Clacton Sharks · Club History

Over 130 years in Clacton's water

From Victorian sea-bathing and daredevil pier divers to the world's first swimming pool built over the sea, swimming has been part of Clacton's story since the town began. This is how our club fits into it.

1895Swimming club recorded in Clacton
1931Our club's founding year
1953First Christmas Day swim
100%Volunteer run, then and now

A seaside town built for swimmers

Clacton-on-Sea was a brand-new resort when the first paddle steamer tied up at the newly built pier in July 1871. Bathing was part of the attraction from the very start: bathing machines were being hired out on the West Beach by 1872, and in 1885 hot and cold sea-water baths opened at the pier entrance.

Within a quarter of a century of the town's founding, local swimmers had organised themselves. The Clacton & District Local History Society's chronology of the town records Clacton Swimming Club being established in 1895, the same year Clacton's new Urban District Council first met.

1895 or 1931? Our badge says "Est. 1931", the year from which the present club counts its history. The Local History Society's record of a Clacton Swimming Club in 1895 is why we say our roots go back more than a century. If you have old programmes, badges or minute books that show how the two connect, we would love to see them.

Timeline

1871

Clacton-on-Sea is born

The pier is completed and the first steamer, the Queen of the Orwell, calls on 18 July, the date generally taken as the start of the resort.

1885

Sea-water baths on the pier

Hot and cold sea-water baths open at the pier entrance, leased by the Royal Hotel. They run until the lease ends in 1910.

1895

A swimming club for Clacton

The town's local historians record the establishment of Clacton Swimming Club, the earliest mention we have found of an organised club in the town.

1900s – 1914

"Professor" Webb, the pier diver

George Webb, a Welsh-born diver who settled in Clacton, becomes one of the pier's star attractions with stunt dives that included cycling off the end of the pier. He retires from professional diving when the First World War breaks out, but stays a fixture of local swimming for decades.

1931

Our club is founded

The year the present Clacton Swimming Club takes as its founding date, just as the town is gearing up for its most ambitious swimming venue yet.

2 July 1932

The pool over the sea

The Kingsman family open an open-air pool on Clacton Pier, believed to be the first swimming pool in the world built over the sea, holding hundreds of thousands of gallons of water on concrete piles. Sir John Pybus MP opens it, and George Webb, by then the pool's chief swimming instructor and a week short of his 74th birthday, makes the first dive from the top board. A pair of 1928 British Olympic divers also gives a display.

1930s – 1960s

Galas, water polo and learning to swim

The pier pool becomes the heart of swimming in Clacton. It hosts swimming galas and visitors' galas, regular Sunday water polo, and Great Britain's international water polo matches, and generations of local children learn to swim there. Visiting teams such as London's water polo clubs make the summer trip to play in front of big holiday crowds.

1939 – 1945

War comes to the seafront

The pier closes and is deliberately breached as an anti-invasion measure. It reopens after the war and is fully open again by 1948.

25 Dec 1953

The first Christmas Day swim

A group of club members run into the North Sea on Christmas morning, starting what is now one of Clacton's best-loved traditions (sea dips in the town go back as far as 1899). The pioneers included:

Grev Miller, Fred Eastman, Denis Ivory, John Ransom, Bob Chapman, Tony Farthing, Peter Berry, Brian Graver and Hugh Arnot.

1971

The pier pool closes

With visitor numbers falling and running costs rising, the pier's new owners close the pool on 1 August 1971 and turn it into a dolphinarium. The old pool site is now covered by rides.

1987

A new home at Vista Road

Clacton Leisure Centre opens at Vista Road. Its six-lane, 25-metre pool is where the club trains today.

c. 2000

County champions in synchro

The club's synchronised swimmers are among the best in Essex. Lindsay Mann wins the county title four years running, and the senior team takes first place in the team event with a routine she choreographed and coached.

2023

Our first swim camp

The club runs its first swim camp, led by Olympic swimmers Joe Roebuck and Amy Smith.

Today

The Clacton Sharks

A friendly, family-run club, still run entirely by volunteers, with an Academy for younger swimmers, development and competitive Squads racing at county and regional level, and a long-established Masters section.

Stories from the archive

The professor who lost his teeth

One of George Webb's party pieces was diving into the sea with a lit cigarette and surfacing with it still alight. One day he flicked it so hard that his false teeth went too, never to be seen again. He lived to 95, walking six miles a day, and died in 1954.

"It really wakes you up"

That was Fred Eastman's explanation for the Christmas swim. One of the 1953 originals, he missed it only while away on National Service. What began with eight to ten club members now draws hundreds of swimmers and around 500 spectators to the seafront at 10am every Christmas morning.

A pool fit for internationals

Built on 171 piles, the pier pool was big enough to host Great Britain's international water polo matches, and on the opening night its cascade was lit red, the water glowed green and fireworks lit up the sky over Marine Parade.

Still in the sea

By 2001 around 60 club members and friends were still taking the Christmas plunge off the West Beach, grandparents alongside grandchildren, keeping a tradition that started with the club alive for another generation.

Help us fill in the gaps

There is plenty we still don't know: how the 1895 club links to today's, who our early captains and champions were, and where the club trained between the pier pool closing in 1971 and the Leisure Centre opening in 1987.

If you swam for Clacton, or have photos, gala programmes, medals or memories tucked away, please get in touch. We'd love to add your story to this page.

Sources