‘There is a saying the fens that it takes ice to meet old friends’

SHRINKING ARCHIVE

They were not the sophisticated skates we were used to seeing these days on -ice-rinks or skating championships. To begin with they were usually made out of animal bones and strapped on to the boots. Later, some of the village blacksmiths became well-known for making iron skates at their forge as well as horseshoes, Fen, Fire and Flood - Scenes from Fenland History, Edward Storey,

The ice was good. The scenery of the Fen rivers, at all times beautiful, in the eyes of those who appreciate Dutch art, is peculiarly^ so in the winter.
J.M.Heathcote, Reminiscences of Fen and Mere, 1876

In the year 1799 Francis Drake, an officer of the
Bedford Level Corporation, is said to have put on his skates at Whittlesea and crossed both the Middle and South Levels to Mildenhall without taking them off — a distance of nearly fifty miles.

J.M.Heathcote, Reminiscences of Fen and Mere, 1876

There was the hard, black, smooth ice, which, by a little skimming of snow with slight thaw and subsequent frost, would be made white. A gentle breeze during the time of freezing made knotted ice. There was also the anchor ice, so called when it froze under the surface and on it at the same cold temperature. Sometimes a high wind would roll up water and mud, and the surface became very rough. There was the bright ice, which when hard and slippery was called 'glib/

The prizes offered were:
A cocked hat
A pig
A purse containing from 1/. to 20/.

Some of my sketches bear marks of the severity of the cold by showing the crystals into which the water froze when floated on the paper.