In the 50 years I have been at Welney I have never seen the marshes flooded for most of the summer!
Gabi cycling through the floods to work
There is still plenty of water on Welney wash waiting for the first frost – in the meantime here’s some photos by kind permission of Geoff Robinson from last winter.
As a company we have a passionate commitment to Fenland culture and sport – which often overlaps into our projects such as our Fenland Alchemist garden which was awarded an RHS Chelsea gold medal.
Why not visit the current exhibition on modern and bygone Fenland skating – and for more information on this fascinating sport, check out the skating pages on our website.
- Roger
David Lowe a keen skater whose company EWS is the land agent for the massive SnOasis develepment has produced a great document detailing the exploits he, accompanied by his brother and a handful of other experienced Fenland skaters got up to when skating around Welney and the Fens last winter.
David is no stranger to Fen skating and has been skating on these waterways just north of Ely for the last few years.
The first time I met him was in the Lamb and Flag pub at Welney where he was chatting to other fen skaters when the SnOasis project was just at its planning stages and that’s how I got interested in the project.
David has also got to know Ray Kent and John Smart – the Great Grandsons of the all time greats of Fen skating, Turkey and James Smart – British and World Champion skaters.
The document details the very extensive area David and colleagues covered on the fenland waterways in the manner of the victorian skaters when a pair of skates was the only transport possible in winter. Fen skaters like the Tebbits and Smarts would cover many miles to get to the railway station at Manea to go racing in London.
The fact that David is a veteran of Scandinavian ice touring gave him an edge over the miles of rivers and drains and had all the safety gear including Swedish designed ice poles to check the strength of the ice.
I should add that the Welney skating club strongly advises against this sort of distance skating without the specialist equipment David has and training in using it and would recommend that all skating is done across fields such as those at Welney, Whittlesey and Bury Fen.
David’s documented and photographed ‘Escapades’ are available from him – dcl@ews-eastanglia.co.uk.
And now that SnOasis is getting underway, this will help keep the winter sport interest alive all through the year – as well as boosting the economy in the South East.
-Roger
As most of you know, one of my dear friends is John Smart – Grandson of the world champion speed skater, James Smart. Well John is in the process of creating an archive about the Smart’s sporting history but needs some help with one particular area:
It is believed that James trained on something called ‘Road Skates’ – these were a kind of precursor to in-line skates and were designed and used in the Victorian era.
John is searching for close up photos of these skates for his archive and would love it if we could find him a photo or two. So if anyone out there has a pair of these skates that they wouldn’t mind us photographing or perhaps already has photos they could send – could you please contact me at roger.giles@gileslandscapes.co.uk.
Any help would be greatly appreciated – Fen skating is such an enormous part of Fen history and by archiving the information, we keep it alive for future generations!
Check out our Fen Skating pages on our website for skating archives and loads of Fen skating information and up to the minute Ice reports.
-Roger
Yesterday saw one of the most beautiful frosts so far this Winter. Nothing was left untouched by Winter’s icy breath and not only was it stunning but it also meant that the ice was great for skating!
During our lunch break we headed for the ice at Welney and met up with a handful of like minded people to skate away a cold winter’s hour or two. We were also joined by BBC and ITV news crews along with various journalists and photographers all eager to get some shots of this unusual event.
Here’s a video of the ITV About Anglia coverage:
And here’s a video of one of the skaters from yesterday demonstrating the Scandinavian way of cross country skating:
Skating conditions are also good so far this morning so if you have a spare hour and fancy a bit of skating – why not pop over to Welney! (skates are available to hire from us – just visit or main website or call for more details).
-Roger
Although there was a little covering of snow on Monday, some brave souls still were determined to get on the ice and have a bit of a skate. These photos were taken by GeoffRobinson of Rod Ward and our contracts Manager, Gary Evison taking to the ice. The ice is solid this morning and OK for fun skating if anyone wants to pop down – but wrap up warm – we have a biting Easterly wind here at the moment!
All images © Geoff Robinson 2010
A weekend of skating, email scams and a professional luthier!
Oh yes this weekend was far from dull!
Whenever the fens freeze, the word spreads like wild fire from skater to skater all eager to get back on the ice.
This weekend saw the first brave skaters of the season taking to the earliest ice in living memory. Among them was professional luthier, Rod Ward who originates from Outwell a fen village next to Welney and it is believed that his Uncle Walter was well up in the skating world championships. Rod was itching to get on the ice but I did have to warn him that it had only just held me and I did go through at the edge. But not to be put off, Rod took out his skates – and what skates they are! State of the art, gold plated clap skates! (For those who don’t know, clap skates are hinged at the back so you can stand on your toes when you are really going for it). Who’d have thought that a luthier well known for his success at re-producing instruments in the style of the old masters would have such modern skates! I showed him the skates originally owned by James Smart the world champoin in the 1800′s – what a difference!
Rod told me he hadn’t skated on the Welney wash since the sharp winter of 1964 but was determined to give it a go. so off he went. He was joined later by my Son and Grand Daughter by which time the ice had frozen harder and there was Rod still happily skating on the same area of ice that Malcolm Robinson who runs the skating centre won the Turkey Smart cup on in 1997! He was cutting along really well – amazing to think this could happen in November!
After skating Rod and I had a chat about business and he mentioned to me he had recently done an expensive promotional campaign which was seriously diluted by an email scam whereby his emails in reply were being diverted. Strangely enough the same thing has happened to us recently to but we were not receiving the emails in the first place so Rod and I compared notes.
Today we are having some journalists coming over to cover the skating – I will update you later on all that. Meanwhile here’s a few pictures I took of Rod yesterday.
If you want to find out more about Rod’s violins, Violas and Cellos. please visit his website: http://www.wardviolins.com/ or visit his blog: http://wardviolins.blogspot.com/
