# A Tour of Restored Victorian Baths: answers and explanations

Testmigo Practice Test 3, Listening Part 2

Source: Written by Testmigo.

## Answer key

| Q | Answer | Proof |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 11 | B, D | which cost a lot less to get into |
| 12 | B, D | the town held its dances in here |
| 13 | A, E | the pool you'll swim in is the original tank |
| 14 | A, E | The local club still holds its galas here |
| 15 | C | the café is in the corner of the building |
| 16 | B | right next to the café, at the shallow end |
| 17 | I | a small room in the middle of the far wall |
| 18 | D | The one in the far corner is the gym. |
| 19 | E | Next to the gym, right beside the deep end |
| 20 | H | just beyond the stairs |

## Why these answers are right

**11. B, D.** Graham describes a larger first-class pool and a smaller second-class pool that cost a lot less to get into. Two pools charging different amounts is option B, one of the two letters to choose.

**12. B, D.** In winter the big pool was emptied, covered with a wooden floor and used for the town's dances. Dancing on the covered pool is the different winter use in option D, the second correct letter.

**13. A, E.** The guide says visitors will swim in the original tank from 1889, which has been relined but kept at exactly the same size. People still swim in the main pool, so option A is one answer.

The why and the trap for questions 14 onwards are free with an account on the [answers page](https://testmigo.com/ielts/listening/a-tour-of-restored-victorian-baths/answers).

## Transcript

**Announcer:** Part 2. You will hear a guide talking to a group of visitors at a restored Victorian public baths that has reopened as a swimming pool and community centre.

**Announcer:** First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 14.

**Announcer:** Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 14.

**Guide:** Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Kestrel Road Baths. I'm Graham, and I'm one of the volunteer guides here.

**Guide:** I'll start with some history, then explain what the restoration kept and changed, and then we'll walk round.

**Guide:** Back in eighteen forty-six, Parliament passed the Baths and Washhouses Act. It allowed town councils to spend public money on baths and washhouses, at a time when lots of homes had no bath of their own.

**Guide:** But the Act didn't make councils build anything, and here in Hadderley it took the council more than forty years to agree. The baths finally opened in eighteen eighty-nine.

**Guide:** And it wasn't a wealthy mill owner who paid for it, as people sometimes think. It was the council, with public money.

**Guide:** Now, you may have read that this was the first public baths in the county. I'm afraid it wasn't. Two neighbouring towns had theirs well before us.

**Guide:** When it opened, there were two swimming pools. The larger one was the first-class pool, and the smaller one was second class, which cost a lot less to get into.

**Guide:** There were also slipper baths. Those were small private rooms, each with a bathtub, where you paid for a hot bath.

**Guide:** And in the corner of the building, by the road, was the washhouse, where women came to do the family's washing in big stone sinks.

**Guide:** People often ask me whether men and women swam together. They didn't. Women were allowed in the smaller pool on two afternoons a week, and that was all.

**Guide:** What surprises most visitors is what happened in winter. The big pool was emptied and covered with a wooden floor, and the town held its dances in here.

**Guide:** Sadly, by the nineteen nineties the building was in a poor state, and the council closed it in nineteen ninety-four, because the repairs would've cost too much.

**Guide:** A group of local people spent years raising money, and the baths reopened last spring as a swimming pool and community centre.

**Guide:** So, what did the restoration keep? Well, the pool you'll swim in is the original tank from eighteen eighty-nine. It's been relined, but it's exactly the same size.

**Guide:** Above it is the spectators' gallery, where crowds once watched swimming races. The local club still holds its galas here, and people still pack the gallery to watch them.

**Guide:** We'd hoped to keep the little wooden changing cubicles along the side of the pool, but they'd rotted, so they've all been replaced by modern changing rooms.

**Guide:** The slipper baths have gone as well. There's just one bath left, and that's on display in our heritage room.

**Guide:** The old second-class pool was too shallow for swimmers today, so it's been floored over and turned into the community hall. And the washhouse? That's our café now.

**Announcer:** Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 15 to 20.

**Announcer:** Now listen and answer questions 15 to 20.

**Guide:** Right, if you'd all look at the plan of the ground floor. We're standing in the entrance hall, just inside the main door from Kestrel Road.

**Guide:** If you turn left out of the entrance hall and go along the corridor, you'll pass a door on your left. That's the staff office, so please don't go in there.

**Guide:** Keep going to the very end of the corridor, and the café is in the corner of the building, with big windows looking out onto Kestrel Road.

**Guide:** The changing rooms are right next to the café, at the shallow end of the pool. So when you come out, the pool steps are right in front of you.

**Guide:** Now, if you walk along the side of the pool to the far end, there's a small room in the middle of the far wall. That's the heritage room, with our last slipper bath and lots of old photographs.

**Guide:** From there, carry on round to the deep end. There are two rooms on that side of the pool.

**Guide:** The one in the far corner is the gym. That was the old boiler room, actually.

**Guide:** Next to the gym, right beside the deep end, is the community hall, the old second-class pool I mentioned. It's used for yoga classes and a Saturday market.

**Guide:** Finally, the first-aid room, which is very close to where we're standing. It's on the right-hand side of the entrance hall, just beyond the stairs.

**Guide:** Don't go right to the end of the corridor on that side, though. The room in the corner there is the plant room, and it's kept locked.

**Guide:** Right, follow me, and we'll start upstairs in the gallery.

**Announcer:** That is the end of Part 2. You now have 30 seconds to check your answers.

[Practice A Tour of Restored Victorian Baths](https://testmigo.com/ielts/listening/a-tour-of-restored-victorian-baths)