Bude SeaPool

Opened in July 1930 with just over half the money pledged by the Thynne family on a single condition — that swimming be free to everyone — the pool under Summerleaze Point is semi-natural: a man-made wall sunk into the beach, set lower than the high-water mark, so every tide refills it without a pump or a watt of power. When Cornwall Council withdrew funding in 2010, the town formed the Friends of Bude Sea Pool, a charity that has maintained it since 2012 on donations, memberships and the work of around two hundred volunteers. It stays what it was promised to be: free, unbooked, open every day of the year — roughly ninety metres by forty-five of tamed Atlantic. Lifeguards cover high season only.