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HISTORY OF THE ACROSS MERSEY SWIM
With the first swim across the Mersey recorded in 1863,
Tri 4 Life’s founder, Liam Hanlon, takes us through the history of
‘The Across Mersey Swim’, its swimmers, supporters and challenges it faces today.
Anyone familiar with the Wirral Peninsular and the iconic
views of the Liverpool skyline will relate to the mystic allure
of the mighty River Mersey. An ever changing mural of
activity that has shaped this great city and surrounding areas
for many centuries.
People can relate to the city and the river for many diverse
reasons. For a select few however, the river itself has provoked
a certain desire since the first recorded successful swim across
the Mersey in 1863 and swimmers from every generation since
have faced the same challenge against an ever changing tide of
bureaucracy.
The first recorded ‘Across Mersey Swim’ was organised by John
Hulley (The Forgotten Man of British Olympic History) as part
of the Grand Liverpool Olympic Festival in 1863. The swim
attracted nine swimmers, with thousands of spectators watching
the swim from both sides of the river. Only two managed to
finish, had swum over five miles and were in the water for
nearly two hours.
The ‘Across Mersey Swim’ and the Grand National were the top
two major events in Liverpool that year and attracted thousands
of spectators at both events. Captain Webb first swam across
the Mersey in 1876 - the year after he became the first person
to swim the English Channel solo. The swim then became an
annual event for the next 62 years and was only stopped with
the advent of WWII in 1938.
It was following this period that local swimming legend Jimmy
Tinsley became the first person on Merseyside to successfully
swim the English Channel in 1987, and swimmers from both
sides of the river began looking to renew the tradition of the
‘Across Mersey Swim’. Merseyside Police for many years swam
with the tide from Seacombe to New Brighton.
The post war ‘Across Mersey Swim’ was started in 1994 by
Jimmy Tinsley, Bob Jones and Robin Baynes following their
successful English Channel Relay Swim, as members of the
City of Liverpool Swimming Club (Cold Water Section). Both
swims were in memory of Barbara Marshall (Robin’s sister in
law) raising £35,000 for the Royal Liverpool University Hospital
(RLUH) ‘Forget me not Cancer Appeal’.
In the first year, the swim was started on a low tide with all
swimmers ending up in Garston Docks, swimming seven and
a half miles instead of the anticipated one and half miles from
Rock Park to Britannia Pub.
In 1997, the swim was supported by The King and Queen of
the Channel, Mike Read and Allison Streeter, who have swam
the English Channel successfully over 50 times between them.
Unfortunately, the swim was cancelled at the last minute due to
the atrocious weather conditions. An alternative swim of three
laps of the Albert Dock was organised by Jimmy Tinsley from
City of Liverpool SC. The winner that year was Graeme Gunn
from Northern Ireland.
The following year Robin Baynes, Jimmy Tinsley and Bob Jones
were invited to a meeting with North West Water (NWW),
who provided sponsorship for the swim for the following three
years. The monies raised were divided equally between BMMF
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