SIR: In all the recent correspondence about open air swimming in Winchester, I have not seen any reference to the pool that existed before the 1939-45 war in the north eastern corner of the Recreation ground, in the river. It was in the same stream apparently where your photograph of wild swimming is shown (Chronicle, November 18).

I had my first swimming lessons there in about 1936 and my father remembered swimming there as a child and when it was not open, changing outside and swimming under the fence across the river.

We also regularly used the Bulldrove pool in Garnier Road before the war and I well remember the feeling of river water on my skin. It was quite different from the chlorinated water used in the Lido. We frequent saw quite large trout, swimming about.

Winchester College also had a swimming pool but in the main stream of the Itchen on the South side of Garnier Road

Further to the discussion about a new outdoor swimming pool, has any thought been given to making use of the existing pool in the now closed Recreation Centre and turning it into an outside facility. Demolishing the building housing it and creating new outside changing rooms etc, if the old ones cannot be adapted, would be a much cheaper option than starting again.

Keith Webb,

Quarry Road,

Winchester