Preserving 100 years of Bristol Channel swimming history
In 2027, we celebrate 100 years since Kathleen Thomas made her pioneering swim across the Bristol Channel on 5 September 1927.
Monster Swims already holds the most complete database of Bristol Channel swims but to mark this centenary, we have launched a historical research project to document the swimmers, crossings, records and personal stories that have shaped Bristol Channel swimming over the past century.
The project aims to bring together historical swimming records, newspaper reports, photographs, certificates, personal recollections, maps of the routes taken and family archives into a publicly accessible collection.
An evolving historical archive
This project is very much a work in progress.
We have started by researching the earliest recorded successful crossings, creating individual profiles for the swimmers involved. Some biographies already contain substantial historical information, while others currently include only the basic crossing details.
Over time, we intend to expand these profiles with further research, original documents, interviews, photographs and personal stories.
Historical records are not always consistent. Dates, crossing directions and recorded times occasionally differ between sources. Where discrepancies arise, we aim to document them transparently and update the records as stronger evidence becomes available.
If you have any information on historic swims, are a Bristol Channel swimmer yourself, please get in touch, we would love to have your input!
Historical swimmers and crossings
The following table covers the first 29 entries in our historical results register, from 1927 to 2021 and the formation of the BCSA. Click a swimmer’s name to explore their biography. The full list of Bristol Channel soloists can be found here.
| No. | Swimmer | Year | Crossing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kathleen Thomas | 1927 | Penarth – Weston-super-Mare |
| 2 | Edith Parnell | 1929 | Penarth – Weston-super-Mare |
| 3 | Harry Luscombe | 1929 | Penarth – Weston-super-Mare |
| 4 | Edward Temme | 1933 | Penarth – Weston-super-Mare |
| 5 | Jenny James | 1948* | Penarth – Weston-super-Mare |
| 6 | Jenny James | 1950 | Penarth – Weston-super-Mare* |
| 7 | Florence Chadwick | 1957 | Weston-super-Mare – Penarth* |
| 8 | Gerald Forsberg | 1964 | Penarth – Weston-super-Mare |
| 9 | Kevin Murphy | 1971 | Glenthorne – Porthcawl |
| 10 | Jane Luscombe | 1976 | Glenthorne – Porthcawl |
| 11 | Ted Keenan | 1975 | Glenthorne – Porthcawl |
| 12 | D. I. Jones | 1977 | Glenthorne – Porthcawl |
| 13 | Jeffrey Lloyd | 1979 | Glenthorne – Porthcawl |
| 14 | Kaye Daniels | 1982 | Glenthorne – Porthcawl |
| 15 | Steve Price | 1991 | Penarth – Clevedon |
| 16 | Steve Price | 1992 | Clevedon – Penarth |
| 17 | Steve Price | 1994 | Clevedon – Penarth – Clevedon |
| 18 | Gary Carpenter | 2007 | Penarth – Clevedon |
| 19 | Gethin (Geth) Jones | 2009 | Ilfracombe – Swansea |
| 20 | Siân Clement | 2016 | Ilfracombe – Swansea |
| 21 | Alec Richardson | 2017 | Penarth – Clevedon |
| 22 | Kamil Resa Alsaran | 2020 | Glenthorne – Monknash |
| 23 | Joanne (Jo) Jones | 2020 | Penarth – Clevedon |
| 24 | Tom Chapman | 2021 | Penarth – Brean Down |
| 25 | Claire Leighton | 2021 | Glenthorne – Monknash |
| 26 | Tom Chapman | 2021 | Penarth – Clevedon |
| 27 | Andrew Wolf | 2021 | Penarth – Clevedon |
| 28 | Victoria Lea | 2021 | Glenthorne – Witches Point |
| 29 | Tom Chapman | 2021 | Porthcawl – Devon, near Glenthorne |
The Historical Chart
In some swims, our research has uncovered a tantalising glimpse of the routes the historic swims have taken. In some cases this has been hand drawn routes on admiralty charts. scrappy photographs of a boats plotter screen or even just a basic scribble with a hand drawn map. The map below is our best effort to re-create all of the historical crossings in the same interactive track map format all of our modern swims follow here. Swet Child send her position back to the database every 10 seconds; the tracks below have been digitised and approximated from a whole range of sources so SHOULD NOT be taken to be perfectly accurate! As with our modern database, you should be able to click the tracks and open each swimmers write ups!
Bristol Channel · Historical Swim Tracks
Explore the crossings and the records that survive. Select a swimmer to follow their route and read their story.
Dashed lines: approximate reconstructions. Solid lines: recorded GPS tracks. Sources are shown for each swim. Reconstructed routes may include estimated shore connections and are historical illustrations, not navigation records.