The Virtual Time Tour of Marple

[the rover]

That looks right to me, although I was only 4 or 5 years old at the time. I certainly don't remember the diving board. I wouldn't want to be diving into 6 feet of water from that!

These photos are bringing back memories. There were changing cubicles on both sides of the pool, male and female. Spent many times trying to jump off the board without somebody telling you off. Learnt to dive in doing a back flip from that board. I think, could be wrong that some child was killed using the diving board and that is why it was removed.

[Howard]

That's as shown in the photo suggested by @andrewbowden

That looks right to me, although I was only 4 or 5 years old at the time. I certainly don't remember the diving board. I wouldn't want to be diving into 6 feet of water from that!

[admin]

I remember the cubicles from visits in the early 1970s, but they were on the left hand side of the room when looking at the stage, not the right hand side.

That's as shown in the photo suggested by @andrewbowden

[Howard]

Were they removable?  Way before my time alive, but I can imagine that if you had designed the place to have a temporary dance floor, you might have also designed it so that you could easily remove the cubicles as well to create space.

I assume the cubicles were on both sides?
There is an older photo with the cubicles but you can only see the other side
https://visitmarple.co.uk/photos/displayimage.php?pid=10114

I remember the cubicles from visits in the early 1970s, but they were on the left hand side of the room when looking at the stage, not the right hand side.

[andrewbowden]

Were they removable?  Way before my time alive, but I can imagine that if you had designed the place to have a temporary dance floor, you might have also designed it so that you could easily remove the cubicles as well to create space.

I assume the cubicles were on both sides?
There is an older photo with the cubicles but you can only see the other side
https://visitmarple.co.uk/photos/displayimage.php?pid=10114

[admin]

I am a bit confused with that photograph of the baths. I am old enough to remember dances there, and if that is the old 'stage' then where are the changing cubicles to the right of the swimming pool which you used to get changed in?

I can't answer your question except to say that is the old stage. Here's a larger crop for clarity but I can't see any changing cubicles.


[attachment deleted by admin]

[the rover]

30 new images provided by Dr Ken Lodge were uploaded to the Virtual History Tour yesterday.

They are mostly taken on the Marple Hall Estate when it was fields, some 1950s festivals and Marple Swimming Pool with the dance floor down.

https://visitmarple.co.uk/photos/thumbnails.php?album=lastup&cat=0

I am a bit confused with that photograph of the baths. I am old enough to remember dances there, and if that is the old 'stage' then where are the changing cubicles to the right of the swimming pool which you used to get changed in?

[admin]

321 Images now on the Virtual Tour from the Janet Holmes collection of postcards

A final 46 images from Janet Holmes' collection of postcards have been added to the Marple Website Virtual History Tour today.

They cover a wide range of topics and 1 or 2 mysteries to solve. Janet's collection is much larger than the 321 images added to the tour, but of course many of them were already on there from other sources. That's one of the reasons it's taken me so long to get them all on there as I've had to check each one and discover if it was already online.

A huge thanks to Janet for sharing the fruits of her collecting with us all: https://visitmarple.co.uk/photos/thumbnails.php?album=lastup&cat=0

[admin]

Four images provided by Dave Watson of Marple Rose Queen events in 1928, 34 and 35 have been added to the Virtual Tour this afternoon:

https://visitmarple.co.uk/photos/thumbnails.php?album=lastup&cat=0





Dave also provided some newspaper cuttings relating to the Rose Queen events, which have prompted me to put together a new article on the main web site too:

https://www.marple.website/local-history/marple-rose-queens.html

[andrewbowden]

I think it's a shame the wooden flooring didn't survive!

I asked about it recently and was told it was used somehow at the community building in Brabyns Park. I'm not sure how as I've never been in that building.

There's a hall area - it's probably the flooring there.  I went in for a children's birthday party once but it was a couple of years ago and to be honest, I wasn't paying much attention to the facilities!  But there's a few pictures on the website that handles bookings - including of a wooden floor.  Could be the one.

[admin]

I think it's a shame the glitterball didn't survive at the baths.

I think it's a shame the wooden flooring didn't survive!

I asked about it recently and was told it was used somehow at the community building in Brabyns Park. I'm not sure how as I've never been in that building.

[andrewbowden]

I think it's a shame the glitterball didn't survive at the baths. 

[Howard]

30 new images provided by Dr Ken Lodge were uploaded to the Virtual History Tour yesterday.

They are mostly taken on the Marple Hall Estate when it was fields, some 1950s festivals and Marple Swimming Pool with the dance floor down.

https://visitmarple.co.uk/photos/thumbnails.php?album=lastup&cat=0

I do really enjoy seeing old photos of the area and trying to spot their location. I'm not sure it that's exactly where it was but I do remember a "Marple Hall Pond" when I walked to The Dale primary school from Vernon Drive past a pond, which is where Mandalay Gardens is now, through the passage to Flaggwood. It was probably around 1973 and at that point it was mostly filled in and there were piles of construction debris around the place as they hadn't yet started building the houses at the top of Vernon Drive and along Marple hall Drive to The Turnpike.

It's such a shame that we lost Marple Hall and Brabyns Hall within a few short years of each other. I don't know if the The National Trust was ever involved, but Marple could have looked very different than it does now if those houses and grounds could have been saved.

[admin]

30 new images provided by Dr Ken Lodge were uploaded to the Virtual History Tour yesterday.

They are mostly taken on the Marple Hall Estate when it was fields, some 1950s festivals and Marple Swimming Pool with the dance floor down.

https://visitmarple.co.uk/photos/thumbnails.php?album=lastup&cat=0

[amazon]

Great photos remember ones at Marple Bridge as well.