Downstream

and 1970s – as was
Wallingford where, at the
turn of the century, children
had been taught to swim
wearing safety devices
attached to a rope and a stick.
Tami Bowers, who was born
and brought up in Abingdon,
remembers swimming in the
Thames when she was three
or four. ‘My mum took us;
she enjoyed swimming,
though she wasn’t
competitive. There was not a