WORK has now begun on a long-awaited facelift of Dovercourt Swimming Pool – 30 years after it first opened.

The £900,000 renovation will see new village-style changing rooms built and the gym moved to the ground floor for disabled access.

There will also be a multi-purpose fitness studio created and an extension will be added to the building with a new front facade.

The renovation comes on what is the pool’s 30th anniversary year.

The facility opened in 1984, after residents campaigned for years to get an indoor facility or a lid to cover the old pool.

The 25-metre pool, in Wick Lane, cost £800,000 with admission when it opened at just 65p, or 35p for children and senior citizens.

It replaced the open-air pool, which was built in 1924.

  • Do you have any images from days gone by? We are particularly keen to receive old school pictures from any of the primary schools in Harwich or Manningtree before 1990.

E-mail your photographs to hms.news@nqe.com or post them with a stamped addressed envelope to HMS Memories, 28 Jackson Road, Clacton, CO15 1QL.