A small club in Cirencester have reached a big milestone.

The 25 Club – they’re a swimming club – are celebrating their 50^th anniversary, which is obviously a very impressive achievement.

The club meet every Monday evening at 8pm for an hour, excluding bank holidays, at Cirencester Leisure Centre in the heart of the town.

They are a non-competitive club but those who attend the weekly meetings all have one thing in common – a love of swimming.

Sean McVann, who is one of four officers at the club, has been a member for some three decades and he said: “It’s social swimming, the pool is divided into fast and slow lanes.

"Some people are happy to do just a few lengths and have a bit of a chat, while others want to swim for the whole hour and do a mile or a kilometre.”

McVann, who is 68, says he is somewhere in between.

“I call myself a medium swimmer,” he explained. “I keep going for as long as I can, I see if I can do 40 or 50 lengths.

“Most people swim at a sedate pace, it’s straightforward swimming up and down, no diving. There are some fairly decent swimmers but everybody gets something out of it that they enjoy.”

The club have about 30 members – which is well down on years gone by when they had up to 90 – but double the number they had immediately after lockdown.

“We’re an older generation group,” continued McVann. “We rely largely on word of mouth to attract new members.

“In our heyday we used to have an extra session at the leisure centre from 9pm to 10pm because there were so many of us.”

And as with so many clubs, the 25 Club have an interesting back story.

“According to historic documents, the club were formed after a group of ladies had some swimming lessons,” said McVann.

“Their husbands and children could all swim but once they’d learned how to swim they didn’t want to leave it at that, so a lady called Vera Kershaw suggested they formed the 25 Club.”

That was in 1973, but why are they called the 25 Club?

“There’s some debate over that,” admitted McVann. “Some people think it’s because the length of the pool they learned to swim in was 25 metres, others think that it was because initially there were 25 members.”

Another school of thought is that you had to be 25 years old to be eligible for the club, although these days anyone of adult age is welcome to join.

The club were formally constituted in 1974 and one of the original members, Val Pinnell, still retains links with the club today.

“She doesn’t swim with us anymore but she came to our annual meal last year and we’re hoping she’ll come again this year,” said McVann. “Her daughter Gaynor Pinnell still swims with us.”

McVann’s wife Lynda also swims with the club and McVann, who used to live in Gloucester, said: “I moved to Cirencester when we got married. She persuaded me to go along to the club for a bit of exercise and I really enjoyed it.

“I signed up but I remember I did have to wait a couple of months for a vacancy.”

As for the future, McVann, who looks after the club’s finances, is hoping the club can boost their numbers to 40 or 50.

“We have to hire the pool, so if we can attract a few more members we can keep the individual costs down,” said McVann. “We are one of the longest existing clubs who use the facilities at the leisure centre.

“The great thing about swimming is that you can do it at your own pace. The social side is obviously important but you’re in a world of your own.”

Anyone who would like more information about the 25 Club should call McVann on 01285 641210 or email sean.mcvann@yahoo.co.uk