Abbey Meadows Outdoor Swimming Pool, Abingdon

For a non-car driver our local leisure centre is badly located on the edge of town with no buses that serve it. This makes swimming trips a no go area when daddy isn't around with the car. Abingdon has had an outdoor swimming pool though conveniently located quite close to the centre of Abingdon for many years.
I think this may have been my first visit to the pool, certainly Charlotte's first, I'm sure my mum will correct me if I went when I was a little girl.
Being outdoors there is always the fear that it will be freezing cold, aren't most pools. Weren't we in for a surprise. Coming out of the changing rooms to find no lockers are provided we dumped our stuff on a bench and dipped a big toe into the toddler pool, freezing is not the word for it (I'm sure the lifeguards watching gave a little giggle). so out came the toe very quickly with me thinking this is a very bad idea, and decided to attempt the big pool. It was warm. I was shocked. Charlotte almost jumped straight in with not a care in the world.
I was pleased to find that the big pool (big is misleading but compared to the toddler pool its big) was very shallow at one end, so 3 year old Charlotte could stand up no problem. Makes things easier.

We had the whole place to ourselves, no other swimmers, so plenty of space to splash and kick, to dump our rubber ring/float/armbands on the side and not have to watch them. Think we were there about half hour before the cold started getting to Charlotte so de-camped to a hot shower, getting dressed and a short walk home.
The next morning Charlotte woke to tell me she had dreamt about swimming with leaves as it was so much fun.

The pool is open every day until September, and is free for under 16's. Take along a passport sized photo of the child and fill out a form on arrival to qualify. There are inflatable sessions for older kids after school and at weekends (daily during summer holidays), sunbeds to hire (when the sun comes out). Currently the ice-cream snack hut is open at weekends but during the summer holidays this will be daily.

For those less brave people currently the water feature (jets etc) is running every weekend and during the summer holiday will be open every day. Free to enter. There is a pay and display car park for those beyond walking distance.