Burnley Grammar School

Mason and Earl, sorry I couldn't as wear your questions earlier.

Mason, I remember being slightly shocked when first starting school and being told that we had to shower after lessons. However, it's something everyone got used to. the teachers aren't actually allowed to enter the shower room but they can usually tell if someone hasn't showered if they smell of chlorine from the pool water.

Earl, we showered without trunks because trunks stop certain parts of the body from being washed. The teacher never forced anyone to take off their trunks but he made it clear that trunks weren't allowed in the showers and were to be taken off outside the shower room after swimming.

Peter, thanks for your response. I still don't think I would see any reason to swim without trunks if we had them. Even in an enclosed, all-male environment, I don't see why trunks shouldn't be worn if we had them available. These days, nude swimming would very much be against the law.

Bradley, thanks for your reply and hope you are finding this site interesting for your studies.I too went to an all boys grammar school, but in the late fifties when life was still austere and there was little money for building swimming pools.The emphasis was on teaching us to develop physically and keeping fit.This was achieved with two lessons a week in the gym when we had to strip off completely and wear just shorts and plimsolls and were made to work hard until we were running with sweat and ready to get in the showers. Sometimes we would be sent out on a cross country run, still in the same kit and in the summer we would do athletics similarly attired.We also played football during a double period each week when we additionally wore football shirts with heavy leather football boots and long woollen socks.Needless to say, showers were obligatory after all these activities.In the summer we played the more gentlemanly sport of cricket and wore white trousers and shirts.

To Bradley.
Thank you for coming back. I can see why, in the circumstances, swimming without trunks would not, in your case, have been appropriate and for the sake of modesty, they were necessary. However, in an all-male environment which was not visible from outside the pool area, you might have felt differently. Perhaps those who did swim without trunks could comment on how they felt.

Bradley:

A useful piece of history for you here!
I went to a boarding school late 60s early 70s and in the junior school (10-13 ) and prep school (7-10) all swimming was withouthout trunks. At first we were a bit unsure but after the first or second swims ... We never batted an eyelid ... Suppose that makes it a healthy exercise in itself. Only when we reached the senior school were trunks allowed and of course that became then became a compulsory norm.

Best wishes
Gavin

At my nephew's school he said they actually shower with trunks. I'm curious why your school still adopts the no-trunks showering rule? Do teachers actually make sure that everyone showers without trunks? And was sport taken seriously at your school or was it just seen as an extra? These days schools don't seem to priories physical wellbeing as well as mental wellbeing.

John, when you say that "the swimming pool where we swam nude had vast windows and viewing areas where people could watch", were they school staff or people from outside?

That must really have been daunting as opposed to indoor showers, as you rightly say.
What ages were the boys, assuming it was only boys who had to swim nude in front of viewrs?
Was it a public or private school?

Peter, I just find it surprising that schools could force students to swim without anything on. I just wouldn't find it comfortable. For showers of course you have to be not wearing anything in order to clean yourself properly but I don't see why trunks shouldn't be worn for swimming. Also, the swimming pool is located behind the humanities department building at my school so people walking down the corridors would be able to see- another reason for wearing trunks. The changing room and shower room are not visible from outside.

Rob, yes I am studying social and educational history as one of my units. The school I went to was a grammar school which had a special emphasis on sport. Since the school bought a pool the teachers made sure we got the maximum value from it! In addition to swimming, we also had athletics, the occasional gymnastics and ,of course, football. I wore a t shirt, shorts and trainers. I enjoyed pretty much every sport I did and always looked forward to PE lessons! Showers were taken after swimming and football practice.

Bradley, good to have someone who only left school three years ago.Are you studying social history because a lot has changed in education over recent years? You were very lucky to have a pool at your school and PE staff who were dedicated to ensure that all pupils were able to swim properly before they left. It sounds as though it could only have been a private school and it would be interesting to know what form your physical education took in addition to swimming. Also what kit you had to wear in the gym and outside and what sports you took part in.In addition to showers after swimming lessons, were you also obliged to take them after PE and games and were they communal? Whatever you did or however you did it, did you find it enjoyable?

Bradley - nice to get the opinions of younger people.
Strange though it may seem nude bathing was once pretty much the norm (and there are still places where you can do it - The Ponds on Hampstead Heath, I believe) and so it would have been acceptable in schools. I suppose that, since fifty odd years back, there wasn't the 'pressure' of TV, 'social media', etc., people just took it as 'part of life'. I find it very difficult to believe that there was anything 'un-natural'in it.

Styles change - in the pool at the gym this afternoon I was with a guy who has a teenager would (& did) wear gym/footy shorts that were very short - now his swimming shorts come to below his knees. (Although I have noticed a tendancy to revert to shorter gym & swimming shorts this summer).

T

Peter,I assume that when you were at school you always swam without wearing trunks. Bradley was simply expressing his surprise that nude swimming was common at one time, but mentioned that he had to shower naked after swimming lessons, which is perfectly normal, and that he had no problem with that.The vast majority of us used to have to do PE in nothing but a pair of shorts followed by a naked communal shower without any problem but that was no reason to suggest that we should have done PE in the gym without shorts.

Bradley, was it ever embarrassing to shower or did everyone just accept it? What happened if you didn't shower?

Peter,it could be daunting swimming without swimming trunks,unlike the changing area and showers where there was some privacy the swimming pool where we swam nude had vast windows and viewing areas where people could watch.

To Bradley. If you had no problem taking your trunks off, showering and moving around after your swimming lesson, why would it have been a problem not to put them on in the first place and do the lesson without them?

I left school three years ago and cannot believe how nude swimming was ever allowed to take place during those days! Unbelievable. Our school (boys) was very lucky to have a swimming pool and the PE department definitely made sure that we could all swim well by the time we left school. Of course, swimming took place in swimming trunks but after-swim showers were compulsory and done nude, which we had no problem with.

Cool site by the way, I'm a history student at university currently.

Gavin,
When my son was about 12 I had to buy him a pouch jockstrap and protective cup so he could play cricket for his school team. He didn't wear one for other sports though.

Fred,
When you acquired your jockstrap during your first year at boarding school, was it because you had started to feel uncomfortable without one, or as a sort of 'rite of passage' as your classmates had started to wear them?

Hi Fred
Your experience is remarkably similar to mine. Which boarding school did you attend? I don't think there was anything else on the market other than Litesome in my day. It was either one with a pouch (for cricket) and one without for all other sporting activities. Nowadays one is spoilt for choice and my boys I am glad to say follow their dad and wear a jockstrap for all the sport they do.

Hi Keith,
Was it a mixed school or boys only?
Were there any female teachers or students ever present during your nude swimming sessions?
I had friends in the 60s who went to a boardinf school which had similar arrangements like the ones you mentioned, that is junior boys up to about 12 was mandatory nude for swimming sessions. After that age swimsuits were optional.
I also remember them saying that their swimming instructor in their first years was a woman.
Can you describe under what circumstances your swimming sessions were carried out?

I attended an all boys boarding school in the late sixties/early seventies, starting aged 13 and the gym shown here was almost identical. The lads shown here look a little younger than that. We too wore just shorts for p/e. However, by the end of our first year practically all of us had acquired a jockstrap which was worn for all physical activity. There was no rule concerning underwear for sport or p/e and it certainly was not policed, it was up to us to choose. There was one master however who insisted that jocks were worn in his rugby group, but that was about it. Jockstraps were not on the kit list but were readily available in the small sports shop in the school thereby avoiding any problem one might have with having to ask Mum or Dad to get one for you. As Malcolm noted below, they were made by Litesome and were known to us a jockstraps. I am not aware that any other brand was available at that time.
We also had nude showers after all sport activity, I don`t remember that anyone had a problem with that, it was quite normal for us, trunks were worn for swimming.
My two sons did a lot of sport at school, I haven`t a clue what they used for underwear, I never thought to ask.

Ben said that he had not heard of nude swimming at some schools until he read about it on the internet. I attended a state grammar school, not a private school, in Kent in the second half of the 1950s. Naked swimming periods were mandatory for the first three years until the year we arrived when it became optional. Quite a lot of boys still chose to swim naked, about a third of our class and everyone in one of the other two classes. Up till that year trunks were also optional from year four right up till sixth from level and I understand from my older brother that many boys, so used to and enjoying nudity, continued to swim naked throughout their school career. Seems very strange nowadays to have a naked lesson at school either as compulsory or as an option which many chose.
I well remember one boy still choosing to swim naked at the inter-house competition at the end of our first year and that was in front of the whole school of several hundred and the staff! No one batted an eyelid.
Then a new headmaster arrived and it all changed. Trunks were now mandatory.

Thankfully there weren't too many pranks in my PE lessons and as it was an all girls Secondary, we didn't have mixed PE lessons to worry about
The showers were by no means always warm though!

In my school having your shorts yanked down was also quite a common feature ... you just had to hope it never lead on to a full de-bagging!

Bob,I think we all hated the no under pants rule as it could leave you very vulnerable and potentially exposed,especially when wearing short shorts.
I experienced the same tricks,especially having the shorts yanked down.

John, you were lucky to wear a vest outdoors in winter...we didn't.

I hated the no underpants rule in PE and games, because it made me vulnerable to being tormented in the gym by my classmates. Some of them thought it was fun to run up and slap or kick your sensitive parts, which were barely concealed by the thin white PE shorts. Or they would often yank down your shorts when you were not expecting it, exposing everything, to cause maximum embarrasment.

Calvin/Rob,I agree it was"double standards"where we had to share the gym or vacate it and brave the cold wearing short shorts and vest.
My kit offered very little protection from the cold and yes,it was usually a cold shower.

Similar to James I attended a mixed school and remember the double standards, humiliation and bitter cold in winter that caused lads to shed a tear!
James, you mentioned it was a mixed school. Did the girls have to go outside or, like in my school, only the boys?

We lads also had to endure a shower block that was semi open to the elements and water that was Luke warm occasionally but usually cold. The ladies had individual cubicle showers with variable water temperature!

Sid,I had no problem wearing just shorts with nothing underneath for PE as it was an all boys school, but I was concerned about John's comments that at his school he frequently had mixed PE lessons and the boys were embarrassed wearing short shorts without pants with girls in the gym. I appreciate that you had a very strict regime at your school but you know how some of the boys felt about having to line up nude before swimming lessons in front of female teachers or being supervised in the showers.Even by age of 13 some boys are going through puberty so naturally it was embarrassing for them.

We could go commando or wear a jock. Depended on the activity - and mostly our choice. Personally, I'd rather go free - but I do like jocks - prefer them to traditional underwear, as do my boys. We wear swimmers - so narrow waist and leg bands. But we also go commando.

They were certainly known as jockstraps in our school.
Once you got used to the unexpected draughts they were much more comfortable than underpants and no excess material. Support where you needed it and freedom in all other ways.
Still use them regularly now.

James our shorts were very short but as i say it was all boys school. We just had to "get on with it". Outdoors we were allowed a t shirt no uniform set. However some boys wore white nylon shorts which were just becoming available and if we were caught in the rain it left nothing to the imagination.
After a while they returned to wearing dark coloured or cotton white shorts.