IT'S not the first place that springs to mind for a day-out from York. It is hardly a tourist hot-spot. But I spent a very pleasant few hours in Selby with my daughter last weekend: firstly at the Abbey Leisure Centre and then at the town's abbey, before a quick wander round the shops.

The pool, opened in 1992, was apparently one of the first in the area to get away from the idea that swimming baths are nothing more than a simple rectangular area of water where people swim.

OK, it is not in the league of York's Waterworld, with its almost horizontal water chutes and wave machine, but Selby has got a winding, twisting chute, a whirlpool bath, a children's slide into the water and a huge inflatable obstacle course across the water that children have to scramble across and normally end up falling off.

The water is also pleasantly warm, or it certainly was during last weekend's heatwave. The atmosphere is light and airy, and the entry price (particularly the £4.50 family ticket for up to two adults and three children) seems rather good compared to York's recently inflated fees.

The only inflation at Selby seems to be that of the inflatable island, complete with palm trees, which my daughter greatly enjoyed trying to negotiate. I also found the chute quite good fun, although the joins between sections of the tube seemed a bit rough and could perhaps do with a re-grout soon. Sadly, the children's slide into the pool was closed because one of the steps had broken.

After showering and changing, we headed off into town, leaving our car in the pool's car park (we had paid £1.50 for three hours, with the money fully refunded as we paid our pool entry fee).

Splendid Selby Abbey dominates the town and is well worth a visit, but it was getting very few visitors on this day. In fact, my daughter and I were the only people in the entire building.

Founded not long after the Norman conquest, it was once a huge Benedictine monastery, complete with everything from cloisters to brewhouse. It is one of the few abbeys to have survived to the present day as a parish church.

You cannot walk freely around either the interior or the grounds at the moment, because of extensive repairs to the building. Visitors are restricted to the nave. A sign tells how a pinnacle from a tower fell off on Good Friday and landed on the roof below, causing damage to the leadwork and timbers which could cost £100,000 to repair.

But the abbey has been hit by bigger structural problems before, not least a big fire in 1906, floods, sinking foundations and the threat posed by Henry VIII.

Feeling hungry by now, we ate a picnic on a seat just outside the abbey grounds. A sign told us this area was used as an overspill cemetery in the 19th century when Selby was hit by an outbreak of cholera and a hundred people died.

After lunch, we had a look around the shops, which have an individual character of their own, before returning to York.

Picture - Great fun in Selby at the leisure centre.