Collections
Oral history
The Museum is developing a collection
of oral history recordings of former
staff and patients at The Royal Pump Rooms. These offer
a fascinating personal insight into the various roles
that the building has played in history, for example,
as a swimming pool, social venue and a treatment centre.
They also capture information about the medical treatments
and the management of the Royal Pump Rooms that would
otherwise be lost.
The archive includes interviews with the
Pump Rooms' last Superintendent Physiotherapist and
a Hydrotherapist who worked here in the mid 1970s.
We are continuing to collect memories
and would love to hear from you if you have anything
to contribute. Please use the feedback
form on this web site or contact Nicky Tibbitts,
Curatorial Officer (Social history) on +44 (0)1926 742703.
Visitors to the Museum can contribute
their memories of The Royal Pump Rooms by completing a
‘Memory pool’ card. Here are some examples:
| "My mother came
for regular treatment to the Pump Rooms in the
1950s. She looked forward to her visits saying
she felt like a new woman afterwards." |
"I
had to catch an early train from my school to
attend the afternoon session 1956. I suffered
from polio and the warm water and exercises
helped my recovery." |
"In
the early 30s being taken for afternoon tea
at the Pump Rooms. Jan Berenska Orchestra.
In the 40s swimming sessions
from Leamington Girls College, sharing the dark
brown wooden changing boxes with hall doors
and curtains. We all wore dark regulation costumes
and rubber caps. The large baths were floored
over tesmporarily for exhibitions, Ideal Homes
etc...
In the 60s dances were held in
the Assembly Rooms. Eric Shabolt had New Years
Eve parties.
After the refurbishment of the
baths, we took the grandchildren to learn to
swim, before the Newbold pool - then back in
the 80s to the ladies bath, now a hydrotherapy
pool for treatment for a knee injury, one of
many grateful patients." |
| 1950s: "We didn’t
have running water let alone a bath. I used to
come every Thursday afternoon for a bath (once
a week) it was a luxury...This building holds
a lot of memories including loosing my flannel
down the plug hole because the hole was so big." |
|
