ILMINSTER SWIMMING CLUB
Club
History
The Club was formed in 1977 under the umbrella of the Ilminster Community Association by Jenny Carr and grew quickly, with Jenny, Joan Filler and Kath Crabb qualifying as instructors to enable regular teaching sessions to be held. The Club’s first full meeting was held in 1978, when a Constitution was drawn up, a Committee formed and officers elected. The first gala soon followed in the same year, with many trophies being donated by the townspeople.
The club played a major role in preventing the closure of St.James's pool in 1982/3 which at that time was the only venue available in the area, and this started an ongoing period in which the club has had to migrate between pools to continue operating. The seemingly nomadic nature of the club has been caused principally by the shifting of school/council pools to private ownership, and fierce competition to provide U16 swimming training – small, ‘not for profit’ clubs have to fight hard in this environment…….
To date we have swum at the Kingfisher pool (when it was opened by Princess Anne in 1985), St.James Street pool (Taunton) when it re-opened in 1986, Queen’s College (Taunton), Millfield in Street (which required a club mini-bus or coach each way!), 1610 Chard Pool, much valued Learn to Swim sessions at Holly Farm (Stoke St Gregory, Nr Taunton), Blackbrook Leisure Centre (Taunton), Huish Episcopi Leisure Pool (Langport), and now at Chard Leisure Centre – where we would hope to stay for some time!
Having started out as a club fully focused on the provision of swimming instruction from initial Learn to Swim lessons through to all U16 levels and competition swimming, we introduced limited Masters (over 18) sessions as space allowed a decade ago. Currently we offer swimming to ages 16 and over, including the full Masters range, and will continue to evolve as time goes by.
The club’s history is much richer than the summary currently shown here, and we will embellish this section of the website in the coming months.
What next for ISC?
Section still in development!!!!!
In simple terms - regrow the membership and support teams. The main aim being to ensure that ISC continues to exist to support swimming of all types in the Ilminster area long into the future.