The seawater baths at Penarth around the turn of the 20th century. The baths were a joint venture between Lord Windsor and the Local Board and were built at a snip of a price, £7,500, which was quite a lot of money in those far off days. They were open for business in the summer of 1885. [000] [002]

The wonderfully accurate watercolour of the smaller swimming bath where the whole class went to swim during the summer months from the Dinas Powys Primary School. The artist is Mary Traynor and it is dated 1982. The original is held at the Glamorgan Archives. The cubicles were open on each side of the pool, the blue screen wall being a later addition for privacy. Ah it takes me back to my childhood. Thank you Mary for capturing the essence of the building. [310]

In 1895 'Around the Coast' a coastal tour of the British Isles in pictures said of Penarth. 'Penarth stands on a breezy cliff, where fine pleasure grounds have been laid out. The bathing is not to be praised, the water being muddy and the beach very shingly. There are, however, some excellent swimming baths.' [319]

Ratty comment: Muddy waters and shingle abound in the twenty-first century Severn Sea but the swimming facilities where countless generations of children of all ages learnt to swim and had great fun with their friends and family since the late eighteenth century are no more. I feel sure that current and past members of the local public bodies would justify their ineffectual management and indifference on some other basis - I label it regression!