Those who drown on Britain’s beaches are often daytrippers who have travelled from inland and are unfamiliar with a particular beach’s tides or currents, says Prof Mike Tipton, co-founder of the International Drowning Researchers’ Alliance. “This statistic is so alarming for me as we live in a country surrounded by water, and I’ve seen first-hand just how petrified some children can be in and around water and it really frightens me,” says Swim United ambassador Michael Gunning. Such figures look set to worsen in light of rising energy costs with more than 100 UK pools predicted to close or reduce service by summer 2023. Yet, recent statistics from Sport England show that almost 1 in 3 (28 per cent) children are now leaving school unable to swim, up from 1 in 4 (25 per cent) in 2022. Today, we think of swimming as a life skill – like learning to cook or drive.
(In the late 19th century, it was estimated that between 2,264 and 3,659 people drowned every year – in 2021 this figure was 277.) Still, swimming was slow to take off for the simple reason that much of the population was unable to swim. In the 18th century, the sea at Brighton found favour when a Dr Russell prescribed its benefits to his wealthy clients. However in 1667 in the UK, a Dr Robert Wittie started the trend towards using our coastline recreationally when he recommended sea bathing at Scarborough, North Yorkshire, for a range of ailments.
The brutal fact is that hidden dangers lurk in even the most popular, and seemingly safe, beach locations.Īnd, in fact, for centuries, venturing into the water was a dangerous pastime some countries, such as Germany, even banned it, viewing bodies of water as sinister. Camber has sandbars that can catch people out when the tide comes in rapidly, sometimes forcing people to wade, or swim, through deep water to reach shore. The incident in Dorset, which is still under investigation, was preceded by the deaths of seven men, five of them young friends, at Camber Sands in 2016. A strong current known as a rip tide is currently believed to have caused the tragedy, which required 10 swimmers to be pulled from the water. The deaths of two young people on a beach in Bournemouth last week served as a reminder that amid all the fun, the sea remains a dangerous and unpredictable place to be.
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