Wild Swimming News

The Telegraph reports: It was Sept 6 1988 and he was 11 years and 336 days old, the youngest person to ever swim the English Channel. Although Cap Gris-Nez is only 20 miles from Dover, his route had taken 32 miles, allowing for the pull of the tides. Thirty years on, his incredible record still stands. Not that Gregory, now 41, talks about it much. He’s the record-breaking British swimmer you’ve never heard of. That his record is unbeaten is in part due to the Channel Swimmin

Malcolm Tozer Reviews: Hung Out to Dry: Swimming and British Culture, in the Spring Edition of Physical Education Matters. It was by chance that your reviewer came across this privately published social history of swimming and the evident enthusiasm of its author – devotee of outdoor bathing and self-taught historian – prompted the request for a copy. Chris Ayriss’s idiosyncratic approach is as refreshing as the waters he loves and the ebb and flow of his story matches that o

Specific river bathing areas became necessary when Matthew Webb opened the floodgates to outdoor swimming by conquering the Channel in 1875. Boys in particular took the distance swimming challenge to heart, unperturbed that a lack of swimwear was scandalising the ladies. Indoor and outdoor pools were to follow as a means of containing and controlling the increasingly popular swimming movement. A legacy of these times is evident in many areas with no swimming signs proliferati

This remarkable woman became famous through her attempts to swim the Channel. Shirley’s story as reported in The Telegraph describes her life changing claim to fame and opens a window on to the popularity of, and interest in swimming just 60 years ago. More… #EnglishChannel #history #Openwaterswimming #ShirleyMayFrance

I spent the Christmas season with friends in Cornwall, and having sampled the delights of swimming in the wintery seas of St Ives, I enjoyed a visit to a family farm in the wildest part of West Cornwall. With no gas, electricity, mains water or telephone line, you might think that life on this windswept hillside would be unbearable, yet the house was warm and comfortable and my hosts Pearl and Walter, delightful.  As Cornish as the day is long, this couple view a visit to Tru

The comedian David Walliams finished his epic 140 mile Thames swim yesterday. The 40-year-old swam the Thames from Lechdale, Gloucestershire to Westminster Bridge arriving around 6.30pm after eight exhausting days. Walliams previously swam the English Channel and the Strait of Gibraltar for Sport Relief, and has managed to raise almost £1million by his latest achievement; swimming the Thames. Although many would be put off swimming in this famous and historic river, there was

Roger Allsopp, aged 70 years and four months, swam from Dover to France in 17 hours and 51 minutes. The record  was formally held by George Brunstad in who swam accomplished it in August 2004 aged 70 years and four days. Roger from Guernsey, was inspired to take on this epic swim  by an inscription at a pub in Dover marking Brunstad’s cross-Channel achievement. Captain Matthew Webb was the first to swim the Channel some 136 years ago, swimming from Dover to Cap Gris Nez in 21

Swimmer and explorer Kate Rew tells the fascinating story of Annette Kellerman, the 1920s Australian vaudeville star and champion swimmer who dived into glass tanks, popularized the one-piece swimsuit and became the first woman to attempt to swim the English Channel. Paralysed by polio as a child, Kellerman was introduced to swimming as a therapy. When she discovered that her limbs ‘found their true congenial element in water’, she quickly became an ambitious swimmer. Her fam