When modesty was the fashion on the Bognor seafront

She can only be likened to our modern lifeguard who sits and watches over swimmers.

However life for Mary was very different. She was born Mary Norris in 1835 and remained in the village of Aldingbourne until in 1857 she married George Wheatland, who was a labourer.

They moved to Bognor where she played an important role in the seaside scene. When she first arrived in Bognor there was no pier or promenade, and only a few visitors.

She taught herself to swim and subsequently instructed visitors in the delights of swimming. Mary soon became legendary, operating the bathing machines in front of the Beach Hotel.

In an 1869 guidebook for the area, it was noted that bathing arrangements were excellent with plenty of machines with 'their stout good humoured bathing women and fishermen attendants'.

But what was a bathing machine? According to folklore it was 'a contraption on wheels'.

A bather entered the machine. It was then pulled down the beach by a horse until water came up to the hub. The horse was then unchained and led out of the water until the bather had finished swimming.

The horse and chains were then reattached at the other end and the machine was hauled back up the beach, while the bather got dressed during the very bumpy ride up the beach.

In 1959, The Times. in a recollections section, provided users with insight into these machines.

"They were so incredibly high, with their four tall wooden wheels and steps up to the front door, which opened on the beach side to the mysterious and darkened interior, lit only by a small shuttered porthole on either side," quoted The Times.

"This dark interior, flanked by two wooden seats, was always damp and the floor was deliciously gritty with moist sand left by the previous bathers' feet, the place having also a peculiar and attractive sea-weedy smell."

Mary's machines were in fact painted with yellow and red stripes. She was to be seen with medals attached to her serge coat, one of which was presented to her by the Royal Humane Society in 1879 for saving a WP Manly, who got into severe difficulties in stormy seas.

Apparently Mary rushed into the sea fully dressed to rescue Mr Manly until others reached her to bring them both in.

It is interesting to note that women and boys up to the age of ten bathed at one end of the beach while men and boys over ten bathed at the other end. It was certainly deemed to be incorrect for men to be in a position to view more than the ankles of women.

The swimmers could hire both their bathing costume and a towel from Mary before they entered the machine to undress.

On returning to the beach, they would return their costume and towel, which Mary would wash and lay out to dry, ready for the next swimmer. A far cry from today!

A large number of postcards of the time were sent home to friends and relatives to show their swimming instructor. Mary in fact was the only person to have her own image produced on postcards by so many of the production companies.

She continued to operate these machines on the beach until 1909, when she decided to retire at the age of 74.

During this time, she was attributed to having saved more than 30 lives and her boast was that she 'never lost a life'. She operated at a time when dukes and their families came to the area, and at one time she was offered a ride in a carriage and pair. She was later offered a ride in a motor car but remarked 'you won't catch me in one of them things'.

She also had strong views on modern dress. She once remarked that in her day, 'ladies wore respectable costumes, and I always wore a blue serge dress down to my feet, but today I don't know what things are coming to'. I wonder what she would make of the 21st century!

Many families returned to the area annually and Mary was always pleased to teach children and eventually their children to swim. She still frequented the seafront for a number of years until her death at the age of 89 in 1924. She was laid to rest in South Bersted churchyard.

An impressive funeral ceremony was held from her home in Ivy Lane. The procession wended its way along a picturesque lane to the church.

Many of her descendants still live in the town, and of course have their own memories and family stories of this wonderful personality.

Alongside Mary's business, on the west side of the Pier, another bathing concession was operated by Frederick Jenkins who had moved to the town from Eastbourne as a building contractor.

He had a yard in Longford Road and, as a sideline, he built a number of bathing machines, which he ran with his three horses named Major, Beauty and Lion. His horses were stabled at his Longford Road premises and from June 1 each year, they would be seen drawing the machines up and down the beach for the benefit of the swimmers for a number of seasons.

Wheeled bathing machines were eventually replaced by beach huts, but at the back of the beach around 1923, they were removed from the beaches altogether to leave the beach uncluttered.

But, of course, times were changing and the necessity for a changing room on the beach became less of a need and more of an inconvenience. Frederick Jenkins remained in business until he sold it in 1936.

We tend to think of these bathing machines as a very British tradition. They were called contraptions, boxes on wheels, and for a time modesty machines.

Several years ago, I looked on the internet for information about these contraptions and was surprised to find these machines were also popular in Belgium, Holland, Southern Ireland, Uruguay and Australia.