Victorian bathing machine to remain on Eastbourne seafront

The antique has been acquired by Christopher Copping, director of West Rocks Hotel in Grand Parade.

It will now reside at the Natural Fitness Centre, outside Splashpoint Cafe, from April 2027.

The machine, believed to be one of the last of its kind in the UK, was located at a local allotment in 1999.

Staff at the Langham Hotel, formerly managed by Julian Martyr, helped restore the machine and the Eastbourne Borough Millennium Task Force Group contributed £500 to the wheels.

Neil Kirby inherited the machine when taking over the hotel in 2005, but sold it after retiring in July.

The first bathing machines were introduced in the 1730s as part of the etiquette for sea bathing and rules enforcing gender separation on public beaches.

It proved effective in ensuring modesty as those using the machine would be pulled into about three feet of water by a horse while getting changed.

The horse would then be un-hooked, the ladder fixed, and the bather would then swim.

After the swim, they would re-enter the bathing machine to change before being drawn back up the beach to exit the machine.

But many of the machines were sold off in the early 1900s after gender separation rules were scrapped.

By the 1920s, they had fallen almost entirely out of use, with many converted into stationary beach huts or dismantled for parts.

But now one of the UK’s last remaining bathing machines will continue to draw visitors to Eastboune seafront.