Here courtesy of Sally Dervan is an intriguing story.
.jpg)
No visit to the theatre is complete without buying a programme.
Manchester theatregoers in the 1930s, 40s and 50s would settle into their seats and flick through their programmes before the performance began.
Maybe an advert in the programme would direct them to their next source of entertainment and fun?
The Gaskell family were hoping that would be the case.
Nestled between adverts for Affleck and Browns, Rolls Restaurant and Clifton’s Chocolates there was a regular advert for “Gaskells Baths”
Gaskells were offering swimming and diving lessons and Turkish and medical baths, all under the supervision of Peggy Gaskell.
The watery delights were offered “ under “ something else as well , because Gaskells Baths, including a heated pool , were actually under the Imperial Buildings , just on the other side of the railway bridge from the Refuge Buildings on Oxford Road.
A reporter from The Guardian Newspaper in 1959 experienced a sauna at Gaskells. He spent seven minutes in the sauna and commented that “it sweeps the filth of Manchester out of one’s pores“He also reported that Peggy Gaskell told him that Gaskells was, at that time, the only sauna in the country outside London.
As well as swimming and saunas, Gaskell’s offered treatments for obesity, rheumatism and sciatica
By the 1950s the adverts for Gaskells included a hairdresser on site. Presumably the lethal combination of swimming and steam left the ladies in need of a little help before they stepped back out into the hustle and bustle of Oxford Road.
In the mid 1960s the adverts for Gaskells on Oxford Road seem to have disappeared.
A newspaper article from the MEN in 2005 might hold the clue to the other venture that may have been keeping Peggy Gaskell busy.
The report marks the death of “Manchester’s First Lady of Business” It told the story of Peggy Gaskell who opened Manchester’s first outdoor swimming pool, The Galleon at Didsbury, in 1936.
The report says that Peggy was running the Galleon until she was well into her 70s and she stayed a picture of health until her death, aged 93.
What are the chances of two people with the same name, both being involved in opening swimming facilities that were remarkably pioneering and ahead of their time?
I can’t find anything to confirm for sure that the two Peggy Gaskells are one and the same- but if they are not, I will eat my swimming hat....!
© Sally Dervan, March 2014
Pictures; from the collection of Sally Dervan
Manchester theatregoers in the 1930s, 40s and 50s would settle into their seats and flick through their programmes before the performance began.
Maybe an advert in the programme would direct them to their next source of entertainment and fun?
The Gaskell family were hoping that would be the case.
Nestled between adverts for Affleck and Browns, Rolls Restaurant and Clifton’s Chocolates there was a regular advert for “Gaskells Baths”
The watery delights were offered “ under “ something else as well , because Gaskells Baths, including a heated pool , were actually under the Imperial Buildings , just on the other side of the railway bridge from the Refuge Buildings on Oxford Road.
A reporter from The Guardian Newspaper in 1959 experienced a sauna at Gaskells. He spent seven minutes in the sauna and commented that “it sweeps the filth of Manchester out of one’s pores“He also reported that Peggy Gaskell told him that Gaskells was, at that time, the only sauna in the country outside London.
As well as swimming and saunas, Gaskell’s offered treatments for obesity, rheumatism and sciatica
By the 1950s the adverts for Gaskells included a hairdresser on site. Presumably the lethal combination of swimming and steam left the ladies in need of a little help before they stepped back out into the hustle and bustle of Oxford Road.
In the mid 1960s the adverts for Gaskells on Oxford Road seem to have disappeared.
The report marks the death of “Manchester’s First Lady of Business” It told the story of Peggy Gaskell who opened Manchester’s first outdoor swimming pool, The Galleon at Didsbury, in 1936.
The report says that Peggy was running the Galleon until she was well into her 70s and she stayed a picture of health until her death, aged 93.
What are the chances of two people with the same name, both being involved in opening swimming facilities that were remarkably pioneering and ahead of their time?
I can’t find anything to confirm for sure that the two Peggy Gaskells are one and the same- but if they are not, I will eat my swimming hat....!
© Sally Dervan, March 2014
Pictures; from the collection of Sally Dervan
No comments:
Post a Comment