HERE is a tiler working on the final touches to the small plunge at Belper Street Baths in November 1992 as it undergoes its transformation into the Daisyfield Swimming Pools which opened the following month.

It was built in 1906 at a cost of £9,328 to cope with the rising demand at the town's original 1868 pool in Freckleton Street.

The main pool was 75ft by 30ft and from 3ft to 6ft 6in deep and caused controversy as mixed bathing was allowed.

There were 47 changing cabins and one children's cabin. Belper Street also offered 17 slipper baths for men, 20 for women, three foam bath suites and a Russian bath.

The old baths underwent a £1.5m revamp and reopened as Daisyfield in December,1992. They are still open run on behalf of the council by The Half Fish Foundation.

Swimming proved so popular in Blackburn that in 1986 the council launched the start-of-the art Waves complex which was replaced in 2015 by the Blackburn Sports and Leisure Centre, in Fielden Street opened by Olympic swimming double-gold medallist Rebecca Adlington.