Buckfastleigh Open Air Pool - Victoria Park

13/09/2026

THANK YOU! 🙌💙

We can’t believe it’s been a week since we closed the door on our 2026 summer season!

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who has helped make this summer at Buckfastleigh Open Air Pool - Victoria Park such a brilliant one. The pool really is a community effort, and we couldn’t do it without you.

Firstly, to everyone who visited us this summer, thank you! 🏊‍♀️☀️
Every swim, tuck shop purchase and visit helps support the pool, and it has been fantastic to welcome so many familiar faces alongside lots of new visitors from Buckfastleigh and beyond.

To our amazing local businesses who supported our Business Supporter Scheme and helped us fundraise for our new thermal pool cover - thank you!
ClearMoor Accounting
J Searle & Son
And thank you to everyone who donated through our Crowdfunder.

A huge thank you goes to Peter from Swimfix and Rob who supported us with sourcing and installing the new pool cover, and who continue to support us with other projects!

To Mark and the team at Earth Wrights Play - thank you for your continued support in keeping the play park safe and enjoyable for everyone.

To Pam Barrett - thank you for your continued support of the pool, including hosting the bat walks as part of our special night swim events! 😄

To Dartmoor Skies - thank you for joining us for our starry night swims and sharing the wonders of the night sky with our swimmers.

To Charlie Scullion — thank you for all your work maintaining our play park as a brilliant community space and wildlife habitat, and for your involvement in an exciting new project we have coming up!

To Better Places - thank you for including us in Hello Summer and for helping us make the most of Victoria Park this summer. ☀️

To all the groups and individuals who booked the pool this summer — thank you for choosing to spend time with us! 💙
A special thank you to:
• Buckfastleigh Youth Club
• The Orchard Saturday Club
• Girlguiding Ashburton and Buckfastleigh
• Blue Sky Fostering
• 1st Buckfastleigh Scout Group
• Bovey Tracey Scouts
• Ivybridge Scouts
• Heath Church Youth Camp
• Torbay Youth Justice Service
• And everyone who celebrated a birthday with us! 🎉

To our local schools:
Buckfastleigh Primary School, St Mary’s Catholic Primary School and Landscove Primary School - thank you for using the pool and working with our teaching team to help your pupils develop their swimming and water skills.

And to Bidwell Brook School, thank you for continuing to use our pool as a safe and welcoming space for your pupils to swim.

To Camphill Devon Community — thank you for once again joining us for summer swimming sessions.

To our grant funders — thank you for investing in our pool and our community:
• Ashburton and Buckfastleigh League of Friends who enabled us to purchase new lifesaving equipment including a PXB water rescue board and 3x training defibrillators
• South West Water for giving us funding to provide swimming lessons to children and adults
• Devon Community Foundation for providing us with funding to offer a number of free sessions for our community!
The National Lottery Community Fund for providing us with funding towards our new thermal pool cover
• Those that have supported us through the Charities Aid Foundation
Your support has made a real difference this year.

To Mary from Gong Song - thank you for working with us on our new sound bath sessions. We loved bringing something a little different to the pool this year!

Thank you to FURNØ who have supported the pool this year and brought their fabulous pizza along to the park on Mondays and Fridays throughout the Summer.

Thank you to everyone who came along, supported and donated as part of our 24-hour lifeguard Swimathon event. We raised over £1400 and our lifegaurds swam an incredible 35.53 miles! 👏

And thank you to everyone who bought solar eclipse glasses, helping us raise over £990 for the pool - what a fantastic fundraiser! 🌞

Thank you to Sound Diving for using the pool to train up new divers - we love to support local businesses.
Thank you also to Debs for supporting some of our lifegaurd team through their Open Water qualification!

To our wonderful volunteers - thank you! 🩵
Whether you helped behind the scenes, at events, with fundraising or simply gave up your time when we needed you, we are incredibly grateful.

To everyone who has donated - thank you! 💙
Whether it was £5 or £500, a one-off donation or a monthly payment, every contribution helps keep our community pool going.

To our swim teachers, Emma and Sophie - thank you! 🏊‍♂️
Thank you for helping our swimmers build confidence, improve their technique and develop their water safety skills throughout the summer.

To our Trustees - thank you! 💙
So much work happens behind the scenes to keep the pool running, and we are incredibly grateful for everything you do.

And finally… our amazing lifeguards! 🛟

A HUGE thank you to Ian Savage, Victoria Park Manager, and our brilliant lifeguard team for keeping the pool open, keeping everyone safe and making sure our visitors could enjoy the pool all summer long.

You have worked incredibly hard, and we genuinely couldn’t have done it without you.

And to anyone we’ve missed — THANK YOU! 💙

Every person who has volunteered, donated, visited, organised, fixed, baked, cooked, promoted, supported or simply cheered us on has played a part in making this summer happen.

Thank you for another fantastic summer at Buckfastleigh Open Air Pool.

We’ll see you in the water again soon! 🏊‍♀️❄️

12/09/2026

⚠️ FURTHER DAMAGE TO ZIPLINE – IMPORTANT UPDATE & URGENT REMINDER ⚠️

We’re very sorry to share that the zipline has suffered further damage, and remains fully OUT OF SERVICE until repairs are complete.

🚩 PLEASE NOTE: Any attempt to pull down, tamper with, or remove parts of the zipline will cause even more damage, significantly delay repairs, and push up costs.

⚠️ SEAT UPDATE: The zipline seat now requires repair — it cannot be used as it is due to rust and serious risk of finger entrapment, making it unsafe. We will share the estimated repair cost as soon as we have it.

💰 COST IMPACT – PLEASE READ: All repair costs come directly from the pool budget. Every extra bit of damage puts more strain on our limited funds — money that should be going toward pool maintenance, upkeep and improvements for everyone. Unnecessary damage means less money for other vital pool work.

We’re working hard to get this fixed, but we need your help — please do not touch or tamper with the zipline in any way. Let’s look after our space so we can get it back open as soon as possible.

We’ll post a full update as soon as we have clear costs and a timeline for repairs. Thank you for your understanding and support.

05/09/2026

💙 TOMORROW IS OUR FINAL DAY OF THE SUMMER SEASON! 💦

And what better way to finish the season than with a whole day of swimming! 🥳🏊‍♀️

Here’s what’s happening tomorrow — Sunday 6 September:

🏊 8:30–10:00am – Lane Swim
👨‍👩‍👧 10:30–11:30am – SEND Family Swim
💦 2:00–3:00pm – Community Fun Swim
💦 3:30–4:30pm – Community Fun Swim
💦 5:00–6:00pm – Community Fun Swim

🎉 The Community Fun Swims are FREE! 🎉
Spaces are limited, so please arrive in plenty of time to avoid disappointment. There’s no better way to celebrate the end of another fantastic summer at the pool!

🎨 DRAW A LIFEGUARD COMPETITION REMINDER!
The competition closes at 12 noon tomorrow ⏰, so make sure your entries are in by then! The winners will be announced after the competition closes. 🏆🎨

Come along, have a final splash, and help us give the summer season the send-off it deserves! 💙

Thank you to everyone who has supported the pool this summer — we couldn’t do it without you! 🥰

29/08/2026

Our final week of the heated summer season is here! 🌞🏊‍♀️

Here’s our timetable for 31 August – 6 September, including all your favourite sessions, from lane swimming and Aqua Fit to fun sessions and general swimming. 💦

To celebrate a fabulous season at the pool, we’ve got 3x FREE community fun swims on Sunday afternoon!

See you at the pool 🩵

26/08/2026

🌟 OUR LAST TWO EVENTS OF THE SEASON! 🌟

As we approach the end of another fantastic season, we have just two special events left — and there are limited spaces available for both! 🏊‍♀️✨

🧘‍♀️ Sound Bath with Gong Song
📅 This evening
⏰ 7pm
Book now via https://www.buckfastleighpool.org/event-details/floating-sound-bath

Immerse yourself in a beautiful evening of relaxation and sound in the unique surroundings of the pool. 🌙🎶

🌌 Starry Night Swim
📅 This Friday
⏰ 8pm
Book now via https://www.buckfastleighpool.org/event-details/starry-night-swim-with-dartmoor-skies-4

Experience the magic of an evening swim under the stars and help us make our final event of the season one to remember! ✨💫

Spaces are limited for both events, so don’t miss out!

📍 Buckfastleigh Open Air Pool

We’d love to see you there as we celebrate the final events of our 2026 season! 💙

23/08/2026

ZIP LINE UPDATE

We are disappointed to share that, whilst we are working hard to get the zip line back in to operation, we have unfortunately experienced a further setback.

An individual has forced the zip line seat past the locked chain and padlock in order to use the equipment, causing additional damage to the seat. In doing so, they could also have caused injuries to themselves or others, as the zip line is currently not in a usable condition.

The damage is such that the seat now requires replacement, resulting in additional costs and further delays to returning the zip line to safe operation.

We are currently reviewing CCTV footage in an attempt to identify the individual responsible. We urge anyone who may have witnessed this incident, or who has any information which may assist us, to please come forward and contact us.

Should the individual responsible be identified, we will consider appropriate action to recover the costs associated with the damage.

The zip line is a valued and well-used part of Victoria Park, and we are extremely disappointed that this incident has resulted in further costs and delays. We respectfully ask all members of the public to observe the safety measures currently in place and not to use the zip line at this time.

Thank you for your continued patience and support as we work to get the zip line safely back into operation.

19/08/2026

✨🌌 Starry Night Swim with Dartmoor Skies - THIS FRIDAY🌌✨

Join us on Friday 21st August for a truly magical evening with Dartmoor Skies.
Enjoy a relaxing swim in our heated outdoor pool, beautifully lit with fairy lights and underwater lights, before warming up with a complimentary hot drink and discovering the wonders of the night sky with Dartmoor Skies!

🗓️ Friday 21st August
🕘 8:15pm - 9:15pm swim
☕ Hot drink included, followed by guided stargazing
🎟️ Tickets from £15
🔞 16+ only

Spaces are limited, so book online now!
👉 https://www.buckfastleighpool.org/event-details/starry-night-swim-with-dartmoor-skies-5

Please note: Tickets are non-refundable. ✨

18/08/2026

We have been made aware of a recent post and subsequent comments on the Facebook group ‘Buckfastleigh Banter’ regarding illness from people visiting our pool.

We carry out regular water quality testing and monitoring throughout the season, with multiple tests being carried out each day and the results recorded. All of our routine checks have been within the required normal ranges.

We have also recently received the results of independent water testing carried out by Teignbridge Council, and these results confirm that the water quality is satisfactory, with no issues identified.

We are, of course, aware of the comments being made and take any reports of illness seriously. We will continue to closely monitor the pool water and carry out all of our usual testing and checks to ensure the pool remains safe for our customers.

We urge anyone with questions or concerns to contact us directly via email at [email protected]

Thank you
Buckfastleigh Open Air Pool

17/08/2026

APPLICATIONS CLOSE TODAY for our lifeguard course next week!

Please email us on [email protected] or call 01364642222 to find out more and book your place today 🛟

🚨 Become a Qualified Lifeguard! 🛟

Interested in becoming a qualified lifeguard? We’re now inviting expressions of interest for our upcoming RLSS UK National Pool Lifeguard Qualification (NPLQ) course, from Monday 24th to Friday 28th August.

✅ Nationally recognised qualification
✅ Must be aged 16+ and meet the course prerequisites

📋 Register your interest here: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=DBuysz7dZ0KdPBl6c568guLzpZZ3NEBPp_-O4VEw8JJUOFFJR0dPQ0xGNTRNUDQxWklBNlFSODhORy4u

Please note: Completing the course does not guarantee employment as a lifeguard at Buckfastleigh Open Air Pool. Any future vacancies will be subject to our normal recruitment process.