Publications, outputs, media involvements, and events enabled by this research between 2021-2025 with local, national and international audiences.
Publications
Thesis Link: Forthcoming.
Supervisors: Prof Stewart Barr, Dr Jen Lea, Prof Jo Little (Exeter), and Prof John Wylie (Bristol).
Examined (1st April 2025): Dr Sarah Bell (Exeter) and Dr Kate Moles (Cardiff).
Viva Chair: Dr Ewan Woodley (Exeter).
Faculty: Environment, Science and Economy, (Human Geography, University of Exeter).
Funders: Economic and Social Research Council, South West Doctoral Training Partnership, and the University of Exeter.
Open Access doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2024.103304.
Publication: Health & Place (Elsevier).
Special Issue: Blue Un/Commons: Tracing new directions in research on outdoor swimming.
Led by: Dr Ronan Foley (Maynooth), Dr Rebecca Olive (RMIT), and Dr Kate Moles (Cardiff).
Abstract: Windermere is a complex and contested freshwater site which encounters fluctuating social and environmental pressures. Swimmers at Windermere regularly practice across all four seasons while negotiating social concerns such as access, conflicting user groups, public health communications, and swim safety, alongside environmental complications including extreme weather, wastewater, run-off, plastic pollution, algal blooms, biosecurity, and climate change. Simultaneously, these entangled pressures generate ongoing adaptation, ambivalence, and avoidance within the swim communities. Furthermore, they disrupt individualised and inwardly focused understandings of ‘healthy’ outdoor swimming practices. In contribution to the special issue (on outdoor swimming), this article reflects on how outdoor swimming researchers may methodologically attend to these social and environmental complexities within contested lacustrine environments through an immersive 12-month wet ethnographic approach, combining ‘lake-hangouts’ and ‘swim-along interviews’ with different swimmers at Windermere. The article discusses how these relational in-situ approaches can continue to broaden inwardly focused understandings of ‘healthy’ outdoor swimming practices towards the wider social and environmental relations for both the participants and researcher. The article also highlights senses of ambivalence and ethical tension while negotiating conflicting concerns of ill-health, in and out of Windermere’s fragile waters.
Creative Research Outputs
Date: Forthcoming.
Director: Juliet Klottrup.
Director of Photography: Henry Gill.
Research: Taylor Butler-Eldridge.
Production Company: CANADA.
Editing Company: STITCH.
Editor: Rich Woolway.
Post: Freefolk.
Sound: SINE.
Project Details: Voicing the tensions of Windermere’s fragile conservation, community, climate, heritage and future.
Date: 3rd July 2024.
Podcast Link: A Deep Dive Into Windermere (UKCEH Research Podcast).
Podcast Producer: Rachael Buchanan.
Hosts: Sue Nelson (Boffin Media) and Alice Hope (UKCEH).
Speakers: Dr Ellie Mackay (UKCEH), Dr Heather Moorhouse (UKCEH), and Taylor Butler-Eldridge (Exeter).
Project Details: Freshwater scientists at UKCEH, Ellie Mackay and Heather Moorhouse spoke about ongoing long-term water-quality monitoring, while Taylor discussed the conflicting health motivations and concerns of swimming at Windermere.
Date: 13th March 2024.
Link: Swimming with Care at Windermere (Collaborative Research Zine).
Lead: Taylor Butler-Eldridge (Exeter).
Illustrator: Bethan Thorsby (Sporadic Illustration).
Dissemination: Online, social media, and 300 printed copies to invested local community and international multi-disciplinary researchers.
Project Details: Combining Taylor’s 12-month ethnographic reflections and Bethan’s connection to Windermere, alongside quotes from all forty (40) participants. Together, the zine illustrated the heightened more-than-human health concerns at Windermere and advocated for socially and environmentally responsible swimming practice. It was disseminated in print/online for all participants, the Windermere Science Evening and OSRF24 attendees, alongside invested swimmers and communities at Windermere, freshwater charities/ecologists, and international researchers across multiple disciplines and events.
Funding: Economic and Social Research Council and South West Doctoral Training Partnership Impact Fund.
Media Involvements
Date: 11th October 2024.
Article Link: Outdoor Swimming Research Forum holds inaugural meeting.
Author: Kerry Watkiss.
Publication: Swim England (Online).
Date: 1st October 2024.
Article Link: Outdoor Swimming Research Forum Convenes First Inaugural Meeting at Windermere Jetty Museum.
Author: Tima Vlatso.
Publication: World Open Water Swimming Association (Online).
Date: 7th October 2024.
Article Link: Windermere: Nature Connection and Swimming.
Author: Niamh Lewis.
Publication: Out and Back (Online).
Date: 1st October 2024.
Article Link: Windermere’s Fragile Waters: Research on Swimming amid Environmental Health Challenges.
Author: Tima Vlatso.
Publication: World Open Water Swimming Association (Online).
Date: 26th September 2024.
Article Link: Swimming Studies in Windermere.
Author: Jonathan Cowie.
Publication: Outdoor Swimmer Magzine (Print/Online).
Date: 26th March 2023.
Article Link: Call for Swim-Along Interviews in Windermere.
Author: Jo Tinsley.
Publication: Outdoor Swimmer Magzine (Print/Online).
Hosted Research Events
Date: 12-13th September 2024.
Link: #OSRF24 – Outdoor Swimming Research Forum 2024.
Event Details: The research forum shared and generated research opportunities with professional organisations, academic researchers, and others actively invested in outdoor swimming – hosting 45 guests, 13 presentations, 3 films, a workshop, and a safeguarded swim at Rayrigg Meadow.
Attendance: 45 Guests from 35+ academic and non-academic institutions.
Speakers: Taylor Butler-Eldridge (Exeter), Dr Ronan Foley (Maynooth), Dr Heather Massey (Portsmouth) and Hannah Denton (Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust), Dr Rebecca Olive (RMIT), Elitsa Penkova (Exeter), Maggy Blagrove (Open Minds Active CIC), Damian Stevenson (Black Swimming Association), Prof Svenja Adolphs (Nottingham) and Prof Suzanne McGowan (Netherlands Institute of Ecology), Gilly McArthur (Swim Guide) and Jonathan Cowie (Outdoor Swimmer Magazine), Dr Eva McGrath (Plymouth), Prof Joyce Harper (University College London), Dr Sally Sutton (Plymouth), and Prof Caroline Scarles (Brunel University London).
Lead: Taylor Butler-Eldridge.
Co-Hosts: Dr Rebecca Olive (RMIT), Dr Ronan Foley (Maynooth), and Dr Kate Moles (Cardiff).
Event Support: Jess Emsley (Nottingham Trent).
Videographer: Ben Cannon.
Local Swim Guides: Heidi Kearsey, Wayne Singleton, Jonathan Cowie, and Gilly McArthur.
Social Media: Ged Dolan.
Venue: Windermere Jetty Museum, Bowness-on-Windermere.
Funding: Economic and Social Research Council and South West Doctoral Training Partnership Collaborative Research Funding.
Date: 20th March 2024.
Link: Windermere Science Evening: Dips, Depths, and Directions.
Event Details: This event shared long-term data insights alongside the local, national, and global action needed to improve water quality and ecological health within the Windermere catchment. We offered balanced and critical perspectives while the local community could learn more and ask further questions.
Attendance: In-person and Live-Streamed (140 Guests).
Lead: Taylor Butler-Eldridge (Exeter).
Speakers: Taylor Butler-Eldridge (Exeter), Dr Louise Lavictoire (Freshwater Biological Association), Dr Ellie Mackay and Steve Thackeray (UKCEH), Sammy Graves (South Cumbria Rivers Trust), and Dr Ben Surridge (Lancaster Environment Centre).
Tech Support: Matt Burke and Ben Cannon.
Venue: Old Laundry Theatre, Bowness-on-Windermere.
Public Lectures, Workshops & Research Forums
Date: 6th November 2025 (Forthcoming).
Event: Cumbrian Lakes Research Forum 2025 (10 Year Anniversary).
Hosts: Dr Heather Moorhouse, Dr Ellie Mackay, and Dr Steve Thackeray (UKCEH).
Venue: Windermere Jetty Museum, Bowness-on-Windermere.
Date: 12th September 2024.
Presentation Link: Swimming with Care at Windermere (Talk).
Event: OSRF24 – Outdoor Swimming Research Forum 2024.
Hosts: Taylor Butler-Eldridge (Exeter), Dr Rebecca Olive (RMIT), Dr Ronan Foley (Maynooth) and Dr Kate Moles (Cardiff).
Venue: Windermere Jetty Museum, Bowness-on-Windermere.
Date: 29th November 2023.
Contribution: 20 Year Plan (Leisure and Recreation) – Among 60 other stakeholders.
Event: Love Windermere Long Term Planning Stakeholder Workshop.
Hosts: Love Windermere Partnership (Environment Agency North West).
Venue: Castle Green Hotel: Kendal.
Date: 8th November 2023.
Presentation Link: Negotiating Outdoor Swimming and Environmental Health at Windermere.
Event: Cumbrian Lakes Research Forum 2023.
Hosts: Dr Heather Moorhouse, Dr Ellie Mackay, and Dr Steve Thackeray (UKCEH).
Venue: UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH), Lancaster University.
Date: 20th September 2023.
Event: Online Author Workshop for Special Issue in Health & Place – Blue Un/commons: Tracing New Directions in Research on Outdoor Swimming.
Hosts: Dr Ronan Foley (Maynooth), Dr Rebecca Olive (RMIT), and Dr Kate Moles (Cardiff).
Date: 20th March 2024.
Presentation Link: Outdoor Swimming and Environmental Health at Windermere.
Event: Windermere Science Evening: Dips, Depths, and Directions.
Host: Taylor Butler-Eldridge (Exeter).
Venue: Old Laundry Theatre, Bowness-on-Windermere.
Academic Conferences
Date: 25th June 2025 (Forthcoming).
Event: Freshwater Biological Association’s Annual Scientific Meeting 2025.
Hosts: Simon Johnson, Dr Louise Lavictoire (FBA) and Prof Rachel Stubbington (Nottingham Trent).
Venue: Nottingham Trent University.
Date: 16th July 2024.
Event: European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) and the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Conference 2024.
Session: Troubled Waters: Ethnographic Engagements with Cleanliness and Pollution.
Hosts: Fenna Smits and Annelieke Driessen (Amsterdam).
Venue: Amsterdam VU.
Date: 1st September 2023.
Event: Royal Geographical Society (RGS) with the Institute of British Geographers (IBG) Annual International Conference 2023.
Session: Doing Creative Methodologies in Health Geography (Geographies of Health & Wellbeing).
Hosts: Dr Rich Gorman (BSMS), Dr Tess Osborne (Leicester), and Dr Chloe Asker (Exeter).
Venue: Royal Geographical Society, London.
Supported By
This research has also been reviewed and approved by The Geography Research Ethics Committee at the University of Exeter.
Swimming with Care at Windermere
Research Zine collaboration between Taylor Butler-Eldridge and Bethan Thorsby
