Pitsford Open Water Swimming (SwimCube) Wild Swimming

Pitsford Water is an Anglian Water reservoir at Brixworth Country Park, NN6 9DG, six miles north of Northampton. SwimCube run the only swim you are allowed: supervised sessions in a marked zone at the edge of the sailing-club boundary. You go because the East Midlands actually has a ticketed reservoir with a lifeguard and an 800m loop, and because the rest of Pitsford is a “no swimming” water-company lake. You also go knowing you are in a nature reserve. Birds, bays, four feeder streams. Do not freelance.

Getting in

Book. Anglian Water Parks point at the Wild app and the Pitsford pages of the Wild site. SwimCube also point at the NOWCA ACTiO app after they joined the network in April 2026. If one calendar looks empty, check the other. Arrive 15 minutes early. Wristband at the swim hut, scanned in and out.

A one-hour session is £7 on the Anglian Water Parks tariff. Introduction to open water with Keri-anne Payne is £20. Wetsuit hire £5, tow-float hire £1, bright hat from £9. Wetsuits optional; skins means a tow float. Bright hat mandatory. Age 8+ if you can already swim 200m. Ages 8–11 need consent before they attend.

NOWCA’s published grid (check ACTiO; they say times vary): summer April–October Saturday 08:00–10:00, Sunday 15:00–17:00; midweek evenings May–October Tuesday and Thursday 19:00–20:00. Winter October–April Saturday 09:30–11:30.

The swim

Marked reservoir, not the whole water. Anglian Water Parks list a 300m loop and an 800m loop. NOWCA lists 250m, 400m and 800m. Trust the buoys on the day. Trained open-water lifeguard on every session. Outside those times the water is closed, including to dogs.

NOWCA’s write-up is a wildlife pitch as much as a swim one: four streams feeding shallow bays, wildfowl in winter, migrating waders in summer, more than 60 bird species on the reserve. You are in that landscape. Stay in the marked zone. Coaching sits on the NOWCA activity list alongside the public sessions; the Keri-anne Payne intro is the published first-timer product on the Anglian Water Parks page.

Postcode NN6 9DG for Brixworth Country Park. Head to the water, turn left along the access track. Swim area is at the sailing-club boundary. Parking is paid on site. Toilets at the country park. Anglian Water Parks currently flag no showers. NOWCA lists changing rooms, a café, a shop and kit hire — treat the Anglian “no showers” line as the one that will ruin your morning if you believed the other. Put valuables in the car; they have a key board.

Worth knowing

Pitsford is a working reservoir and a wildlife site. Unauthorised swimming is not a grey area. If the Wild or ACTiO calendar has no slot, you are walking the seven-mile gravel track, not swimming. Follow PITSFORD OWS (SWIMCUBE) on NOWCA Wild for updates.

Course length and in-water time will shrink in the cold. Winter is Saturday mornings. Thunder and fog will cancel. It is a country-park start, not a members’ changing-room quarry. Bring a warm layer you can reach the second you get out. The water will feel colder than the air, even in August.