It’s not every GoodGym mission that turns into an educational experience but Cleveland Pools is rather special. Opening in 1817 it is the UK’s oldest public open-air swimming pool. I knew this - I even swam there as a teenager with its big pool, children’s pool and fountain.

What I didn’t know until this visit is that there is a third pool tucked behind the crescent-like architecture. A ladies pool cut off from the main pool where, in its early days, men used to swim in the nude, and allowing women to gather and relax. It now serves as a place to display the history of the site but in my head I could hear the gossip and chatter of a bygone age and see the women bathing and showering and giggling about the boys the other side of the wall.

It was a lovely insight into the history of a lido which may be closed at the moment but has a trust that is striving to revive it.

But enough about history and bringing us up to date - GoodGym were called in to help keep the site neat and tidy, ready for the moment it reopens and - more immediately - spick and span for the World Heritage open day in September.

Five of us dug in - mainly weeding the slopes. Paul had already done his bit by mowing the grass during the week but that didn’t stop him wielding the secateurs. Max and Cosmo went the extra mile, helping a neighbour with some rubbish clearance - and, on her first mission, Laetitia showed the weeds she meant business. Hurrah!

Special mention must be given to the fig and banana cake made by trustee Sally Helvey to sustain the volunteers. Yum!

“Do not underestimate the bindweed, its need for wreathe and stifle rooted deep in its name”. Jan Wagner

“ Each morning I evict them. Each night more arrive, their leaves small, green shrouds, reminding me the mother root waits deep underground”. James McKean

“ Bindweed was a bane — hellweed, strangleweed, devil's nightcap”. Caroline Mellor

Poets don’t just confine themselves to waxing lyrical about roses - they’re also inspired by one of the most problematic weeds around. While it is no Japanese knotweed, it chokes the plants it grows around and is notoriously difficult to deal with.

Well there is plenty of it at Cleveland Pools where GoodGym Bath has been helping keep the site under control so it will be ready for action when it is brought back into use.

Bindweed’s white trumpet flowers are deceptively pretty in the bushes but they simply had to go. I spent my time untangling their tendrils and pulling them out as best I could. It was a task made trickier by the sloping ground. Let’s hope they don’t pop back up the moment our backs are turned.

While I was battling the “devil’s nightcap”, Paul was busy doing all sorts of odd jobs. In fact he was busy in the week - taking the mower to the slopes and making them look neater than I’d ever seen them. Today he tidied up bits of rusty fencing and other bits and bobs as well as doing a serious amount of sweeping. There was one area with concrete benches which was tucked away - he imagined swimmers relaxing in the shady spot. Maybe some day soon!

You might think spending the hottest day of the year at the local open air swimming pool would be ideal but there's a snag - Cleveland Pools is currently closed following flood damage.

The only creature who got to have a dip was a visiting bird who fancied a bath.

Our job was to keep the site looking shipshape and Bristol fashion ready for the moment it is brought back into use. This time Meyrick and Ruth pulled weeds and poured compost around plantings to discourage further growth. Meanwhile Paul oversaw all the volunteers who were also helping out and also made a number of trips to the compost heap for us.

We managed to complete our task, despite the heat.

The promise of more homemade cake (it was delicious) will go a long way to tempting us back to the historic lido for another session.

It’s probably not what she planned for her first mission but this GoodGymer was very grateful to Gita for picking off the burdock that had got stuck all over her. When you realise that this tricky plant was the inspiration for Velcro you probably get an idea of the state I was left in when clearing a patch of overgrown land at Cleveland Pools.

Yes, we were back at the site keeping it neat and tidy while work goes on in the background to see what’s needed to bring the lido back into use.

We were assigned a triangle of land near the entrance. Amy took it upon herself to tackle a series of docks with roots almost as tall as she was.

Gita and Louise - also on her first task - took to the weeds like professionals, with assistance from me, while Paul worked with other volunteers to clear the rest of the site. All our efforts were overseen by a group of cormorants who were no doubt far more interested in the local fish population.

Our hard work was rewarded with a drink and homemade rhubarb cake. We plan to be back before too long to try organiser Sally’s next recipe - and help out again, of course.

It’s been a while since I’ve come home from a GoodGym mission and immediately dived into a bath to get clean but it’s kind of appropriate since we were helping out at the former open air swimming baths in Bath.

The UK’s only surviving Georgian lido closed in 1984 but reopened in 2023 after a long campaign. Sadly, four months later flooding caused major damage and it has not been able to operate since. But there is hope that repairs will go ahead.

GoodGym was called into help keep the site looking spick and span and, while volunteers from the Cleveland Pools Trust were in charge of clearing undergrowth, Paul, Cosmo, Meyrick and I had the job of clearing the mud that had built up on site.

We removed buckets and buckets of the stuff. And, unlike the hippopotamus’ opinion in the old Flanders and Swann song, it was anything but glorious. It was gloop. It was sludge. It oozed. We got covered in it.

But it was a wonderful feeling to know we were helping such an important part of Bath’s leisure and heritage. We will be back!

There are many attachments that people have to missions. Some are a memory of that place from long ago, like fingerprints on a forgotten handrail, others are sparked by a sense of community, of what's right; this mission had both.

From some of us old timers who remember being here back in the 70's and 80's, to those younger GoodGymmers who perhaps never swam here but as proud Bathonians are fully bought into the wonderful story behind this location, there was a feeling of something special about this task.

It was a very autumnal morning when six GoodGymmers found their way to the Cleveland Pools - the UK’s oldest Lido - here to help with whatever they needed as we move towards the winter. Ruth, Emily, Amy, Kam, Meyrick and Paul were on hand to help, and we were greeted by the unexpected but always very welcome appearance of Jer.

Seriously, we would have done anything they asked to help, but it was weeding they needed us to do today, clearing a lot of unwanted growth from the flower beds and tidying up the edges. We did enormous amounts in the time we had, and a big shout out to Mary and Sally, Cleveland Pools volunteers, for giving us the grand tour of this incredible site, many thanks.