The UK's best wild swimming spots

Swimmers will have more flexible seasons for cold water swimming as part of the government's reforms to bathing rules.

Outdoor swimming has "surged in popularity", said The Independent, but the rise in "sewage discharges and pollution have also made many blue spaces unsafe".

Water Minister Emma Hardy has said there will be a more flexible approach to monitoring wild swimming spots outside of the traditional bathing season from May to September, with safety and cleanliness "paramount".

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As the rules are updated for the first time since 2013, here are some of the best places to practise your strokes in the great outdoors.

River Thames, Pangbourne Meadows

An "effortlessly romantic" spot that is made for "strong swimmers", Pangbourne Meadows is at the heart of the Berkshire village where the Princess of Wales grew up, said Time Out. With "scenic bridges, velvety waters and vast grassy verges", you'll be able to bathe with "uninterrupted views of chalk beaches and the Chiltern Hills". Don't forget to "saunter along the Thames path" afterwards to take in the "vista" that inspired Kenneth Grahame, author of "The Wind in the Willows".

Grantchester Meadows, Cambridgeshire

This length of the River Cam has "changed little since Edwardian times", said Countryfile. Virginia Woolf, Rupert Brooke and their Grantchester group gathered here in the early 1900s to picnic and "swim naked". During the summer months this "mile-long stretch of river" is still "dotted with dons drinking Pimm's". Keep an eye out for the punts and canoes that glide by, with some heading downstream towards the city's famous Backs and others upstream to the "delightful Orchard Tea Garden".

Salmon Leaps, River Teign

This Dartmoor location "has it all" for wild swimmers, said Stylist. "A calm river and pool for a tranquil dip, grassy banks for picnics", plus the "stunning Victorian Salmon Leaps – three plunge pools in the woods below Castle Drogo". Kids will be particularly enamoured with the "exhilarating ride" that "nature's Jacuzzis" provide as they "cascade dramatically into one another". You may even want to pack a rubber ring.

Wastwater, Cumbria

Wastwater is England’s deepest lake, descending to 258 feet, making it an "eerie place for a swim", said The Telegraph. But this "glacial lake" will inspire a "magical sense of freedom". Owned by the National Trust, it is surrounded by "tall crags and sloping hills". If some bracing backstroke doesn't tire you out, you can follow the track from the northwest shore up to the summit of Scafell Pike and take in the breathtaking Lake District views.

Keeper's Pond, Black Mountains

This "high-level" lake gives "superb views of the Brecon Beacons", making it perfect for a "summer swim", said The Times. It was built in 1817 and, once upon a time, powered the Garn Ddyrys iron forge below. This is an isolated landscape: an "abandoned tramroad" that passes below is known as the Iron Mountain Trail and leads to the Pwll Du limestone quarry, a place of "rock walls, buzzards and wilderness".