It stood pride of place in a town centre for almost 100 years before it was closed in the late 1980s and later demolished.

Sittingbourne's swimming pool and public baths were used by thousands of people from generations of local families.

They were opened in July 1896 by paper mill owner Frank Lloyd who'd used his own money.

The philanthropist wanted to provide something for the town and for his workers so they had a nice place to relax and get clean.

According to Swale libraries, it cost £2,080 – £307,000 in today's money – to build and had about 23,000 bathers during the months they were open.

Most houses back then would not have had indoor toilets, never mind bathrooms.

Situated on St Michael's Road near where the fire station now is, the baths were a popular part of town life.

Allen Whitnell is chairman of Sittingbourne Heritage Museum, which has premises in East Street and the Forum shopping centre.

He has vivid memories of the baths and pool and still remembers the man who taught him to swim back in the 1960s.

He said: "I imagine people would have travelled to come to the baths from all the surrounding areas and towns.

"I remember Mr McLaren, who was the manager at the time, teaching me to swim and I imagine a lot of people remember him.

"Everyone who was a child at the time in Sittingbourne would have learnt to swim there.

"This was more than 50 years ago for me, but I also remember getting hot chocolate all the time to warm-up after swimming.

"It wasn't particularly dirty, and there were diving boards and spring boards, and even swimming galas there.

"It was always closed in winter and I remember that I wasn't very happy about that because I wanted to go.

"In fact, in the winter it was used for indoor bowls."

The swimming bath was open from April 13 until October 12.

The 68-year-old recalls the boys' changing rooms were down a level and the girls' ones were up a level.

The facility closed around the time the purpose-built Swallows leisure centre opened in 1989 at the other side of the town centre.

The old baths were in an area known as The Butts.

Allen added: "It was a place where people used to go for target practice, archery and stuff like that.

"In the end, roads were built through it, and it's now just an area of waste, which is used as a car park [for the nearby railway station] – nothing has been built in its place."

Retired town couple Nicky Mayett, 68, and Victoria Mayett, 70, remember spending their childhoods at the baths and pools.

Nicky said the boys' changing rooms were cold and murky, and he would buy a season ticket for the pools in the summer with his friends – sometimes going twice a day.

"There were three diving boards and some of them were quite high so we'd dive to impress girls," he said.

Victoria recollects how there were also windows on the front and side of the building that were so high up you couldn't see out of them.

She said: "I remember as you went into the front door it was arched, and the floor was Victorian patterned tiles.

"You would go to the desk on the right-hand side to buy your tickets, which would be for swimming, the public baths, or to be a spectator."

Victoria recalls going through a black turnstyle and up stone black stairs to the girls' changing rooms.

Here, there were benches with "ornate iron bits" where she would sit to get changed.

When you went back down stairs, you would come through a door to the deep end.

She added: "Before you would go into the baths you would have to wash your feet in a grotty foot pond – it was a grimy, horrible thing.

"I was scared of water and couldn't swim so I was always petrified to walk past the deep end because boys would wait there and try and push you in."

What do you remember of the baths before they closed? Email sittingbourne@thekmgroup.co.uk