The swimming pond has become a contemporary garden design staple and though styles differ, the principle is consistent: mini-ecosystems of plants and micro-organisms in shallower ‘regeneration zones’ to purify a deeper pool. With no chemicals required, swimming ponds are relatively low-maintenance and eco-friendly, not to mention aesthetically pleasing.

Swimming ponds mark a turn away from the turquoise, chlorine-treated pools that remained fashionable for decades from the 1930s onwards. They also echo the spring-fed plunge pools of 18th-century estates such as Painswick in Gloucestershire — linked, in their day, with a wide array of health benefits.

As a cultural historian who studies freshwater bathing, I’ve been piecing together another, overlooked chapter in this story that chimes wi

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