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Popular Group Physical Exercise Activities in the 21st Century

An important leisure centre development since 2000 has been the facility provision for the growing popularity of exercise classes. We have come a long way from those rather traditional keep fit classes in Harlow Sports Centre’s sports hall. Now, new or improved centres often have two or three dedicated ‘studio’ spaces, capable of accommodating income […]

Buckinghamshire – the changing organisational and school sports centre scene

Based on a submission from Professor Peter Thomas MBE, former Senior Education Officer and Head of Arts, Sport & Recreation, Buckinghamshire County Council Buckinghamshire, including Milton Keynes, also sought to make the best use of school facilities. As a consequence of the many changes in the structure of Local Government in 1974, a significant and […]

Joint Provision in Nottinghamshire – the most significant pathfinder in jointly provided sports centres

New schools underpin early Nottinghamshire Joint Provision Nationally there were numerous school building programmes in the 1960s to cope with new settlements or expanded towns. From 1960 to 1969, Nottinghamshire County Council built 32 new secondary schools and 73 new primary schools [ref. Hansard March 1970]. Nottinghamshire’s first purpose-built comprehensive school, Ashfield School, had arrived […]

The National Lottery – a personal contribution by Derek Casey

The 1980s had seen a slow but clear reduction in the investment in sport both at a local and national level. This is well documented in other contributions. From the late 1980s there had been increasing discussion about the possibility of introducing a National Lottery in the UK partly based on the success of other […]

Sport for All

Over the years ‘Sport for All’ has become widely accepted in the UK as a generic slogan for broad aspects of sports activity. In the UK it may have originally arisen from The CCPR theme in the early 1960s of ‘Opportunities for All’, and pursued, as we see in Chapter 1, through the Wolfenden Report […]

Personal recollections and reflections of Bryan ‘Griff’ Jones

Historically…the personal recollections and reflections of Bryan ‘Griff’ Jones …the UK’s first known ‘Dual Use’ Sports Centre Manager …and the first UK manager of a leisure centre with a leisure pool Manager – Breeze Hill School Sports Centre 1966-68 Director – The Grove Sports Centre, Balderton, Nottinghamshire 1968-71 Manager – Bletchley Leisure Centre, Milton Keynes […]

Cambridge Parkside Pools

Author: Ian Cooper, Director of Leisure Services, Cambridge City Council (1992 – 1999)   1. Introduction 1.1. This case study highlights the difficulties of replacing major public sports facilities in an era when commercial partnerships were all the rage and trusts were in their infancy. The Cambridge facilities discussed have several unique elements and it […]

Leisure Centres in Northumberland

Northumberland provides an example of how publicly provided leisure centres came to be developed in an area with a two tier structure of local government. Northumberland is the northern most county in England. It is primarily rural with a long coastline on its eastern edge. The county has a relatively weak economy compared with other […]

A review of the BBC Sportstown programmes

A report compiled by Bernard Warden Sports organiser for the programmes Sportstown started in 1973 with a request and meeting with Alan Hart the then the Head of Sport for the BBC to discuss an idea he had about an inter Sports Centre competition.  The meeting was to discuss an idea to highlight Sports Centres […]

Chapter 6 UK Leisure Pools identified: 1974-1999

This list covers the majority of leisure pools identified in the Project research, but not all, we assume.   ENGLAND 1974 Bletchley (February) Rotherham (March) Whitley Bay (April) (freestanding) 1975 Colchester Leisure World 1976 Oasis, Swindon 1977 Concordia Cramlington South Shields (freestanding) Northgate Arena Chester Putteridge Luton 1978 Crowtree Sunderland Broxbourne 1979 Thornbury Bristol 1981 […]

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