Sales of the recently launched St Albans Swimming Club and Edgeware Pool history will go towards installing a new pool in the area, writer Val Somerville says.
She outlined how the story came to be told at the launch at the transitional community centre on November 30 before Pauline Cotter officially launched the book.
The writing of the club history started almost as soon as the dust cleared from the controversial council demolition of the Edgeware Pool. Val ended up storing the historic minute books at her house and got hooked on reading them. Early drafts of the book appeared in St Albans News in instalments about five years ago. The book in draft form received a number of local awards: the Clayton Cosgrove Cup and a Shirley/Papanui Community Board award for Education.
Publication of the book was delayed when the earthquakes put the community centre out of bounds. When she resurrected the project a couple of years later, an extra chapter was added to bring the book up to date and looking at the future. The book has now been published with the assistance of the Christchurch City Council, SBS and local St Albans businesses.
Copies of the book A history of the St Albans Swimming Club and Edgeware Pool 1892-2006 can be obtained from Bailies Bar for $40 and funds raised will go to funding a replacement pool for St Albans.
