The diving board at Coate Water gains listed status

Last summer I posted a video about a campaign to preserve the Art Deco diving board at Coate Water near Swindon.

It looks as though that campaign has been successful, as the Swindon Advertiser reported on Saturday that it has been listed by English Heritage as a Grade II structure.

The paper also tells us:

The board at Coate Water was first constructed out of wood in 1922. The platform was later replaced with the current concrete diving stage, designed by JBL Thompson in 1935. 

It was officially opened by mayor Reuben George, who took the first dive from the board, and took so long to resurface onlookers feared he had drowned.

Coate Water was the birthplace of one of this blog's heroes - the 19th-century writer Richard Jefferies. You can read more about him and it in a guest post by Rebecca Welshman.

Later. There's more on the English Heritage website.