Many readers will remember enjoying a dip at Tumbling Bay, one of Oxford’s popular river bathing places, known locally as Tum.

Families would flock to the pool on a branch of the Thames off Botley Road to swim and cool off on warm summer days.

It was a favourite for people of all ages for nearly 140 years, opening in 1853 and closing, officially at least, in 1990.

READ MORE: Ben Fogle nearly died in delivery van crash

Malcolm Graham, former head of the Oxfordshire History Centre, has included his own memories of the site as well as its history in a recent publication.

Rivers and streams have always been popular places for recreation in the city, but deaths by drowning were all too common and, increasingly, people took exception to seeing nude men and boys on the river banks.

Oxford City Council opened its first bathing place in St Ebbe’s in 1846 and Tumbling Bay followed in 1853. Both sites were for males only, and naked figures on the grass at Tum soon offended passers-by on Botley Road.

By the mid-1870s, the pool had changing sheds, privies, ladders and “a bottom plunging platform”, presumably a diving board. A hedge now shielded naked male bathers from view.

Oxford Mail: Maximilian Davies, the attendant of Tumbling Bay, was paid £10 to £15 a year and was so busy punting people across the river that supervision at the pool was minimal.

After the death of a 13-year-old boy, a second man was appointed who had to be able to “swim and dive”.

Safety was not the only issue. One troublemaker at Tum was jailed for three weeks with hard labour in 1874 for disorderly behaviour; and in 1886, there were complaints of “disgraceful conduct” by boys.

In 1892, the city council agreed to allow women and girls to use the pool on Fridays.

They were given their own roped off space in the water and told to wear “bathing drawers”. Two female attendants were appointed.

Just 12 pairs of drawers were ordered, but nearly 5,000 females flocked there during the season, an average of 370 a day. A women’s pool was formed above the lasher in 1913.

The city outlawed nude male bathing at its bathing places in 1932, and mixed bathing was fully introduced at Tum in 1948.

Tumbling Bay enjoyed its busiest period in the post-war years, with more than 86,000 admissions between May and September 1947.

Numbers began to fall in the 1970s and 1980s amid fears about the safety of swimming in rivers and the outdoor pools gradually closed.

Tumbling Bay has become an unofficial nature reserve, but swimming there continues.

The Tumbling Bay Preservation Society was formed in 2022 so that swimmers could enjoy a spot with so many happy memories.

•The story of Tumbling Bay is published in the Journal of the Oxfordshire Local History Association (OLHA) Volume 11. Obtain a copy by joining OLHA at https://olha.org.uk/join-or-renew/ or by contacting Liz Woolley at membership@olha.org.uk

Picture captions:

1:  Philip Taylor and son Peter in the shallow end in 1958

2: Children on the diving platform, 1959

3: The former women’s pool in the 1950s

4:  The ferry which carried bathers to the pool, the only official entrance until the 1950s

5: Youngsters in the lasher in the 1990

6: Herbert Taylor diving naked in the 1900s.

 

Help support trusted local news 

Sign up for a digital subscription now: oxfordmail.co.uk/subscribe 

As a digital subscriber you will get: 

  • Unlimited access to the Oxford Mail website 
  • Advert-light access 
  • Reader rewards 
  • Full access to our app 

About the author 

Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here. 

He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.

His Trade and Tourism newsletter is released every Saturday morning. 

You can also read his weekly Traffic and Transport newsletter.