Cirencester's open Air pool opened today despite the wet weather.

The heated pool is now open for the 148th year and despite early morning rain, people still flocked to buy their season tickets and have an early morning dip.

Trustee's and volunteers enjoyed a busy opening morning and Trustee Michael Athienites was delighted to see the pool re open and is looking forward to some new events this season.

"It's great to open again," he said. "I think it's really well loved by the town and if you look at the history, a lot of open air pools were closed down due to cuts in public services, it was the people of Cirencester who got together and made sure this pool wasn't closed so it's a unique facility and the oldest open air pool in Britain. it also brings an extra special thing in the summer because outdoor swimming is a completely different experience to indoor swimming.

"A few people have bought their season tickets through our website, but our regular swimmers and season ticket holders come on the day to get them and they're selling pretty well."

"This year we thought we'd try a couple of new things. We're going to have aqua aerobics start on Monday's during the season. We're going to have a couple of late night swims as a lot of our regulars have asked about that and a winter solstice swim."

A handful of people were enjoying a morning swim despite wet weather and lead lifeguard Hannah Niblett was pleased with the turnout on opening day: "We opened the gate at half seven this morning and there were three people queuing and then we had a steady stream every couple of minutes and we've constantly had people in the pool so it's great."