History
The Art Nouveau Chadderton Baths was a public swimming facility opened in 1937. Henry Taylor, the British Olympic freestyle swimming triple gold medalist and champion was an attendant at Chadderton Baths where many of his awards were displayed. Chadderton Baths were closed indefinitely in 2006 after a structural survey found faults which could have put the public at risk. Chadderton Sports Centre, built onto the Baths, was closed and replaced by the Chadderton Wellbeing Centre in January 2010. An application to demolish the Baths was made in March 2011.
The Chadderton Historical Society has tried unsuccessfully to save the abandoned building, which Oldham Council is reportedly set on demolishing, despite the wishes of Chadderton residents and support from local councilors.
A bit about Henry Taylor
He was one of Britain's greatest ever Olympians. Yet swimmer Henry Taylor was so poor he could only afford to swim in the old Chadderton Baths on “dirty water day”, when the entrance fee was reduced.
Henry was born on Maple Street in Hollinwood on 17 March 1885 to James - a coalminer - and Elizabeth. His life begins in tragedy as he lost both his parents at an early age, the orphaned Henry being brought up instead by his elder brother, Bill.
In stark contrast to the Olympians of today, Henry learnt to swim in Hollinwood Canal before going to Oldham Baths, where at the age of seven, he tasted his first victory, beating some older boys in a two length race.
Young Henry loved swimming, changing Oldham for his local Chadderton Baths (now demolished) when they opened in 1894, though he still regularly swam in the canal. Indeed, when he began working in a cotton mill, he would spend his lunchtimes swimming the waterway.
He was the star of the Chadderton Swimming Club and at the age of 21, his success got him noticed nationally, when he was selected for the Intercalated Games in Athens in 1906 – an unofficial multi-sports event, held to mark the tenth anniversary of the first Modern Olympics, which saw athletes from all over the world take part.
And, far from the full-time dedicated sportsmen and women of today, the man who won three gold medals at the 1908 London Olympics trained in his lunch break, swimming in the reservoir near the Oldham mill where he worked full-time as a piecer. In the evenings, Taylor could be seen dodging the pleasure boats, ploughing up and down the Alexandra Park boating lake.
Taylor won gold, silver and bronze medals at the 1906 Interim Olympic Games in Athens in 1906, a bronze at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, and a bronze at Antwerp in 1920. But it was at London in 1908 that he fixed his place in sporting posterity, his tally of three golds in one games going unmatched by any Briton for a century until Chris Hoy in Beijing.
