Scarborough invented wild cold water swimming
The healthy plunger was warned, "you could feel a considerable shock or chill. A sobbing succeeds, the skin is contracted and feels rough to the hand, a cracking noise is heard, followed by a ringing or whizzing in the ears; On quitting the water, tears sometimes fill the eyes and many persons experience alittle shudder and later a general glow succeeds and the spirits are raised. When the bathing does not produce a moderate glow after quitting the water, when the chilling sensation continues, when the extremities become cold, the spirits languid, the head disordered or the appetite impaired. ...it might be concluded that the bathing is doing more harm than good".
Victorian men swam naked whilst women were covered from head to foot and stepped out of 'bathing machines' to be pushed under the water by local women asistants.
In the 1950s swimmers swam from the North bay to the South bay, known as the Castle Foot swim.
