Measuring the school pool

From the School Archives

The Shirley Boys High School Parent Teacher Association was formed in 1957, the year the School was officially opened. Mr M.A.Gordon was as the first chairman, supported by Messrs A.Romeril and A.Graham.

The first major task for the PTA was to provide an on-site swimming pool since the boys had to cycle some distance to the St.Albans Baths in Edgware Road for lessons as well as their first School Swimming Sports.

Appeals to local businesses, a house-to-house collection, and a jumble sale raised a thousand pounds. The good news was that the then Department of Education would provide a pound-for-pound subsidy on these voluntary contributions. The swimming pool was to be an amenity for the whole Shirley community and there is something familiar about this today when older school pools are being abandoned because of maintenance costs.

In 1957-58, a shocking number of drownings at the beaches and rivers had created the call for a ‘Shirley Swimming Club’. Local volunteers including teachers, parents and boys brought the 25-metre pool into reality in 1962. There were problems with the original filtration system and drainage out to Dudley Creek had to be properly organised so that further fundraising was necessary.

There was to be a diving pool but, with the need to build a school gymnasium, this was put on hold. Ten years later the pool at QEII superseded the Shirley BHS pool but it remained as a training venue for some time. The area today, has been turned into a basketball court.