GLIDING ACROSS THE PAST
Ice skating was once a matter of life or death rather than winter fun
The winter pastime of ice skating has been around for 3,000 years, but it wasn’t always a leisure pursuit. In places such as Scandinavia and Canada, skating was once used as a way to move goods for trading and to navigate frozen lakes. The medieval ice skate pictured below is from an animal bone and was found in London. Between the 14th and 19th centuries, the River thames froze many times allowing Frost Fairs to spring up. Revellers would enjoy visiting hastily constructed pubs, shops and ice skating rinks set up on the frozen river.