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Museum of Oxford Digital Exhibitions

Screens: Access to bathing

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George Augustus Rowell in a letter to the Mayor of Oxford, 1849.

"I contend that the freemen and their children have a RIGHT to bathe in the stream. I claim this right for myself, and on Saturday evening took my boy who bathed there. I shall again during this week, together with several other freemen, take our boys to bathe in this stream, and abide the consequences..."

Records show that people bathed in Oxford's waterways as far back as the 1600s, in places with easy physical access. 

In the 1800s, pollution, privatisation of land and increased policing forced people to abandon these and swim in more dangerous and out-of-the-way places. This led to an increase in drownings. In response, the City opened official bathing places at St Ebbe's, Tumbling Bay and Long Bridges.

Screens: Access to bathing