Came across this Site, thought I'd try a reply
I used to race for the Mohawks in the 50's and 60's against teams such as Aldwych, Nottingham, and others.
We had many good away trips to race Aldwych at Richmond Ice Rink.
My speed skates are still in the loft !
I have quite a few photos of the full Mohawks club with many of the members named.
If anyone wants to see what their now elderly relatives looked like at the rink then I could email or post copies.
I remember the manager Cecil Woodward shouting 'slowdown' to those of us speeding in the general sessions.
Three catches and you were barred for two weeks, so off to Nottingham for those weeks.
One night, parts of the inner roof started to fall in and they had to close for two weeks to remove it.
New Years Eve nights at the rink were great.
I think the owner of the rink was James Easton, he used to park his Bentley near the front entrance.
Sometimes, with our skates still on, we used to sneak across the road to the pub !
I remember skating on the car park one icy winter.
I always thought the rink was in Summer Hill rather than Spring Hill.
When the rink closed I never really liked the move to the Silver Blades Rink in central Birmingham.
It was a nice rink but lacked atmosphere. It did have the Heartbeat club upstairs.
Solihull had a nice ice rink, is it still there ?
Eventually I got married and had to concentrate on a career so the skating stopped.
My last skating experience was in Ilfracombe in the 70's , where some small theater had a plastic 'ice' surface.
I showed-off my speed skating ability to my son and some of the locals !