Ashburton’s dogs were let loose into town’s community-run outdoor pool for the first time on Sunday (September 15) for its inaugural doggy paddle.

Owners were able to swim alongside their hounds at the last session of the season.

‘It was so much fun,’ said pool manager Cat Howard. ‘Absolute bedlam, but we loved it!’

The idea of a dog swim came at a ‘love your pool’ feedback evening. ‘Moretonhampstead and Shoalstone do one at the end of each season, so I did some research about health and safety etc and then the trustees agreed,’ Cat noted.

The dog swim was concluded a packed weekend of events including a night swim and barbecue on the Friday and a family fun closing party earlier on the Sunday.

Ashburton Swimming Pool hopes the events will raise much needed funds so it can carry out maintenance work over the winter. The pool needs to raise £60,000 to fix a leak.