THIS week, the team at the Live Borders Museum and Gallery, Tweeddale Museum in Peebles dig out some photographs from the archives of the Peebles Swimming Pool.

This selection of three photographs include the diving platforms at the ‘dookits’, and the Neidpath end of Haylodge Park, where the remains can still be seen today. 

At the turn of the last century, swimming galas were held in the Ministers Pool, better known as the ‘Minnie’, which is just above the cauld beside the present swimming pool.  

During one Saturday in August 1907, a large crowd gathered to watch a demonstration, held by the Wyman Swimming and Humane Society of Edinburgh.

The display included latest styles of swimming, and featured the crawl stroke, some life saving advice plus a game of water polo.

The first swimming public baths were built at the foot of Tweed Brae and built by local mill owner Sir Henry Ballantyne in 1919. This site is now the Evangelical Church.

They were in operation until the current pool was opened in 1984 on the site of the Tweedside Mill.

The current pool made headlines in the Peeblesshire News last year after it was badly flooded in the height of Storm Frank.

The River Tweed burst its banks and water rushed in under the pool’s main entrance door, severely damaging all of the flooring within the main entrance foyer, reception, staff room, and office - all of which had to be replaced.

The centre has since re-opened to the public.