Wednesday 27th May 2026 shall be marked in the new history of the Ward Freman swimming pool as the day the refurbishment officially began to bring back swimming to Buntingford.

After weeks (and weeks) of hoping the freehold transfer was nearly complete, it was with 3 days notice that the completion and exchange happily took place on Thursday 21st May 2026. Trustees Frazer and Joanne Willett were present to accept the keys on behalf of the charity.

First jobs on the community ‘To do List’: weeding and window cleaning!

After a long bank holiday weekend (the hottest of the year so far, when a dip in a swimming pool would have been most welcome) the first contractors arrived keen and eager, ready to start work in the plant room on the filtration system. Other jobs for day one were identifying which keys unlocked what, how to turn the lights on and connecting a water supply for the welfare of the workers.

SPE Water Treatment Ltd are our main contractor and sent three steel workers from Newcastle to begin refurbishing the filtration vessel that is believed to have been original to the building. Shortly afterwards supplies and a skip arrived. The filter valves were opened and after some encouraging gurgling noises, the water was drained. With the help of some WD40, the bolts were removed from the ‘manways’ so the inside of the vessel could be inspected. Can you spot the green filter media inside? Not really because its under a lot of rusty sludge! This all needs to be removed before the vessel can be shot blasted and relined making it as new. If you are currently feeling hot, just think yourself lucky that you don’t have to climb inside to ensure all the sludge and media is removed!

Filter Vessel
Opening the manhole
Inside the vessel

If you have been following our progress you will know that previously the water supply came from Freman College. As the pool is now owned by the charity we need to establish a new mains water connection and this is in the pipeline (excuse the pun, I couldn’t resist) with Affinity Water. Freman College have kindly allowed us temporary access to the old water supply to ensure the welfare of workers on site (a flushing toilet and somewhere to wash your hands). We had assumed this would be as simple as turning a stop cock, but things are never that simple. Doctor Heating came to our rescue with Dave Raymen sending trusted engineer Ian to reconnect a 30mm pipe in an awkward corner of a cupboard. It was with great relief when water flowed through all the right taps and toilets and no where else, although you don’t want to know the colour of the initial water coming through.

Meanwhile away from the plant room and the pipes, having been handed a large bunch of keys, after some trial and error we started to work out what goes where.

Keys
More keys
These fit here
This unlocks this
To use in an emergency

The rescue manikins having sat idle for two years, have welcomed us into their realm with a group meeting and decided to help out by sweeping the reception. Whilst hard working trustee Frazer opened a tin of elbow grease and cleaned the kitchen and toilets so contractors and volunteers can be looked after. The kitchen still lacks a kettle and I wouldn’t drink the tap water just yet (more flushing through and testing is on the list of jobs to do), but all in all a productive first day of refurbishment.

Welcome Meeting
Helping out

Whilst the professionals continue in the plant room, our next step is to produce a list of unskilled jobs that any willing volunteer can tackle. If you think that you might have the time, enthusiasm and rubber gloves to help, please do get in touch at volunteer@wardfremanpool.org our first volunteer day will be Sunday 7th June as part of the national Big Help Out. If weeding, scrubbing and cleaning is not quite your thing we are still looking for volunteers to help with social media and other admin tasks.