AT NINE o'clock on the morning of Saturday, October 1, 1910, 18-year-old Florence Trusler slipped into the water at Darlington's Kendrew Street swimming baths and became the first person in the town to set a world record.
Up and down she swam, for hours and hours; sometimes on her back, sometimes doing breast stroke.
For sustenance, while in the water, she consumed three bananas, three spoonfuls of honey and three small pieces of bread and cheese.
Eventually, she strained her left knee and was forced from the water after nine hours and 20 minutes, by which time she had covered 12 miles and 46¾yards.
Florrie Trusler, the Darlington girl who set a world record for endurance swimming in 1910. Picture courtesy of the Darlington Centre for Local Studies
"The fact that the Amateur Swimming Association has no records for swims of longer distance than a mile makes it a difficult matter to obtain accurate information of previous long distance attempts, but there can be little doubt that Miss Trusler's performance constitutes a world's record for still fresh water," said The Northern Echo.
So Florence Trusler became Darlington's first world record holder.
"Miss Trusler is, in short, something in the nature of a phenomenon," said the Echo.
Her grandparents had moved to Darlington from Surrey 60 years earlier, and her parents, Robert and Elizabeth, ran cobblers' shops in Northgate and Bondgate. Florence, or 'Florrie' as she was known, seems to have grown up at 64 Thornton Street with three siblings.
Kendrew Street swimming baths where Florrie set her world record in 1910
She announced herself to the world in 1909 when, without any training, she dived into the Kendrew Street baths, which were practically at the end of her street, and swam ten miles in seven hours 43 minutes and 28 seconds.
She then took part in the Richmond to Blackfriars swim along the Thames, in August 1909.
"Her condition at the finish astounded the doctors and judges," said the Echo. "The other ladies and most of the men in the race were completely exhausted; but Miss Trusler was quite warm and fresh."
During the summer of 1910 Florence trained a couple of times before winning the Darlington Ladies' Swimming championship. A couple of weeks later, she embarked on her marathon swim.
The entrance to the baths, photographed by John Hill in 1983. They were cleared to make way for the inner ring road
The Echo marvelled at her endurance. If it wasn't for the knee strain, it said, she could have carried on swimming forever.
"Physically, she was almost as fresh and strong as when she entered the water, in proof of which Miss Trusler covered her last length in 31 seconds – five seconds better than when she won the Darlington championship," it said.
Even more extraordinary, said the paper, was that she was a vegetarian.
"She is a non-flesh eater, never has more than two meals a day, and on the morning of her most recent performance had at six o'clock a breakfast consisting of two boiled eggs and a little brown bread," it reported.
"Afterwards, she ate two apples and a little bread and cheese, and drank a glass of milk."
In 1917 Florrie married dairyman William Evans. They moved to Kent, never had any children, and after he died in 1955 she settled in Reeth where she died in 1984, aged 92.
l If you can tell us any more about Florrie, we’d love to hear from you. Please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk