SaveBroomhillPool.org | All News & Archive

We are delighted that Pooling Resources campaigner Sally Wainman will be entering the 32nd Orwell Walk on Sunday 8th June and will be raising funds for the Broomhill Pool Trust. Sally successfully completed the whole 25 miles both last year and the year before.

The Broomhill Pool Trust thank Sally for her generous support and wish her luck !

If you would like to sponsor or support Sally, please contact her directly on 01473-414853 or e-mail sally.wainman@ntlworld.com. For Sally’s Pooling Resources website please clink on following link http://groups.yahoo.com/group/poolingresources/ “

The Broomhill Pool Trust would like to thank all those who attended the Grade 2 listed lido’s 70th Anniversary event on Saturday 26 April.

Around 500 visitors attended, helping raise over £900 towards the Trust’s fighting funds. We would like to publically thank our Mayor, Cllr Inga Lockington, Sir Michael and Lady Lord, Cllr Judy Terry and Ben Gummer for their visits and for their genuine interest in our progress. We are most grateful to Andy & Heather Kempton at the Emperor Public House for hosting the evening party and for generously donating 100% of the barbecue profits. We also thank Ken Sheppard and Ivan Rooke for exhibiting their beautiful vintage cars; and to all those who donated prizes for the raffle.

The Trust has raised around a further £6000 to complete our £2m Heritage Lottery Fund Bid application. The work took 7 months and was mainly completed by professional volunteers. However, we do have to pay technical and legal consultants, etc. The donations from the 70^th Birthday event are therefore essential to replenish our fighting funds and enable the Trust to continue completing further professional bids to the bigger charitable funds & foundations.

Broomhill Pool is a flagship leisure facility and unique attraction for Ipswich, one that successfully served the citizens of Ipswich for 70 years. With continued public support and with the Trust's efforts we hope to preserve this immensely practical icon for the town, forever.

We write to ask your help to raise vital fighting funds to enable the Trust to continue with its work.

1) Around £9000 towards the £67,000 feasibility study completed in 2005. The study concluded that Broomhill was restorable and viable. However, most significantly, it secured a £1million guarantee from Ipswich borough Council.
2) Around £6000 towards the professional completion of our Heritage Lottery Fund bid. If successful this bid will secure a £2million HLF grant.
3) The Trust also maintains this website, produces leaflets and regular events to maintain a strong public profile for Broomhill.

Whilst we eagerly await news from the HLF, we must continue the process of approaching other significant charitable funding bodies to secure the remaining funds needed to restore Broomhill. The Trust committee consists of many professionals who give their time and resources absolutely free. We do, however, need to engage and pay external professionals for legal and technical advice.

Either directly or indirectly, can you help us raise funds to continue our with our efforts ? Please lobby your employers or friends to support a most worthy local cause:-

A personal donation of £10, £25 or even £100 makes a huge difference to our working funds.

A business donation of £100, £500 or £1000 could enable us to complete a bid application that could secure £25,000 to £500,000 from a key charitable fund.

Please send cheques made payable to “The Broomhill Pool Trust” to Mrs Janet Adams, 18 Dales View Rd, Ipswich, IP1 4HL

Please visit us on Broomhill Pool’s 70th Anniversary on Saturday 26 April (10:00-17:00) followed by BBQ at the Emperor Pub immediately afterwards.

Our Heritage Lottery Fund Bid was safely delivered to HLF Cambridge offices 16:30 on Monday 31 March 2008. Many thanks to all of you who helped in any way, but particularly to Bill Haward who has slaved all night to get our bid in perfect presentation order. We now have to wait about three months to hear.

Meantime, we have EVENTS planned to mark the 70th Anniversary of Broomhill Pool. Please see our website events page for full details.

Broomhill supporting fim director James Sharpe is currently filming a feature film HALFWAY TO HEAVEN. A percetage of all the profits will be donated to the Broomhill Pool Trust.

Halfway to heaven is a story about a man who is visited in his sleep by God. God tells him he will be spending time at a "halfway house" when dead, until God can make up her mind about where to put him.

God, who is female in this film, puts more people in the house with him. There he falls in love with a girl. They plan to spend eternity together but God has other plans.

James Sharpe’s film “The Pool” has been selected to air on ITVlocal webiste.

The 5 minute short film is a touching tribute to the Broomhill Pool lido in Ipswich.

Film director James spent many happy days at the pool. He publicly supports the Broomhill Pool Trust in its efforts to save the popular and unique facility.

James Sharpe’s film “The Pool” has been selected to air on Channel 4’s website “Four Docs”.

The 5 minute short film is a touching tribute to the Broomhill Pool lido in Ipswich.

Film director James spent many happy days at the pool. He publicly supports the Broomhill Pool Trust in its efforts to save the popular and unique facility.

James says “If supporters take time to log in and favourably review “The Pool” then there is a good chance that Channel 4 will fully air the film on its terrestrial TV channel. This would help to further raise the profile of Broomhill Pool and may attract further supporters and funding”.

On behalf of the Broomhill Pool Trust we would like to thank all those who supported us at our recent, fundraising events.

The Heritage open days on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th September raised £410. Over 600 visitors came, demonstrating their terrific vision and support for our endangered, grade 2, Olympic length lido.

On Sunday 16th we staged a “Jitterbug Picnic” at Castle Hill Junior School. Around 200 people attended the afternoon event. Broomhill Pool was built in 1938 and gave up it’s water boilers for the war effort. It was therefore fitting that a Jitterbug group performed war-time 1940’s music and dance in aid of Broomhill’s own fight for survival !

We are extremely grateful to Cactus Promotions whose Jitterbug troop of 20 dancers gave their services free to help us raise awareness and vital funds for the Trust. Ken Farrow, the Ipswich born artist was visiting from Australia. Ken had donated his “Framsden Windmill” painting to raise funds; and he personally presented it to the Whitmore family who had bid £500. Film Director, James Sharpe provided free viewing of his excellent films. We would also express our gratitude to the Head Teacher, PTA and children of Castle Hill Junior school for their efforts.

The Trust is proud of Ipswich’s heritage. We are extremely thankful that so many talented people - who share our value for living culture - have supported us.

We have raised around £1100 for our funds. This enables the Trust to continue our important work towards attracting lottery funding; and working with Ipswich Borough Council to save Ipswich’s iconic and unique lido.

2) David Whitmore has generously bid £500 for Ken Farrow's Framsden Mill painting.

1) King of the Channel - Mike Read opened bidding at £300. We believe the painting is worth in excess of £1000.

Broomhill Pool Trust announces "on-line auction" of Ken Farrow's painting - "Framsden Mill".

“King of the Channel” Mike Read opened the on-line bidding today of international artist Ken Farrow’s “Framsden Mill”. Mr Read has started bidding at £300 with all profits towards the Broomhill Pool Trust’s fundraising to restore Suffolk’s majestic 1930’s Olympic length lido.

* There will be a 4 week bid on-line auction via the www.savebroomhillpool.org website.
* All parties interested to buy Ken's painting can submit an offer using the www.savebroomhillpool.org website email contact page.
* The Trust will update the website daily (or as needed) to show latest bid price.

* The Trust will reveal the highest bidder (or if preferring to stay anonymous their bid total) at our Heritage Open Day on Sunday 9 September.

BBC Radio Suffolk 103.9 FM to announce Broomhill Pool Trust “on-line auction” of Ken Farrow’s painting - "Framsden Mill".

BBC Radio Suffolk will interview artist Ken Farrow & "King of the Channel" Mike Read today. BBC Radio Suffolk will exclusively provide details of the Trust's “on-line auction” of Ken Farrow’s painting - "Framsden Mill".

Outline details:

* There will be a 4 week bid on-line auction via the www.savebroomhillpool.org website.

* All parties interested to buy ken’s painting can submit an offer using the www.savebroomhillpool.org website email contact page.

* The Trust will update the website daily (or as needed) to show latest bid price.

* The Trust will reveal the highest bidder (or if preferring to stay anonymous their bid total) at our Heritage Open Day on Sunday 9 September.

The Broomhill Pool Trust would like to acknowledge the outstanding support of The Architectural Heritage Fund. The AHF has provided advice to the Trust in the early stages of setting up and commissioning the options appraisal (feasibility study). AHF has also provided grant assistance towards the Trust’s portion of the Feasibility costs.

The AHF have provided invaluable advice; and are also looking to support us with further grants and/or working capital loan subject to the project and the Trust remaining eligible (eg. The Broomhill Pool Trust or our appointed operator has to be a charity, not a company or local authority to be eligible)

AHF Overview
The Architectural Heritage Fund
Alhambra House
27-31 Charing Cross Road
London WC2H 0AU

The Architectural Heritage Fund is a registered charity founded in 1976 to promote the conservation of historic buildings in the UK. It does this by providing advice, information and financial assistance in the form of grants and low interest working capital loans for projects undertaken by Building Preservation Trust (BPT) and other charities throughout the UK.
AHF activities include:

The Trust would like to thank the pupils, parents and teachers of Castle Hill and Broke Hall Junior schools for allowing us to participate at their summer fetes (16 & 30 June).

The Trust raised over £100 towards our funds; and gained a further 100+ signatures supporting our work.

We are aware that most local children under the age of 10 will never have experienced an outdoor swimming pool; or have no knowledge about Ipswich's unique, Olympic sized lido. We are therefore delighted to have an opportunity to raise their awareness; and hope one day families will return to a restored Broomhill.

Dear Resident

I am writing to you to inform you of the planned security measures adopted by Ipswich Borough Council’s Swimming Service with regards to Broomhill Pool, for the summer season 2007.

As you may well be aware, Broomhill Pool will remain closed whilst the Broomhill Pool Trust continue to explore the options for the funding and management of the facility. You may be interested to know that the Trust are again planning to open limited areas of the site on the weekend of 8th/9th September as part of Heritage Open Days 2007 (organised nationally by the Civic Trust and English Heritage).

We have again introduced a number of increased security measures for the summer period, including utilising the services of Timely Help Security, who will be carrying out numerous site visits from Monday 2nd July through to Sunday 2nd September (the end of the school summer holidays).

If at any time you believe that there may be trespassers on the site, please feel free to call Timely Help’s control centre on 0800 052 8104 (freephone). In an emergency you should of course call the emergency services by dialling 999.

If you require further information or if I can be of further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me on the above number,

RESTORED HOPE ! IBC AGREE FEASIBILITY STUDY FINDINGS. In late 2005 Ipswich Borough Council provided a grant to The Broomhill Pool Trust to undertake a Feasibility Study. The purpose of the Feasibility Study was to ascertain the viability of reopening Broomhill Pool.

The Feasibility Study Final Report dated December 2006 has now been formally issued by The Broomhill Pool Trust and in a joint statement today Councilor Judy Terry (Portfolio Holder for Culture & Leisure) and Dr Mike Cook (Chairman of Broomhill Pool Trust) announced the findings of the £67,000 study, and outlined the future for Ipswich's iconic 1930's Lido.

Full details are in the press release which is available to download here http://www.savebroomhillpool.org/supportPack.pdf

Following the success and publicity surrounding the road pricing petition, you can now petition Tony Blair directly on the subject of saving local pools too. Click on link to see the E-Petition.

Local Swimming Baths across England are facing closure because Local Authorities are cutting back funding. Local Swimming baths are essential to local Communities and local schools. In some areas Local Swimming Pools are the only Local Amenity that communities have. We want the Prime Minister to Save Our Local swimming Pools!

Broomhill Pool Trust - Events Programme 2007
The Trust Committee are working to deliver the following program of events and fund raising in 2007.

James Sharpe/Broomhill “Movie Night”.
Venue: Ipswich Film Theatre
Date: 30th April 2007
Details: Premiere of Ipswich born Film Director’s short movie “Letters” plus “The Pool” (both filmed at Broomhill). Plus media campaign to locate other suitable films about Broomhill or Lidos that would compliment the event. Proceeds to the Trust.

May Day Festival.
Venue: May Day Festival, Alexandra Park, Ipswich
Date: 7th May 2007
Details: The Trust will have a stall at this popular event. Exhibition prints, photos and plans + T-Shirts, leaflets, petition + latest updates from Trust Committee members.

Broke Hall Primary School Summer Fete
Venue: Broke Hall Primamry School, Chatsworth Drive, Ipswich
Date: 30 June 2007
Details: The Trust will have a stall at this popular event. Exhibition prints, photos and plans + T-Shirts, leaflets, petition + latest updates from Trust Committee members.

Broomhill “Jitterbug”
Venue: To be confirmed
Date: August/September 2007
Details: In the mid 1930's - as Broomhill was being planned and built - "Jitterbugging" emerged as the latest dance craze to sweep across America. A popular, local jitterbug troop will be recreating this wonderful period, demonstrating the dance and inviting the public to participate. Proceeds to the Trust.

Heritage Open Days
Venue: Broomhill Pool
Date: 8th and 9th September 2007.
Details: Those two rare and special days when the gates of Broomhill are opened to allow the public to view the pool; and leave convinced that this magical and iconic place MUST be restored for future generations !

On Monday 19 February, Ipswich born Film Director James Sharpe filmed his latest short movie "Letters" at Broomhill Pool. Photo stills available on www.savebroomhillpool.org.

The film stars James Fisher (who appeared along side Elijah Wood in Green Street) and Elle Louise Berrie (who appeared in Footballer's Wives). Filming will be complete by early March; and James has offered an exclusive film night to raise funds for the Trust ! Details in due course..

Mark Ling, Broomhill Pool Trust Press Officer, was today interviewed by Ipswich’s new radio station “Town 102”, seeking the Trust’s views on IBC plans for a new £21m indoor swimming pool.

BBC News 24 has a new cultural program exploring communities in the UK. On Thursday, 7 December two BBC News 24 teams visited Ipswich to film various projects and sites of interest. These included Broomhill Pool and Crown Pools.

The Program is due to be broadcast globally on BBC News 24 on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th December at 0330 and 1530.

Both broadcasts will be available on digital, freeview, cable and satellite! However, those with terrestrial TV will not miss out - the 0330 edition will also be broadcast on BBC1.

However, the Broomhill Trust strongly recommends sleeping off the “hangover” and setting your VTR !!

“Played in Britain” Lecture by Simon Inglis.

Ipswich Museums’ “Ipswich at Play” community heritage project invites you to an illustrated talk by writer and architectural historian Simon Inglis. A passionate and entertaining speaker on Britain’s sporting heritage, Simon is editor of the “Played in Britain” series (which features Janet Smith’s wonderful "Liquid Assets" book featuring open air lidos in Britain) and has just brought out “The Best of Charles Buchan's Football Monthly” (www.playedinbritain.co.uk).

Broomhill Pool features in the current “Ipswich at Play” exhibition at Ipswich Museum, and we are hopeful that Broomhill will be mentioned in Simon’s talk.

This fun evening will be an ideal opportunity to view the “Not all Balls!” exhibition privately, with the added bonus of an integral pay bar! Admission is free.

There’s nothing to prevent people turning up on the night, but for more information or to book a seat contact Ruth Gillan O1473 433544 ruth.gillan@Ipswich.gov.uk.

Get Busy with the Divi !
You can now support the Broomhill Pool Trust as you shop !

The Trust now have a share account with the East of England Co-operative Society.

Every time you use the dividend number at your Co-op the Trust will earn points. Twice a year, in June and December, the board will declare how much profit the group has made and how much each point is worth - expected to be 1p in the £1.