Yes it’s the skating rink at Redcar, pity it isn’t still there, but with ‘elf and safety’ now you would have to wear helmets, knee pads, elbow pads; too tired to skate by the time you had got ready. This postcard view from the late 1950s or early 1960s, shows plenty of use. Fred Brunskill tells us: ”The roller skating rink was on the site of the old outdoor swimming baths in the Coatham Enclosure and were built at a cost of £ 10,000 and opened in 1951 to commemorate the Festival of Britain.” Alan Franks tells us: “I remember it well, I used to go skating in the early to mid 1950s here as a lad. We used to skate as fast as we could round and round trying to impress the girls. It didn’t really work.”
Image courtesy of Iris Place and many thanks to Fred Brunskill, Alan Franks and Alan Collins for the updates.
I remember it well, I used to go skating in the early to mid 1950s here as a lad. We used to skate as fast as we could round and round trying to impress the girls. It didn’t really work.
What a lovely surprise! I wasn’t looking where I was going and bounced off an older boy, going in the opposite direction, and broke my arm when I was 12 years old – we always had a swim in the indoor pool opposite, and then skated or hired a rowing boat on a little lake area behind the rink, before catching the steam train back to Saltburn. On that occasion, an ambulance took me to Middlesbrough hospital where I was more worried about my dad telling me off when he arrived to get me, than cracking my arm, which they just plastered up. The pool was owned by the council and everything was run for enjoyment and not just for profit, in those days, so even poor kids like us had enough pocket money to enjoy these lost facilities! There was a skating craze at that time, even though we only had those things you tied to your ordinary shoes. Our gang used to skate around the streets in lower Saltburn, because there weren’t many cars on the streets. Only Mrs Brotton owned one in Emerald St, for example, who ran a Xmas club where I used to buy some of me own clothes for meself.
My sister used to skate at the rink in the 50s Trixie Rigg as was, she and her partner Enid Joyce used to do demonstrations at the galas, she met her husband at the rink and now lives in Devon they are now 84 and 90 but we still enjoy the memories of skating. I used to swim at the Baths, near by then come out and walk home with her when she finished her practice.