For decades, a community headed to their local open-air baths to soak up the sun and learn how to swim.
Originally built in 1912 for a 2,500 capacity, Hoylake Baths first opened on the promenade back in June 1913. Refurbished in the late 1920s at a cost of £25,000, the site later reopened in the 1930s following a reconstruction which saw a new art deco style. and bigger capacity.
Very popular with locals and others from elsewhere in Merseyside, on August 3, 1937, the Liverpool ECHO recorded how there's been a "rush" to the site, which was "unusually high" for that time of year. The article reads: "Six thousand people, excluding contractors, used the Hoylake open-air bath yesterday.
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"The figures for Saturday, Sunday and Monday were 12,000 bathers, exclusive of contractors. While not establishing a record, these figures are unusually high for holiday time."
At one point, the baths measured 70 by 50 yards and pumped 50,000 gallons of seawater a day. Many will remember spending summer days at the site with friends and family splashing around or jumping off the diving board - and people are also said to have climbed the walls to enjoy the popular spot after hours.
In November 2007, the Wirral News Group shared readers' memories of Hoylake Baths. At the time, Carol Henry said: "Hoylake Baths - it was great fun from 1958-60. My friend Pat’s mother worked there, as such in good weather she would sneak us in so we could have the pool to ourselves before it opened to the public.
"On one such occasion Pat dared me for sixpence (in those days – to a 13-year-old – it was a lot) to jump off the top diving board. With the bravado and nerve of the young, I did it but I was not a very good swimmer and lacked experience.
"I took a deep breath but as I hit the water all my breath left me so I went down to the floor of the pool with no air. I pushed my feet with all my strength, this propelled me to the surface where Pat helped me out – needless to say, I was OK. I am now a pensioner with three children, 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Wasn’t I silly? But at that age I thought I was invincible. I enjoyed my sixpence for days though."
In May 2010, another reader, Susan Booth shared fond memories of Hoylake Baths: "Hoylake Baths was very much part of my childhood. My mother would take me and my brother almost every day of the summer holidays, getting there by taking a 77 bus to Moreton Cross and then a Crosville bus to Hoylake YMCA.
"She would pack a lunch which was eaten not in Hoylake baths but sitting on Hoylake beach with our backs leaning against the walls. The Baths shut for lunch so you either went for the morning session and had to leave at midday or as most families did you had lunch on the beach and joined the queue for the afternoon session starting around 1ish.
"Entering the baths is one of my strongest childhood memories, first the smell of chlorine then the wonderful sight of the two fountains and the pool itself still empty as everyone was changing or like ourselves just entering. The changing rooms had attendants that took your clothes in a wooden box. Wood everywhere, no plastic to be seen.
"We always sat to the right on the seats by the fountain. These seats ran the length of the shallow end opposite the deep end. First thing to do when settled with towels under us was to comment on the pool’s temperature shown on a wooden board.
"If it was very sunny and hot (and only then) would suntan lotion be applied or just cream, factors being unheard of and certainly no one knew of skin cancer. The afternoon would end around 5pm."
Do these awaken any memories for you? Let us know in the comments section below.
At the time, reader Jo Quinn, from Wallasey, also said: "I have very fond memories of Hoylake baths when I was young. I lived in Meols as a youngster and I can remember my mum teaching me to swim there – it was so cold!
"I also belonged to Hoylake Amateur Swimming Club for a year or two. We used to meet and swim, hail, rain or shine, as I recollect. The picture in the Wirral News brought back very many happy memories for me."
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But in 1976, the the council closed Hoylake Baths after the site suffered storm damage. To campaign to save the site saw volunteers, later known as the Hoylake Pool Trust, working together to repair the pool before reopening it.
But Hoylake baths' fate was sealed when run of bad weather and a lack of funding saw the baths closed down six years later. It was then demolished in 1984.
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