THE past can be a pretty colourful place, and thanks to technology it can also be made as radiant as a rainbow and as dazzling as a sweltering summer's day, as these old pics of Bailey Park's swimming pool restored from their original black and white poignantly prove.

Although the big communal tub of chlorinated water exists no more, it still lives on in the hearts of anyone who nearly drowned or died of hypothermia in its aquatic awesomeness.

When the pool shut up shop in 1996 it was the end of an era. In subsequent years, keen swimmers who were denied the use of a council-funded facility, but nevertheless craved the adrenaline buzz of immersing themselves in icy temperatures, were forced to take matters into their own hands and swim amongst the dead horses, old tires, industrial waste, and other flotsam and jetsam of the Keepers’ Pond in Blaenavon.

Rewind the clock a handful of decades and Swan Meadows was once considered a possible site for an outdoor swimming pool before the Town Council opted for Bailey Park. The pool was built for the princely sum of £6,500.

Sadly, the pool closed its doors for the last time in 1996 due to health and safety issues and a lack of funding.

In April 2006, Monmouthshire County Council decided to fill in the main pool and the adjoining learner pool for fears of vandalism.

The pool was 44 yards long by 14 yards wide, was over eight feet deep, and held 162,000 gallons of water. It was opened by Mayor W. Rosser in April 1940 but is now all dried up. Only grass remains and one or two of the original walls, which still stand in mute testimony to Abergavenny’s aquatic adventures.

Never shy to take a long and meandering trip down memory lane to rake up the past and muddy the waters, the late, great hack Don Chambers once told the Chronicle, “When I became a pupil at King Henry VIII Grammar School in the 1940s, I found there was more to learning than Latin and algebra. An hour or so on one day every week during the summer we had ‘swimming lessons’ which meant a trip to the pool in Bailey Park to avoid drowning.

“We ran like gazelles, charging down Pen-y-Fal Road and across the Fairfield to the little gate at the very end while taking off various items of clothing en route. By the time we reached the pool, it was just one final ‘strip tease act’ and we were in the water.

“The best part was not splashing ice-cold water over ourselves but plunging in before anyone else. To be first meant the title-holder for that day was revered and even looked up to, even if the ‘winner’ was gasping for breath and had to be pulled out.

“In later years, when I became a reporter, I was invited by Mr Dyer, the pool superintendent, to watch him dive into the inviting waters - in mid-winter. With snow on the ground and ice on the pool, he cut a narrow lane from end to end. As I watched him I shuddered. I never became a strong or even an enthusiastic swimmer - but I did admire that man’s courage.”