RIVER BATHING – WHERE DID YOUR HOUSE SWIM?

The School is trying to identify the traditional house ‘dub’ spots used for river bathing. If you can recall which part of the Rawthey, Dee or Lune your house swam in we’d be delighted to hear from you!

During the First World War a drought and national water shortage led to water from the taps in Sedbergh slowing to an ineffective trickle. Each house was assigned a river ‘dub’ in which to bathe. Morning prep at 7.15am was cancelled for the summer term so that boys had time to reach their dub and bathe before morning lessons. Governors’ minutes from the time record that each house had been assigned a dub but sadly do not record the locations. Through the twentieth century houses continued to use a ‘house dub’ however these may have been further afield than the spots originally allocated for early morning bathing.

To help the cognitive juices to flow and trigger memories of swims on balmy summer evenings we’ve included a list of swimming locations mentioned in the memoirs of Old Sedberghians. If you can identify any of the more unusual spots listed, can name which house swum in which spots, or add more swim locations to the list please get in touch with Archivist Katy de la Rivière on kdlr@sedberghschool.org. Dubs with an asterisk have a known location but information about whether they were assigned to a particular house would be welcome.

• Akay dub*
• Lords dub*
• Lune Viaduct dub*
• Lune dub below Waters Meet
• Brewers Dub
• Four Lane Ends dub
• Lincoln’s Inn Bridge dub*
• Straight Bridge*
• Sandy Dub
• Jackdaw Bridge*
• Thrushgill*
• Dorkgill dub
• Rawthey above New Bridge*