The pool itself is very near to the modern Lethe Grove estate, within Friday Woods. It is marked by a deep hollow in the ground, which two enormous horse chestnut trees tower above. Their roots are eroded, word and fully exposed on one side. It is a strangely eerie and beautiful sight.
Sadly, many people have seen fit to use the site as a dumping ground for rubbish. It is such a shame as the pool, in its day, was a stunning sight. A semi circular shelter stood at one end of the pool, with three recesses for Charlotte and her maids to sit in. The pool itself was built in red bricks and decorated with hundreds of shells. In the central recess was a massive stone bearing Charlotte's name.
To see it now, you would never imagine the splendour of it. A picture of what remained of it in 1926-7 is located in Colchester Library. It shows a vague shadow of what it might have been. Even that looks beautiful.
In a newspaper report from the 1930s, the pool is described as follows:
"Here in Leafy Grove is Charlotte's bathing pool, snugly built in the rising earth, and below, near where the small crystal stream of spring water flows eternally onwards is the pool itself. The pool is circular in shape, encased in red bricks and cement, rather small in circumference. Cut on the rising ground is Charlotte's toilet room, a perfect little arcade. Here in the centre is Charlotte's little niche, where she could rest at her ease, disrobe, walk out and descend a few steps and enter the circular shape pool and bask in the limpid waters. Her two maids, who had seats in the crescent shaped niches, formed a useful bodyguard, together with the large and faithful wolfhound resting on the rising ground above the pool where Charlotte took her fresh morning bath."
To purchase a copy of 'Charlotte -The Lady in White' a novel based on the Life of Charlotte White, nee Smyth, please click the link below
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