Parkgate Old Baths

At the end of the lane running past the Boat House were Parkgate swimming pools. The pools were built by Mr A. G. Grenfell, the dynamic headmaster of Mostyn House School in 1923. The open-air pools were built as a facility for the school, but they were also open to the paying public. They used sea-water, pumped and filtered from the estuary.

The pools were very successful, but with the silting of the River Dee, the water supply for the pools disappeared, and the cost of pumping the water into the pools increased. The baths were closed in 1942 due to the war, and the cost of running them.

In 1947 the baths re-opened thanks to the efforts of local people, but the cost of pumping the water was too much and the venture was not successful. The swimming pool closed again in 1950 for good.

The baths lay abandoned for many years. Eventually the site was cleared, the pool filled in and it became a car park, which is well used by walkers, picnickers and birdwatchers. Two information boards describe the Dee estuary and the Wirral Country Park.