14 Sep 2026

Club shares disappointment at Winter Droving leaving Penrith and asks for the same principle of protecting local investment to be applied to the Frenchfield Teaching Pool

Penrith Swimming Club has joined Westmorland and Furness Council in expressing its disappointment at the Winter Droving moving from Penrith to Carlisle, while asking the Council to apply the same principle of protecting local investment to the Frenchfield Teaching Pool.

Following the announcement that the Winter Droving is leaving Penrith, the Council highlighted the significant financial support it has provided to Eden Arts and said it had contacted the organisation to “seek reassurance that the core funding provided this year will be used to deliver activities in the Eden area, in line with the funding agreement.”

Penrith Swimming Club shares the disappointment at losing an event which has become an important part of the town.

As another longstanding Penrith organisation, PSC understands the importance of protecting the events, facilities and organisations that contribute to the identity and community life of Penrith.

The Club also believes the Council is right to seek reassurance that money it has provided continues to deliver the local benefit for which it was intended.

Now PSC is asking for the same principle to be considered for the extraordinary community investment made in the Frenchfield Teaching Pool.

£40,000 RAISED BY THE CLUB AND COMMUNITY

Around 1991, Penrith Swimming Club and the local community raised approximately £40,000 towards the creation of the Frenchfield Teaching Pool at Penrith Leisure Centre.

For a voluntary sports club and its community, this represented an extraordinary fundraising achievement. In today’s purchasing power, the contribution would be worth well over £100,000.

The Frenchfield Teaching Pool takes its name from Penrith Swimming Club’s historic home at Frenchfield on the River Eamont and a plaque at Penrith Leisure Centre recognises the Club’s contribution.

More than three decades later, however, the most important legacy is not the plaque.

It is the Frenchfield Teaching Pool itself.

The Frenchfield Teaching Pool continues to provide swimming opportunities every week. It enables regular swimming lessons and other aquatic activities and provides a facility through which Penrith Leisure Centre and its operator can generate ongoing revenue.

Yet the Club whose members helped fund the Frenchfield Teaching Pool is now fighting to retain its own introductory swimming pathway within it.

Luke Brown of Penrith Swimming Club said:

“We share the disappointment at the Winter Droving leaving Penrith. It has become an important part of the town and we understand why there is concern about losing something which has brought people, activity and investment into our community.

“We also completely understand why the Council wants reassurance that funding it has provided continues to deliver benefit in the area for which it was intended.

“That is why we are asking the Council to consider the same principle when it looks at the Frenchfield Teaching Pool.”

“Around 1991, our members and the local community raised approximately £40,000 towards creating the Frenchfield Teaching Pool. That represents well over £100,000 in today’s purchasing power.

“More than 30 years later, that investment is still delivering. Children are learning to swim, activities are taking place and the Frenchfield Teaching Pool generates regular revenue.

“We want reassurance that the legacy and purpose of that extraordinary community investment will be protected too.”

OUR CONTRIBUTION DIDN’T STOP IN 1991

Penrith Swimming Club’s contribution to Penrith Leisure Centre did not end with the creation of the Frenchfield Teaching Pool.

The Club has subsequently invested in equipment at the facility, including diving blocks and anti-wave lane ropes.

Today, PSC spends approximately £40,000 every year on pool hire, while its swimmers and families use Penrith Leisure Centre throughout the week.

Brown continued:

“This isn’t £40,000 that disappeared into history. The Frenchfield Teaching Pool our community helped fund has continued producing community and economic value for more than three decades.

“Our contribution hasn’t stopped either. Today we spend around £40,000 every year hiring facilities at Penrith Leisure Centre.

“We aren’t asking to use the Frenchfield Teaching Pool for free. We aren’t asking for preferential treatment and we aren’t asking for GLL’s swimming lessons to stop.

“We are asking to continue paying to use a facility our community helped create.”

FROM FRENCHFIELD TO FRENCHFIELD

The history makes the current situation particularly poignant.

Penrith Swimming Club was founded in 1881 and originally swam at Frenchfield on the River Eamont.

More than a century later, that historic name was preserved in the Frenchfield Teaching Pool which the Club and community helped fund.

For PSC, its introductory provision is not simply another set of swimming lessons. It is the beginning of an entire Club pathway:

Introductory Swimming → Development → C Squad → B Squad → A Squad → Competition → Coaching → Volunteering → Lifelong Participation

The Club believes removing that entry point could therefore have consequences far beyond the Frenchfield Teaching Pool.

CONCERN REACHES PARLIAMENT

The future of Penrith Swimming Club has also now been raised in Parliament.

Penrith and Solway MP Markus Campbell-Savours has tabled Early Day Motion 778, Penrith Swimming Club.

The motion celebrates the Club’s 145-year history and specifically “notes the vital role played by the swim club in fundraising for the training pool at Penrith Leisure Centre.”

It also expresses concern about proposals affecting the Club’s access and recognises its role in providing a pathway from learning to swim into competitive swimming.

The motion calls on Westmorland and Furness Council to consider its contractual options and seek protection for the Club’s continued access.

Read Early Day Motion 778: Penrith Swimming Club?

Brown said:

“It is significant that our MP has taken this issue to Parliament and that his Early Day Motion specifically recognises the role Penrith Swimming Club played in fundraising towards the Frenchfield Teaching Pool.

“This isn’t about looking backwards. It is about protecting what generations of volunteers and families built for the future.”

THOUSANDS BACK THE CAMPAIGN

The campaign has received significant public support, with more than 2,000 people signing the petition calling for Penrith Swimming Club’s introductory provision to be protected.

That support follows weeks of campaigning by the volunteer-run Club and its members to protect a swimming pathway that has served generations of local families.

A SOLUTION, NOT A FIGHT

GLL has apologised for the way the situation was initially handled and acknowledged that mistakes were made. The previously fixed cessation date is also no longer fixed while discussions continue.

PSC welcomes that progress.

However, the underlying proposal affecting the Club’s introductory pathway has not been withdrawn.

Penrith Swimming Club has consistently stressed that it does not want GLL’s Learn to Swim programme to stop or struggle.

Its preferred solution is simple:

Formalise PSC’s provision. Allow both programmes to coexist. Preserve family choice. Grow swimming participation.

Brown concluded:

“We don’t want a fight. We want a solution.

“Allow GLL to grow its programme and allow Penrith Swimming Club to retain the beginning of ours. There is room for both.

“Our predecessors helped fund the Frenchfield Teaching Pool. More than 30 years later, their investment continues to provide opportunities and generate revenue. Our Club continues to contribute around £40,000 every year in pool hire.

“Surely the answer isn’t to remove our pathway from the Frenchfield Teaching Pool our community helped create. The answer is to protect that legacy by finding a way for both programmes to thrive.”

“The best way to honour what those members did isn’t simply to keep their plaque on the wall.

It is to keep the pathway they helped create alive in the water beneath it.”

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