needs school for Inverurie.
But despite the initial outrage, the prospect of raising thousands of pounds didn’t deter residents, who took up the challenge with gusto.
Half a century on, Inverurie Swimming Pool has been demolished as part of the new Inverurie Community Campus development.
But many residents will still remember the role they played in fundraising for the town’s prized pool.
Enterprising pupils
Schoolchildren in Inverurie and its surrounding towns and villages began the marathon fundraising task straightaway.
From jumble sales at Logie Durno Primary to table sales at Kemnay Public Hall, the whole district backed the effort.
Senior pupils at Inverurie Academy – around half of the 1300-strong roll at the school in the 1960s – played a significant role in paying for the pool.
Participating pupils were advanced six shillings each from the pool funds and were challenged to double their money.
In many cases the determined pupils far exceeded expectation.
Over the course of five long years, Inverurie Academy schoolchildren came up with a variety of enterprising and ingenious ways to raise money for the swimming pool fund.
One girl took her pet sheepdog around Inverurie and asked people to guess its weight, charging sixpence at a time, raising a total of £12.
And 14-year-old Iain Matthews reared a pig and sold it for profit.
A group of youngsters earned funds from brooches they had crafted from Portsoy marble.
And two third year pupils were praised for their individual efforts: Scott Rumbles made £60 by organising a sponsored cycle race and Marion Clark made dressing table sets and cushion covers, netting a profit of £31.
Fellow students Gary Sutherland and Jacqueline Adams made plaster ornaments and bookmarks making more than £6.
A group of eight teens from Kintore teamed up to host a mammoth jumble sale making £101, while 25 Oldmeldrum pupils held a coffee morning to make £90.
Fundraising went swimmingly
In early 1970, Inverurie Academy pupils handed over a huge £4000 of the total £15,000 fundraised in the town and district.
At the time, Inverurie Academy rector Dr Norman Dixon said: “I am absolutely certain that the pupils of Inverurie Academy have shown how much they want a swimming pool by their efforts to raise money.
“The fact that they have raised £4000 is a clear signal of how the young people have supported the idea of having a swimming pool in their community.”
It was a fitting tribute to pupils’ efforts that the location for the pool was to be right next to the academy off Victoria Street.
Incredibly, a quarter of the cost of the new pool had been paid for by residents alone.
Geoffrey Gill, chairman of the Inverurie Swimming Pool Trust, praised the tenacity of the town and said the tally was “even more creditable” when it was pointed out that no individual’s donation (outwith the pupils’ fundraising) exceeded £50.
The town council covered the remaining £16,000 needed to meet the 50-50 joint funding agreement with Aberdeen County Council.
With the funds secured, an opening date of May 1970 was scheduled for the four-lane 25-metre long pool.
Making a splash
The long-awaited reward from a five-year fundraising campaign came on May 23 1970 when Inverurie Swimming Pool was officially declared open.
Ahead of the ceremony, it was said relief would wash over the community as it would mean “respite from countless back-to-back jumble sales, guess-the-weight competitions, quiz sheets and give toffee-making mothers a break from slaving over hot stoves”.
Provost Alexander McNab, who cut the ribbon, said: “This facility was first dreamed of by the town council as far back as 1958.
“I take this opportunity of thanking most sincerely all those who have worked so hard to make our dream a reality.
“In particular we are indebted to Inverurie Swimming Pool Trust, who, with their supporters, and especially schoolchildren, have raised £15,000.”
The new pool certainly made a splash.
Within the first week, young bathers were so desperate to get in that the glass door in the reception shattered under the pressure of the crowd pushing.
And hopeful swimmers had to be turned away with ‘pool full’ signs displayed at every session.
Baths manager Charles Knowles said the pool proved so popular that they had to impose a limit of 120 bathers per session.
Going for gold at Inverurie
By the time the pool celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1996, more than 86,000 swimmers were using it each year and it supported a successful swimming club.
A £600,000 upgrade that year saw an extension and the addition of a learner pool, a fitness suite, sauna and replacement showers.
The 1990s also saw Inverurie’s young Hannah Miley – a double Commonwealth Games champion, European and World medalist and Olympic finalist – begin swimming lessons at Inverurie Swimming Pool.
Speaking to Scottish Swimming in 2019, Hannah said: “My earliest memory is of going to council lessons at the local pool in Inverurie.
“I wasn’t a fan of the deep end of the pool! When you’re little it’s quite daunting.”
Hannah joined the pool’s Garioch Amateur Swimming Club aged five, kick-starting a successful swimming career.
Years of coaching and practice at Inverurie Swimming Pool paid off when Hannah became a Commonwealth Games champion in 2010.
And Hannah did her hometown proud when she made it to the finals of the 200m and 400m individual medley at the London 2012 Olypmics.
She became the first Scot to win gold in a Scottish pool at the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and now has dozens of medals to her name.
Therefore, it was only right that Hannah was the first swimmer to test out Inverurie’s new swimming facilities at the Inverurie Community Campus last September.
All that’s left of the old Inverurie Swimming Pool is rubble, ahead of the area being landscaped as part of the new campus, but its legacy continues in the generations of youngsters who discovered their love of swimming within its waters.
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