YORKSHIRE today has some of the cleanest beaches in Europe. Earlier this year, no fewer than five – Scarborough North, Whitby, Filey, Hornsea and Withernsea – were awarded coveted blue flag status. Many others, including Bridlington, Robin Hood’s Bay, Sandsend and Runswick Bay, received Quality Coast Awards.

Nice to know, that, when you or your children are splashing about in the surf off the Yorkshire coast over the summer.

It wasn’t always like this, however. Back in 1997, just one Yorkshire beach – Reighton Sands in Filey Bay – was recommended as safe for bathing in the Readers Digest Good Beach Guide.

Others, in common with many British beaches, were not so good. Sewage leaking into the sea left the waters of many UK beaches polluted: so much so that Guy Linley-Adams of the Marine Conservation Society described the state of many as a ‘scandal’.

Already, back in 1997, things were beginning to change, however. Yorkshire Water said it was committed to investing in sewage treatment and had launched a £120 million improvement programme.

Just five years later, in February 2002, then chairman of Yorkshire Water John Napier went for a bracing North Sea dip at Scarborough to celebrate the opening of a new £30 million sewage works, and the beginning of a new era of clean beaches.

Among those joining him that day were members of the Sons of Neptune. The Sons were a group of hardy bathers who enjoyed a dip all year round, and who got their name because of their “love of the sea and their admiration for the Laurel and Hardy film, Sons Of The Desert”.

They were more than just a group of eccentrics who enjoyed plunging into the icy waters of the North Sea in January, however.

They were also campaigners – and, along with other campaign groups, played an important part in cleaning up Yorkshire’s beaches.

One of their number was Charles White: the excitable, eccentric Irishman better known to his fans as the Scarborough-based chiropodist, DJ and broadcaster Dr Rock.

Now he has written an account of the part the Sons played in, as he puts it “saving the planet”.

The Adventures Of The Sons Of Neptune takes the reader on what he calls a “whirlwind journey through hilarious and outrageous events resulting in a serious victory for our planet!”

The Sons, determined that their waters should be cleaned up, began to campaign for clean seas in 1982. They staged a series of stunts to enlist the support of the media and spread their message, Dr Rock writes.

These included a fake Jaws shark attack; Dracula chasing children from the beach with the threat of disease; and bathing with a French maid in the depths of winter.

The good doctor doesn’t do false modesty. “If you regularly make use of the sparking, fizzing, zest-for-life inducing seas surrounding our ‘sceptred isle’ – you owe a debt of gratitude for all the work the Sons were compelled to do to ensure you are free to bathe without fear of disease and infection!” he says.

They certainly played their part. And this oddball book won’t let you forget it.

• The Adventures Of The Sons of Neptune is published by the Sons Of Neptune on Monday, priced £15.