Rachel Figueira

Bridport Leisure Centre Finance Manager

Rachel Figueira

Rachel Figueira is a familiar face around the centre, being our longest serving member of staff. Having worked at Bridport Leisure Centre for over 28 years she has seen many changes.

Before Rachel joined the team, she visited daily to use the pool and gym, and because of this was approached to see if she would like to join the staff as a part-time centre assistant.

She began working at the centre part-time around her day job in December 1996 which then evolved into full-time Centre Assistant. When the new gym opened in 1997 her role changed again. She explains: “I moved across to work in the gym full-time, that was when the new gym expanded considerably. Before it was an unmanned gym. The bar and children’s disco area were removed, and we expanded right across the top, as we still had a bar in the pavilion.

“I was there for about 3 years doing nonstop inductions because everybody needed one for the new equipment. An opening then came up in memberships and marketing, so I did that for about a year. Then when a position became available doing accounts, I thought that’s more me, so I went for that. That must have been around December 2001. Since then, I’ve done my accountancy exams, so I’m a fully qualified accountant and I’ve been doing that job ever since.”

Structural Changes

The building has changed and adapted considerably over the years, Rachel explains: “There have been lots of changes, we had a café up by the poolside, Angharad, Jo and Val used to run it. I have some good memories of that. Val quite regularly got the firemen down here, I’m not sure why! We’ve upgraded the fitness suite several times, we’ve had new studios built. The two studios near the squash courts plus the Bacit studio. The Bacit studio was an empty room where we used to do our lifeguard training. The cycle studio, that was just an empty space, that was built on along with the room upstairs, so that was a big expansion.”

Management Team and Centre Staff

Rachel’s role at the centre has evolved, as she is now part of the senior management team. She has worked alongside several Centre Managers, she said: “I’ve seen a lot of changes of staff. When I first worked here, we had an interim manager. Steve Hughes had just left, Steve Buxton was doing interim and then Scott Rolfe came in and then Nick Neale, and it all went downhill from there!” she adds with a wry smile. “Now of course we have Will Thrower, who has also work his way up through the ranks.”

Rachel was asked if she could share any funny stories over the years: “Well Carrie Wallace will share this one with me. The new general manager Nick Neale, within the first week, managed to get his tie caught in the shredder and we had to put the shredder on reverse to get it out, after laughing at him obviously! There are quite a few stories that I can’t disclose for various reasons. If I mention names people will know, Phil Gisborne, Angharad, there’s a few regarding Tricky, Richard Mooney.”

Bridport and West Dorset Sports Trust

The Centre is run by Bridport and West Dorset Sports Trust, which was formed 50 years ago. Rachel said: “There have been a lot of volunteers on the trust. I used to do the minutes and was the unofficial secretary for a number of years, so I got to listen to the strategies. We had a lot of people on the Trust from the local community, Richard Salt was the Chairman for a very long time, he did a sterling job and more recently we had Malcolm Heaver who has just retired.

“There have been several local people, who people would recognise, also users of the centre who were on the trust like Gail White and Nick Forbes, currently we have Caroline Saunders. Obviously, I interact more with financial side of things, there was Nick Frampton, Lesley Steward, Alec Bailey, they were the financial bods on the trust, Alec is still our treasurer now.”

Adapting to Customer Needs

Rachel adds: “The number of members has increased tremendously since we started. We still have some original members here, they still remember me and I still remember them, which is a good thing. But we’ve seen so many new people coming through, just lots more people taking an interest.  It used to be that a lot of people wanted to go to the gym and now there’s a lot of people like the socialisation in the classes as well, so obviously the centre has changed and adapted to trends and what people actually want. Things have changed depending on the needs of the business, as well as the needs of the customers, so the swim school has definitely got busier, also the membership side of things has got busier. We do the children’s camps now, they have adapted, they used to be more specific sports, whereas now its more that everyone can join in, more inclusive. We offer a lot of new activities. We never used to do things like cheerleading and junior swim fit, it used to be swimming, gymnastics, just the basics and now we are trying lots of different things.”

Charity Fancy Dress Days

Rachel has fond memories of the days when the staff would all dress up for charity. She said: “We used to pick a charity, and we had days when we would dress up and raise money. Sometimes there would be a theme and sometimes you’d dress up as anything you like. The staff would dress up, the only thig was that everyone had to be able to do their job, so the lifeguards still had to be able to rescue people, that was quite fun. Generally, we picked a different charity, sometime if we needed a certain thing, we’d do it for the Leisure Centre.”

Classes and Club Affiliations

The Leisure Centre now offers over 100 fitness classes every week, alongside other activities. The wide range on offer has adapted across the years. Rachel explains: “Things have now changed because we interact more with the community. We have Stepping Out Cancer rehab, we have the dementia friendly group, pulmonary rehab and Breathewell. We didn’t have Active Wellbeing specifically; we had what was then deemed Over 50’s. The thing is A) There were a lot of people over 50 who were too fit and able to fit into that category and B) Sometimes under 50’s required the same sort of thing, so that’s why it became more of a wellbeing as opposed to a specific age.

“Barracudas as far as I know they have always been here, they set up when we set up, so they are the affiliated swim club. They grew with the centre and we steer people, if they are that way inclined towards continuing their swimming with them. We also have the affiliation with the Rugby Club, we had the Cricket Club, and there’s Bridport Squash Club.”

A Royal Visit

Prince Edward, a keen real tennis player, opened the Hyde Real Tennis Club in Waldtich in June 1998, which was then run by the Trust. Rachel remembers the day, she said: “I had to contact MI5 because the fire alarm went off when we were up there! Just before Prince Edward arrived one of the members who’d been playing real tennis had a shower and set the alarm off. The security people there said you need to ring this number quickly! Luckily the crisis was averted, and the rest of the day went without a hitch.”

“We’ve seen several royal helicopters, Price Charles, now the King has been here, just landing. He’s been here a couple of times, and Prince Andrew, Prince Edward a couple of times, they use us sometimes as a landing site.

“There’s a lot of security around but the helicopters are very nice, there’s a picture of me with a pilot somewhere, yeah he didn’t take us for a ride! And we are quite often used as a landing site for the Air Ambulance as well. If any other helicopters arrive, we don’t know about them!”

Family ties

“I met my husband Carlos working here. 12 years ago, he came here from Portugal having been in the air force as a physical training instructor. He had the choice to either stay or come over here. He decided over here, and he’s been stuck with me ever since!

“When he came over here, he found a job as a Recreational Supervisor at the centre. He started here in 2012 and left 18 months ago when he moved up to Colfox School as a site supervisor, purely because the hours are better for family life.”

Rewarding work

Rachel sums up her time working at the Centre: “I have enjoyed working here, as always, with any job, there have been times where it’s been more stressful than others, but it always seemed to come out alright in the end. It’s just being open to change and getting used to different people, new people, the way they work, generally it’s working as a team.

“The Leisure Centre is something that is very valuable to the community, and I want it to be here for a long time. It has helped me with my fitness levels and it’s taught my daughter to swim. I would like it here for the future generations as well, because I think it’s a fantastic facility for Bridport.”