Floating Memories
The Brighton Swimming Club Archives
Heritage Lottery Fund

I was awarded funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to curate a project that delved into the heritage of Brighton Swimming Club. Using archives dating back to 1860, a range of creative opportunities enabled archives to be brought back to life and shared with a wide variety of people and organisations.

I joined Brighton Swimming Club in early 2009. Members meet every morning and swim in the sea. Through conversation with one of its members, I found out about an archive of boxes stored in the vaults at Brighton Museum, unseen and unknown to members of the club, the public, and historians, and became intrigued by the rich and colourful history of the Brighton Swimming Club and the wealth of material that has been forgotten about. Artifacts included reels of unique 16mm film footage from the 1940s, letterpress posters, scrapbooks, gala programmes, badges, competition adverts, letters, photographs and newspaper cuttings.

For a long time the archives were held in boxes in museum stores, glued inside scrapbooks, and collected in carrier bags.
This project enabled the archives to have a new life. The East Sussex Records Office now houses the archive and assisted with the digitisation and compilation of the archive. Archivists and myself worked with members of the club and volunteers to collate the archive and present its contents correctly to appropriate standards.

23 reels of 16mm film, dated as early as 1940, which had been stored in a garden shed were donated to the Screen Archive South East and digitized. The films, captured many aspects of Brighton Swimming Club and life in Brighton, from filming Campbell’s liner at the West Pier to ice skating at the SS Brighton.

Young musicians improvised and recorded a live soundtrack to accompany the Roger Dunford film.

30 letterpress posters were included in the archive, with the earliest being dated 1862. Once digitised, printed copies went on permanent display at the Brighton Fishing Museum.

Workshops led by oral historian and BBC Radio 4 documentary interviewer Alan Dein, resulted in volunteers being trained to capture an incredible wealth of unique stories with club members past and present.

The project was very enthusiastically and positively received, achieving considerable coverage from the BBC.

Historian and Lecturer Jackie Marsh-Hobbs worked with volunteers to research the history of bathing in Brighton and devised a guided walk and printed map.

A series of talks were held about the history and benefits of sea swimming, and Brightons architecture for seaside with speakers Susie Parr, Kevin Meredith, Dr Mark Harper, Professor Fred Gray.

Students from the Graphic Design and Illustration course at the University of Brighton responded to the archives and produced artworks as well as an exhibition.

A digitised accessible archive, book, film and a permanent exhibition provided a lasting legacy of the Floating Memories project.