SUTTON-AT-HONE: Film star joins fight against swimming pool closure (From News Shopper)

Mackenzie Crook joins fight against swimming pool closure

4:08pm Monday 7th February 2011 in News By Abigail Foulkes

A SWIMMING instructor battling to keep her school pool from closure is delighted a film star has lent his support to the campaign.

Jenny Christmas is thrilled Pirates of the Caribbean star Mackenzie Crook, 39, who used to attend Sutton-at-Hone Primary School in Church Road, Dartford, has offered to help in the battle against the pool’s closure.

The pool, which opened in 1975, can only be used for another two years before it fails to meet modern day standards.

Mrs Christmas says Mr Crook’s support will help give the campaign a boost in its bid to raise £80,000 for refurbishments.

The mother-of-five said: “It’s fantastic.

“Having him involved and putting his name to it will boost the morale of parents."

Mr Crook, who used to live in Main Road, used the pool when he was a pupil and told News Shopper it brings back fond memories.

The Office actor said: “I had a really good time at the school.

“Sutton-at-Hone was an idyllic time for me and the swimming pool was part of that experience- it was a great part of school life.”

Mrs Christmas, who has worked at the school for 10 years, has applied for £60,000 from Big Lottery Funding but is appealing for support from local businesses and residents for the remainder.

She will be holding fundraising events, including an auction of two Utopia Spa passes at Rowhill Grange Hotel in Dartford Road, and an auction of Mr Crook’s autograph.

Mrs Christmas will also sell cardboard bricks for five pounds, to symbolise the rebuilding of the new pool.

Money raised will be spent on a variety of new materials, including non slip rubber flooring, surround heating, a refurbished changing area and disabled access.

If you want to support the campaign, call the school on 01322 862147 or email office@sutton-at-hone.kent.sch.uk.

Memories of a Swimming Pool, by Mackenzie Crook

One of my most enduring memories of childhood is of a blazing summer afternoon in 1975 when I was four.

It was the day that the newly built swimming pool at Sutton-at-Hone Primary School was officially opened by comedian Peter Glaze.

I wasn’t yet a pupil at the school but my older sister was and so we went along to join in the celebrations.

My memory, exaggerated over time, is of a vast crowd of several thousand people thronging around this futuristic structure that resembled a corrugated plastic spaceship touched down on the playing fields.

My dad lifted me onto his shoulders over a sea of brightly coloured tank-tops and unconditioned hair as Crackerjack’s Mr Glaze stepped up to deliver his opening speech.

Apparently I was so impressed with his routine that I went around for days afterwards quoting chunks of his set.

The swimming pool was to become a big part of my life the next year, in that famously hot summer, when I joined the school.

I can still smell the hot plastic roof, the eye-stinging chlorine, the disinfectant foot-bath.

I can still hear the echoing shouts of splashing children with polystyrene floats.

I can still recall the shock of getting into the glacial water that was apparently piped directly from the polar ice cap.

Sure, I learned to swim in that pool, but I can’t help thinking that it was the pool and Peter Glaze that started me on the road to show business.

And for that I will be forever grateful.