Swimmingpod podcast here
There is a strong tradition of outdoor swimming in Oxford, probably many traditions. And many notable people have swum in Oxford. Writer Iris Murdoch said something like this “On hot days in the Oxford summer my husband and I manage to slip into the Thames, a mile or two above the city. The art is to draw no attention to oneself, but to cruise quietly by the reeds like a water rat". It is written that she and her husband had been spotted swimming naked in the Thames, presumably on Port Meadow. So much for trying to be like a water rat; but naked swimming had been the norm in earlier times, and outdoor swimming, with or without a costume, had been extremely popular in the first half of the twentieth century . An exhibition in Oxford showed a map of bathing places in or close to the city centre, and there were many. There was Wolvercote, Black Jack’s Hole, Fiddler’s Island, Tumbling Bay, the Sheepwash, Boney’s Bridge, St Ebbe’s. Stump Pool, Sunny Meade, St Clement’s, Milham Stream, Deep Martin, Long Meadow Bush, Codger’s Island, Astons Eyot, Saunder’s Bridge. There was also Parson’s Pleasure, Long Bridges, Port Meadow, and Iffley. In this podcast, there are accounts of swimming in the latter four swimming spots in Oxford, extracts from 'Memories Like Water, Swimming in 65 Places at the Age of 65'.
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