A rather grim view of the Municipal Baths on Bath Lane in Stockton taken in 1974, a Volvo car is in the foreground. Photograph courtesy of Brian Kemp. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
A rather grim view of the Municipal Baths on Bath Lane in Stockton taken in 1974, a Volvo car is in the foreground. Photograph courtesy of Brian Kemp.
I started swimming here as a young lad of 8 back in 1958. Lots of fond memories here. I went at least 3 times a week till moving to Australia in 1963
I learned to swim there with Mr Florence of Mill Lane Boys in 1943. Also had my weekly bath. Simply great!
At least at the old Stockton Baths you did not have to contend with the brown floaties, that were always present in the sea off Seaton Carew. Have they cleaned up the waste sewage disposal problem yet at Seaton Carew? As to that long walk from the beach to the Railway Station I will always remember it with a great day at the seaside even if we were totally exhausted on reaching the station. I think I may have mentioned previously on this site the day my Grand mother Elizabeth Lakey wife of Fanny (Tom)Lakey the Stockton and Grimsby Town footballer of Tilery, took about seven kids to the seaside at Seaton Carew, and after letting several trains go she decided they would board the next train come what may and ended up in Sunderland, they were all boarded overnight at the Sunderland Police Station until they could be collected by their parents next morning. I can understand my Grandma’s frustration after that long walk to the station after a very hard day at the beach with a gang of kids
Does anyone remember the swimming baths when it used to have a balcony? The ladies changing was up on the balcony, in cubicles with wooden doors, and the gents changing was downstairs,running along either side of the pool,they only had curtains. The deep end had diving boards, and at the shallow end were the steps which lead up to the balcony. When we went with the school,in order to learn to swim we were thrown a rope to put our arms through then we were hauled to the side !!. In the summertime it used to be heaving with kids,no room to swim !! Boys used to be jumping off the balcony (when they could get away with it). However it was all great to us,and I think most of Stockton learned to swim there.
Old Stocky baths. Ah yes, they did tend to put a bit too much chlorine in didn’t they? And the temperature. Surely it would have been cheaper and more comfortable to swim off Seaton?
I have great memories of the Old Baths. I never learned much about swimming but had some great laughs.
Stockton ‘Old Baths’ – swimming on a Thursday morning! Collected from Fairfield Jnr School for an hour of mayhem, then smelling of Chlorine the rest of the week!
In the 1940’s & 1950’s the slipper baths weren’t only for the very poor and homeless. I lived around the corner in Bowser Street and like most of the streets around we did not have a bathroom (a tin bath, of course) and we children were sometimes bathed in the slipper baths – it was also a social occasion as many of your school friends were having a bath there with mums in attendance.
Giggy Moon – http://www.picturestockton.co.uk/viewpage.aspx?id=3648
It wasn’t just ‘homeless’ people who used the slipper baths. A lot of people, including us, had no bathroom at home, just a sink in the back kitchen and a tin bath to bathe the kids in front of the fireplace on Saturday nights. My dad used the slipper baths from time to time to have a bath with some privacy.
This baths had four ‘slipper baths’ inside, just 4 ordinary baths homeless people used to hire to get bathed and cleaned up in. I used to take a Brown Jug regular called ‘Little Legs’ [Lennie Cuskern] here to get him cleaned up. Which reminds me, whatever became of the world famous, the one-and-only, Stocktons one man answer to the Beatles – ‘Giggy Moon’? I last saw ‘Giggy’ in Hardwick, but this was the cleaned up version. He was being cared for in a Care Home near Hardwick/Rimswell? shops, and thanks to them didn’t he look well. Does anyone know Giggys history, or another streets character called SWIM-SWAM-SWUM?
I learned to swim at these baths, I remember the water being so cold. My husband also learned to swim there, even when the new baths was open.
It might have been grim inside but to me it was great, learnt to swim in this baths, a couple of domestos bottles, brown ale bottle, were the best to take back to the shops or off door ( brown jug offdoor), if you managed to get a couple of coppers you could go to the baths a couple of times a day (and we did) remember the first time I went to the old Thornaby baths, the water looked blue (because of tiles) the water seemed softer it was realy posh, but Stockton baths was nearer, yeh grim it was but back then who cared.