Once you start swimming outdoors you soon realise it is not straightforward. You find you are coming up against issues such as safety and access.

Page on access: link to the Outdoor Swimming Society inland water access guide, and some links on access and legality: Access guide and legality, including to Sixteen reasons why we need UK-wide swimming access in reservoirs

Page on Landowner liability and swimmers

Page on swimming safely in rivers and lakes: Swim safety

Download Note: Risks to health and safety of outdoor swimming, and how to mitigate them (Word.doc, 5 pages)

Some notes: on risks and benefits of swimming; and more info on risks, finding places, moving on once you get started

Page on Drowning prevention campaigns & stats

Page on Bathing water quality

Page on Swimming after rain and in bad weather

Page on Getting Started in Inland Outdoor Swimming

Page on swimming safely in tidal rivers and estuaries: Swimming in Tidal Rivers and Estuaries

This page, Swimming in the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads allows you to follow links or download notes and advice on swimming in tidal rivers, getting started in open water, and places to swim in the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads.

There is a separate section on the website,  OS Brecks, about two projects on outdoor swimming in the Brecks, with one – Healing Waters – focussing on swim safety and access, and the other – Tales from the River – on history, including swim places. These projects are part of The Brecks Fen Edge & Rivers Landscape Partnership Scheme (BFER), supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.