Results & history

1901

Separate clubs and swimming in the sea

When the club was founded in 1901, the strict separation of women and men meant there were two clubs: Ladies and Gents. They used separate changing huts on Paignton seafront, thought to have stood roughly near the present-day cinema.

With no swimming pool in Paignton, all swimming and lifesaving training took place in the sea and the club operated seasonally. This seaside beginning was remembered through the traditional opening dip at the harbour end of the seafront, held on the first Sunday in June until the late 1990s.

1914–1945

War, amalgamation and the Torbay Swimming Society

The surviving club account records little activity during the First World War and notes that no records from that period appear to remain. Earlier changing huts appear to have been removed during the war. The Ladies and Gents clubs amalgamated during the 1920s, when the council provided a hut for the united club on Paignton seafront. Some historic club minutes still survive.

At that time Brixham, Paignton and Torquay each had their own borough council. A Torbay Swimming Society was formed to represent the clubs to the three authorities. Club activities were suspended again during the Second World War and restarted as normal life returned.

Pools across Torbay

Marine Spa, Shoalstone and holiday-camp pools

The club progressed from the sea to the indoor heated seawater pool at the Marine Spa in Torquay and also used the outdoor seawater pool at Shoalstone. The Marine Spa site later became Coral Island and subsequently Living Coasts.

From 1948, holiday camps across Torbay provided more outdoor pools. Local clubs could use them, mainly during evening meal times, including Pontins at Kings Ash Road in Paignton and Barton Hill in Torquay. Paignton continued using the Kings Ash pool until about 1977 or 1978.

Friday evening became Paignton’s main club session at the Marine Spa, shared with Totnes, which had no pool other than the river. Torquay and Brixham used the pool on other evenings.

Early competition

The beginnings of inter-club trophies

The Marine Spa hosted Devon County and national events. Combined activities and competitions also involved clubs such as Newton Abbot, which used an outdoor pool at Penn Inn, and Dartmouth, whose swimmers trained in the boat float.

These meetings helped establish the inter-club competitions from which some of the trophies still contested by the club originated.

1974–1977

Building better pools

As the need for better facilities grew, clubs across Torbay considered building their own pools and launched several buy-a-brick schemes. Brixham’s indoor pool, now the Admiral Swimming Centre, opened in 1974, followed by the Plainmoor community pool in Torquay in 1977.

Paignton had been promised consideration as the resident club at a new pool planned for Clennon Valley, so it waited for that development. Paignton members still gave their time and labour to help Brixham build its pool and also supported Totnes, continuing the close relationships between the neighbouring clubs.

From 1976

A new home at Clennon Valley

The Clennon Valley pool was completed in 1976 and Paignton Swimming Club became its resident club. Membership and the club’s standing within Devon grew quickly from its new home.

At its height during the 1980s, the club had more than 650 members and was recorded as the second-largest club in Devon after Exmouth.

1957–2016

Service to Devon swimming

Paignton members have served on county committees throughout the club’s history. Four club committee members are recorded as having become Devon County President: J. Scott Ormsby in 1957, Betty Tuckett in 1972, Harold Allen in 1976 and Derek Wyatt in 2016.

Lifesaving

Lifesaving and the Torbay Championship

Lifesaving was central to the club from its earliest sea-swimming days. Many members became active in the Royal Life Saving Society and qualified as highly regarded instructors and examiners. As pool space became more difficult to secure and competitions changed, a single larger lifesaving club was formed at Clennon Valley in 1982.

Paignton also supported the British Long Distance Swimming Association in staging the annual Torbay Championship from Meadfoot to Brixham and back. Club volunteers provided rowers, lifesavers, timekeepers and officials, with canoes largely replacing boats as the event evolved. Several members qualified as Pilot Life Savers and many completed the course themselves.

Friendship and community

Hameln exchanges and the ladies’ section

For many years the club developed a close relationship with Torbay’s twin town of Hameln. Exchange visits created lasting friendships between local families, with Paignton members forming an important part of the organising committees.

The club also had a separate ladies’ section with its own sub-committee and treasurer. Its coffee mornings, whist drives, jumble sales and other events raised valuable funds. The section organised popular Christmas parties and New Year presentations, and its donations sometimes supported club championships, team travel or the club’s general finances.

Aquatic disciplines

Water polo, water ballet and synchronised swimming

Water polo began on Sunday evenings as a way to encourage boys who were not competitive swimmers to remain active in the water and involved with the club. The club became prominent in water-polo training and competed in leagues across the country. A ladies’ section was later formed, and mixed participation developed at the younger age groups.

Women and girls also trained and competed in water ballet, which later developed into synchronised swimming. These activities reflect how aquatic opportunities at the club evolved over time from the more divided structure of earlier decades.

Post-war training

Residential Easter training camps

In the years after the Second World War, when the available pools were mainly at open-air holiday camps, a week-long residential Easter Training Camp was held at Barton Hill in Torquay for clubs from across the country.

Western Counties organised the camp, with instructors and examiners drawn from the participating clubs. It was a major success for many years. When the regional course moved farther north, Brixham ran a smaller local version successfully for several more years.