The history of the club and  its link with Open Water Swimming

Prior to the building of the pool at Troutbeck Bridge local swimmers made good use of the lake. This meant that for all but the hardiest, swimming was restricted to about 3 months of the year.  The Lake Windermere Swimming Association (L.W.S.A.) had the use of a hut for changing at Millerground Bay, where a stretch of shallow water, free from rocks was ideal for bathers and swimmers.  For many years L.W.S.A. organised a swim across the lake, from Belle Grange  to Millerground.  At just under a mile this is the widest part of the lake.  On completion of the Troutbeck Bridge Pool, the L.W.S.A. was dissolved and its assets transferred to the new Troutbeck Bridge Amateur Swimming Club.

T.B.A.S.C. then undertook to continue the tradition of an annual cross lake swim. In fact they instituted a second such swim, from Low Wray Bay to Waterhead over a distance of one and a quarter miles. The Millerground course was then restricted to club members.  These swims have provided an excellent introduction to open water swimming and many club members have gone on to enter the longer events organised by the British Long Distance Swimming Association in Coniston Water, Derwent Water and Windermere.  In recent years at least five of our club members have distinguished themselves by completing the arduous two-way swim of Windermere.  This twenty-one mile course was first accomplished in 1952 by Philip Risting of Rotherham and is a feat which those best qualified to judge rank as equal to a channel crossing.