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Springhill Ice rink Summerhill Road

If you cannot open in the forum you can go to the FACEBOOK PAGE of this site & see Me relive the good old ice rink days :0)
 
yes thanks max....

well kieth i applaude you..wonderful footage and i can see you havnt lost your touch...:thumbsup:come on wend we must give it a go sometime at the silver blades....:cry::D

lyn
 
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thanks keith...i really would love to have a go at skating again and as you may know it was roller i loved but i guess i can always stay on the rails and pull meself along with wend following... oh and have plenty of padding..:D

lyn
 
Hi Ladywoodite (Albert)
The answer to your question can be seen in post #183 and also in #182 in this thread. I have sent you an Instant Message (Private Message) which should pop up in a separate window.
Best regards
oldmohawk..:)
 
what memories the ice rink on spring hill brings back to me, i used to go in the fifties. and remember how the girls squealed when guy mitchel came on singing rockabilly rock and singing the blues, my father worked their, first as the car park attendant and then the cloak room attendant, he had one arm and his name was bill. i lived at the bottom of spring hill, (steward st) i loved watching the birmingham mowhawks. because my dad worked their i had a free pass and used to go mondays wednesdays and saturdays. the manager at the time was a mr woodward or woodwood. i would love to have some pictures to be able to put into my collection of old buildings in ladywood, i have one from the outside albeit not a very good one, it was at the ice rink that i wore my first pair of drainpipes. how hard i thought i looked lol. as i said, wonderfull memories.
 
Hi rogerstan I too had great times at the ice rink Recall going accross thr rd on skates to the pub around 9.00 and then back till the rink closed then of to a Dance somwhere.
The man at the door used to check the skates you were wearing to be sure that were not hired skates. That man could well have been your Dad.. I am talking of around 1948 -49- Was working on assy line at BSAand we had Thursday off to to shortages of mudguards from a firm called Cranfords , Used to go the the rink on Thursday afternoon session Cheers Joe
 
what memories the ice rink on spring hill brings back to me, i used to go in the fifties. and remember how the girls squealed when guy mitchel came on singing rockabilly rock and singing the blues, my father worked their, first as the car park attendant and then the cloak room attendant, he had one arm and his name was bill. i lived at the bottom of spring hill, (steward st) i loved watching the birmingham mowhawks. because my dad worked their i had a free pass and used to go mondays wednesdays and saturdays. the manager at the time was a mr woodward or woodwood. i would love to have some pictures to be able to put into my collection of old buildings in ladywood, i have one from the outside albeit not a very good one, it was at the ice rink that i wore my first pair of drainpipes. how hard i thought i looked lol. as i said, wonderfull memories.
Rogerstan,
Was your dad the window cleaner? Did he live down Shakespeare Road, way? If he was, he was a mate of my dad's.
There are loads of old photos of Ladywood on the "Old Ladywood" website. I have also got a number in my collection, if I can help with any.
 
no my dad was not a window cleaner, he was a works policeman at bellis & morcoms in ledsam st during the fifties. he worked at the ice ring part time of an evening.
 
no mate, my dad worked at belliss and morcomb in ledsam st during the 50s he was a works policeman and worked parttime at the rink in the evening.
 
Hi Rogerstan I repied to this thread ealier today but must have done something won as I do not see my reply. I seem to recall a one armed man . My mates and I would go over to the pub on the other side of the road and the man on the door would check our skates to make sure we were not usung the hire skates.. After the rink we would go down to the Amusment Arcade just down where the no 8 bus crossed Think that was still Monument Rd . The no 8 bus stop wqs just around the corner. Lived in Waterworks rd then That would have been 1948-9 Cheers Joe
 
what memories the ice rink on spring hill brings back to me, i used to go in the fifties. and remember how the girls squealed when guy mitchel came on singing rockabilly rock and singing the blues, my father worked their, first as the car park attendant and then the cloak room attendant, he had one arm and his name was bill. i lived at the bottom of spring hill, (steward st) i loved watching the birmingham mowhawks. because my dad worked their i had a free pass and used to go mondays wednesdays and saturdays. the manager at the time was a mr woodward or woodwood. i would love to have some pictures to be able to put into my collection of old buildings in ladywood, i have one from the outside albeit not a very good one, it was at the ice rink that i wore my first pair of drainpipes. how hard i thought i looked lol. as i said, wonderfull memories.


roigerstan ,i remember your Dad handing out skates at the skate hire room back then,they were GREAT TIMES
Regards
THE BARON
 
well here we go:-
It was 1955 and I was 10 years old. I lived at 151 Cape Hill Smethwick. My father was a dentist. My mother took me for lessons at springhill. Mrs Hartung. Not that keen! Didnt particularly like figure skating and ice dancing. One day in 1958 I saw a speed skating match and wow! that was what I was going to do.
Cut to 1960 and i d succeeded in joining bham Mohawks. I had ashort but reasonably good speed skating career with them. Won the Richmond Sportsdrome Trophy and the Lees Quarter Mile.
After Bham Uni I felt I had to leave brum for personal reasons and got a management job with Silver Blades thanks to Dave Thomas the then Manager of the new rink on Pershore St. They sent me to Manchester Ice palace as assistant manager. Silver Blades had been bought out by mecca who knew nothing about ice rinks. The Manchester Ice Palace closed in 1967 due to l;ack of proper maintainence.
Luckily my mother had insisted on piano lessons as well as skating so I have had a good living as a professional organist since 1967 here in Blackpool.

And what inspired me to play the organ?

John Bowery Playing the Compton Melotone

Where ?

Springhill ice rink!

Great memories of the old rink.

Phil Duncan.
 
I skated at Springhill upto when it closed as an ice rink & can never remember it having an organ? are you mixing it up when it became a roller rink?.
 
I skated at Springhill upto when it closed as an ice rink & can never remember it having an organ? are you mixing it up when it became a roller rink?.

Hi there,
No I m not mixing it up withe roller rink it eventually became. It had acompton melotone organ. This was put in after it was taken over by Silver Blades a company started by John Tree. He wanted to make Ice rinks more family orientated and was opposed to hockey skates. Thus when the new rink was built they werent allowed.
The introduction of an organ also, in his eyes made the place a bit more dignified. (if that was possible). Several organists played while it was still an ice rink. Bernard Tansley was one but the best was John Bowery, who later became general manager of Silver Blades Streatham. Most of the old rinks had organists in those days notably Douggie Walker Nottingham, Stanly Tudor Altrincham, Robinson Cleaver Richmond, George Kay Blackpool, Len Jones Manchester etc.

Phil Duncan.
 
I cannot remember an organist at Springhill but I did have a short break from skating as Silver Blades took over. When Silver Blades opened I did not skate there because of the ban on hockey skates, and went to Solihull, a nice large rink, and Bearwood (ex cinema) which was so small we got dizzy skating in circles.
As discussed in our PM, I do remember the organist at Nottingham, and thanks for mentioning his name which I had forgotten. Silver Blades (Mecca) continued their ban of hockey skates at the new rink, but soon realised they had made a mistake, and relaxed the ban and also asked the Mohawks to come to the rink.
Springhill Ice Rink was built in the 1930's and apart from the decorative inner roof starting to fall down one night, had a nice feel about it, and the Christmas and New Year's Eve nights were brilliant.
I was interested in your comments about the reasons for summer close-downs to let the rising centre ground thaw out. I remember those closing nights when they switched the freezers off early and we were eventually skating on slush and pipes.
The old rink was strictly run, no 'bouncers' needed, just a smart Sergeant Commisionaire on the door to keep order, and if the manager saw you speeding in general sessions he marched you into the office of the ice rink owner James Easton who dished out a month's ban.
The rink was an alcohol free rink so during the ice dance sessions we used to sneak out the fire exit with our skates still on, to the pub across the road to have a pint. To protect our skates we had to tip-toe on the front non-working part of the blades. The pub had a special mat we could stand on .... such decadence for those old times...
The photo below is on the forum in other threads and the posh car in the centre probably belonged to the original owner of the ice rink.
Outside_Old_Ice_Rink.jpg
 
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