The West Maitland floating baths were once important in the life of Maitland. They were located in the Horseshow Bend loop of the Hunter River close to eastern High Street, now the site of the Regional Athletics Facility but once the location of the Port of Maitland.
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A historical study by Peter Bond in 2015 gives us a record of the baths and the social setting in which they existed in the later 1800s.
For two brief periods, the baths were part of the 'social infrastructure' of the Maitland area.
The first floating baths were constructed in 1869. By that time the former Port of Maitland had been made virtually redundant by improvements to the roads and, in the late 1850s, the arrival of the railway.
In those days few people had tanks from which water for bathing could be harvested to fill household tubs. Most people thus did not bathe frequently or thoroughly.
The river was used by some for bathing and for recreational purposes, but it could be dangerous and drownings occurred.
Moreover, public bathing was frowned upon, indeed prohibited if done in public view during daylight hours.
The baths solved these problems by providing changing facilities and segregating male and female bathers so community sensibilities were not offended.
Bathing itself was strictly segregated, men using the facility between 6am and 9am and between 5pm and 8pm and women having access from 9am to 5pm.
The 1869 bathing area, named the 'Water Lily', was moored behind the Cross Keys Hotel in High Street.
It comprised a barge, 45 by 14 feet, with 28 dressing rooms upon it and two adjacent covered areas for bathing. The complex had a roof and curtains around its sides which ensured that bathers could not be seen from outside.
Bathing itself was strictly segregated, men using the facility between 6am and 9am and between 5pm and 8pm and women having access from 9am to 5pm.
Entry was not cheap: the charge was sixpence, or £1 for a quarterly ticket. For many people, these charges would have been prohibitive.
The baths were assailed by several floods in 1870. Eventually they sank, broke up and were washed away.
In 1879 a company was formed to create a new floating bath. Shares were issued and a similar structure to the earlier one was built at Stockton, towed up the river and erected beneath a galvanised iron roof near the site of the earlier facility.
The baths were relatively well patronised for a time, but usage declined and reduced the facility's profit-generating capacity.
In 1883, the complex was sold to the newly-formed Maitland Amateur Rowing Club, which maintained it as a base and a shed for boats. The club also kept the bathing function in place, with entry cheaper than previously at threepence per visit.
A flood in 1890 caused the facility to break free of its moorings and float downstream, disintegrating as it went.
It was never replaced, and during the great flood of 1893 the river changed its course and its abandoned channel, the site of the baths, steadily silted up.
The baths had been a boon to the health and cleanliness of those Maitland people who used them, and children had learnt to swim there.
In effect they were replaced, 50 years after their demise, by the King George V Memorial Pool which was opened in 1940 in Maitland Park.
