Stonehaven’s open air swimming pool is celebrating a spectacular start to the 2018 season with news the dedicated Friends group which runs the art deco attraction has received a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.
The volunteering equivalent of the MBE, the accolade arrived in time for the start of the summer opening just over a week ago, but the award scheme rules meant that the honour had to be kept secret from the 300-plus swimmers who flocked to the beachfront attraction on its opening day.
Friends chairman Pete Hill said: “We are both honoured and humbled to win this prestigious award, which, for organisations, is the equivalent of the MBE for individuals.
“The present Friends’ committee was informed several weeks ago but sworn to secrecy.
“However, this is an honour which is much more far-reaching than our committee and charity trustees.
“It is an honour for every single volunteer who has given time, expertise and skills as well as blood, sweat and tears to ensure that our pool is maintained to the highest standard, is promoted effectively and provides swimmers, sunbathers and spectators with the best possible summer lido experience.
“It is also an award for Friends who are no longer with us, sadly too numerous to mention individually.
“However, without the foresight of our founder Alan Bain, the Friends would not exist, and neither would Stonehaven Open Air Pool.”
The Friends of the Pool group was originally formed in the mid-1990s as a community pressure group to ensure the future of the facility when it was threatened with closure by the newly-formed Aberdeenshire Council.
The Friends body is now a registered charity and works in close partnership with the council, which has declared the pool as one of the ‘jewels in the crown’ of Aberdeenshire tourist attractions.
During the summer season it offers family and adult sessions as well as the famous midnight swims in the filtered seawater which is heated to 29˚C (84˚F).
Following a poll of local residents in 1933, the Stoney pool was built the following year to allow the Mearns town to keep pace with the boom in outdoor lidos.
At 55 yards long, it was constructed to competition standards at a cost of £9,259, and despite being emptied and re-filled every few days generated a healthy profit in its first season.
In response to customer comment, swimmers for the 1935 season enjoyed the luxury of the North Sea water being filtered and heated.
During the Second World War, the pool provided recreation and showers for locally-based troops, before returning to its position as a major attraction for townsfolk and visitors.
Its enduring popularity was reflected in high visitor numbers during the 1960s and 70s, with 65,000 swimmers during the 1975 season.
However, the following decades saw a dip in numbers, seasons were shortened to just a couple of months and by the mid-1990s the pool was threatened with closure, leading to the formation of the Friends.
