Beaches & swimming in EnglandEngland

Pale sand, serpentine stacks and turquoise water in a National Trust cove on the Lizard, much of it covered at high tide.

Cornwall

Curved sandy bay under red-roofed cottages.

North Yorkshire

A vast golden sweep of sand backed by pinewoods and saltmarsh, regularly voted Britain's finest beach.

Norfolk

Vast golden sands beneath the great castle.

Northumberland

The limestone sea arch that defines the Jurassic Coast.

Dorset

Jagged folded rock strata on wild coast.

Devon

Near-perfect circular bay scooped from folded limestone.

Dorset

White sand cove below the Minack cliffs.

Cornwall

Harbour town, 199 steps and Dracula lore.

North Yorkshire

Three-mile golden surf beach.

Devon

Newquay's great Atlantic surf beach.

Cornwall

Part-natural tidal pool built into the rocks of Summerleaze Beach in the 1930s, free to swim in all year.

Cornwall

A riverside lido on the Waveney, saved by local people in 2010 and now heated and open all year.

Suffolk

A 1932 seafront lido in Brightlingsea, the last in Essex, rescued and run by volunteers since 2018.

Essex

A Victorian swimming bath of about 1850 in Clifton, restored in 2008 as a heated pool with a spa and restaurant.

Bristol

A Grade II-listed 1935 lido with a heated 50 m pool and fountain in gardens on the edge of Cheltenham's centre.

Gloucestershire

Wooded coastal glen in Hastings Country Park, dropping past a small cascade to a hidden cove.

East Sussex

A 50 m lido of 1933 in Stoke Park, Guildford, built partly by unemployed men in the Depression and now open all year.

Surrey

Art Deco seawater lido of 1935 on the rocks at Penzance, with a geothermally heated pool beside the big unheated one.

Cornwall

Small granite-quarried cove in a wooded Penwith valley, long a haunt of painters and writers.

Cornwall

Seawater baths of 1833 on the Lymington River, one of the oldest open-air baths in Britain, looking out to the Isle of Wight.

Hampshire

A 33 m heated pool on the Portishead seafront, saved by a community campaign in 2008 and run by a local charity since.

Somerset

A Grade II* Art Deco lido of 1938 shaped like an ocean liner, saved by a community campaign and reopened in 2017.

East Sussex

A 53 m seawater pool on the rocky shore at Brixham, kept going by volunteers and free to swim through the summer.

Devon

Semicircular Art Deco seawater lido of 1935 on the rocks below Plymouth Hoe, looking out over Plymouth Sound.

Devon

A walled sea pool of over four acres on the Cliftonville shore at Margate, built in 1937 and refilled by every tide.

Kent

A walled Victorian sea pool on the rocks of the Westward Ho! seafront, refilled by every high tide and free to swim.

Devon

One of the quietest coastal beaches in the county, with dunes, estuary views and the colourful village behind.

Northumberland

A remote horseshoe cove ringed by high, fossil-rich cliffs on the wild south Purbeck coast, reached only on foot.

Dorset

A dramatic combe of scree and heather on the Exmoor coast, where the Heddon river reaches a boulder shore.

Devon

A rocky, fossil-rich foreshore of grey lias ledges on the Quantock coast, backed by a ruined oil retort and old chantry.

Somerset

A small sandy Thanet cove with a natural chalk arch at its northern end, below a mock-castle folly.

Kent

A remote row of coastguard cottages on a mile of lonely shingle at the mouth of the Ore, known for seals and a shell line.

Suffolk

A wide, empty crescent of shingle and cliff below the abandoned Tyneham valley, open only when the Lulworth ranges are quiet.

Dorset

A shingle beach at the foot of the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs, reached by a steel staircase and looked after by the National Trust

East Sussex

A sandy Thanet beach north of Broadstairs, known for the white chalk stacks standing out of the sand at low tide

Kent

A wide sheltered bay of golden sand, popular for kayaking and paddleboarding beside the old lime-kiln harbour.

Northumberland

A rocky fossil-hunting cove just south of Robin Hood's Bay, named for a mischievous local sprite.

North Yorkshire

A river-fed pool dug by Chagford villagers in 1933 beside the Teign on the edge of Dartmoor, still run by volunteers.

Devon

A walled sea pool built in 1959 into Chapel Rock, the flag-topped stack in the middle of Perranporth's beach.

Cornwall

One of England's oldest open-air pools, opened in 1870 beside Cirencester Park, spring-fed and run by volunteers.

Gloucestershire

A walled sea-water lake of 1929 beside the beach at Clevedon, topped up by the big tides and free to swim all year.

Somerset

A quiet local's beach south of Berwick, with rock pools, dunes and old lime kilns above the shore.

Northumberland

A wild, fast-eroding beach of golden cliffs backed by the Benacre Broad lagoon, reached on foot past a ruined church.

Suffolk

An open-air pool topped up with natural brine from under the town, salty enough to make you float noticeably higher.

Worcestershire

A long curve of golden sand backed by dunes and links, overlooked by the ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle.

Northumberland

A heated 1936 open-air pool in the Hope Valley, with its original bandstand beside the water and open all year.

Derbyshire

A Grade II-listed 1935 lido with a round, mushroom-shaped pool on the grass below Ilkley Moor.

West Yorkshire