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It's pretty harsh returning back to the town that I grew up in carrying lots of great memories from those times only to see certain reference points from back then become degraded with the passage of the years.

To return to various locations in and around the town that were scenes for some of the best memories of my life only to find they've now become inaccessible, unusable and, in some cases, even erased from existence is downright saddening. The people I met there, the experiences we shared and the sessions that went down that were never caught on camera but remain fresh in my mind almost 2 decades later made for some of the most intense and unbelievably enriching experiences of my life.

The following are some of the landmarks anchored to those memories that have now become lost to the past:

Tescos multi-storey car park

I remember being 12 years old in the summer of 1989 and skateboarding all the way from the top to the bottom of the local Tescos multi-storey car park and down through the exit ramp with my friend at the time Andrew Aiton. The thrill of traveling at what felt like, at the time, high speeds while listening to the shouts of the car park attendants while we skated past them made for an experience that only a 12 year old can fully appreciate.

Over the following years many of the local skaters, myself included, would find the car park both a shelter from bad weather and an environment filled with all manner of urban ‘furniture’ seemingly custom made for skateboarding.

The 7 stair set at the front of the superstore was also the scene for various tricks to be attempted and thrown down while trying to emulate some of the video footage from American Pro’s of the time such as Pat Duffy and Danny Way.

And it wasn’t all skateboarding either.

I remember how the local drunks would always congregate at the bottom of one of the stairwells on a sunday and how, as skaters, we’d always avoid them for obvious reasons. One sunday we decided to take revenge for some of the verbal abuse we’d become accustomed to receiving from time to time off the drunks.

My friend at the time, Hemming, stood outside the building, at a distance opposite the stairwell entrance where the drunks would gather inside. I entered the multi-storey car park through a different entrance and made my way across the top level of the car park to just outside the stairwell where the drunks were congregated. I looked over the wall next to the entrance to the stairwell down to where Hemming was stood and we both gave one another the thumbs up.

I opened the entrance door as quietly as I could and looked down the gap in the stairwell to where I could hear the voices of the drunks at the bottom. I uncapped the 2 litre bottle of lemonade I had carried with me and strategically dropped it down through the stairwell gap so that it would pick up enough velocity to reach the bottom.

Hearing the explosion of the bottle and its contents as it hit its intended destination accompanied by the shocked, confused and angry shouts and cries of the group of drunks on the receiving end of those contents was priceless.

Beating a quick retreat with tears streaming down my face from laughter I exited the car park and hooked up with Hemming who recounted how the drunks came staggering out of the stairwell entrance in a greatly agitated and confused state not knowing what the hell had happened. Childish for sure but then don’t we all have similar experiences from our past?

I have so many great memories of that place that it’s saddening to see that it’s now little more than an abandoned, dilapidated shell of it’s former self; rubbish strewn and weed infested with the obligatory graffiti to boot. Seeing this once former haven for local skaters boarded up and completely inaccessible while being left to decay is not a good contrast to the memories of what it once was.

Riverside leisure centre

Just across the river from the Tescos superstore and multi-storey car park is the site where Riverside leisure centre used to be located. Now reduced to an open expanse of land with the remnants of the stepped, picnic area next to the river remaining.

20 years ago in August 1992 both myself and another skateboarder, Chris Kai were throwing down ollies over what used to be a gap combination consisting of a chain link fence and inclined dirt bank at the far end of this picnic area. It was the first time I had ever tried to ollie a gap/drop combination and after a few half-hearted attempts finally found the courage to commit to doing it properly.

The feeling of not only clearing the fence/gap/drop but also landing cleanly on the skateboard and rolling out on the tiled floor below was indescribable. That satisfaction was only enhanced when I saw that one of the bystanders watching from the other side of the river was an ex-skater who, a few years earlier, had picked on me quite mercilessly and was now standing there with a look of disbelief on his face. Revenge, as they say, tastes sweet.

Now the site of where this session took place has gone a similar road to the former Tescos multi-storey car park; dilapidated, broken and in a state of extreme disrepair. Another one sadly bites the dust.

Kemley House

In the early to late nineties Kemley House was another sheltered location that provided some nice ledges for all manner of tailslide/noseslide trick combinations and lines. It became one of my favourite spots for skateboarding at and I have some great memories of some of the sessions that went down there which, along with many others, I will always regret never managing to capture on film.

Some of the combinations and lines I learnt at that one location alone were fantastic. Then there were some of the ‘incidents’ that also make that place memorable. Mouldin chasing and threatening to kill one of the younger and not all that well-known skaters who it was rumoured had been taking liberties with young girls (whether that was true or not I have no idea). Watching Hemming take a slam while trying to ollie a cone and then proceed to completely lose it by throwing his skateboard around and smashing the traffic cone into oblivion while myself and Matt Cracknell ran out of the way laughing uncontrollably. Being threatened with violence by a friend, and possibly even a relation, of one of the local drunks. That was a pretty hairy situation but thankfully nothing came of it.

A lot of things went down there, not all of them entirely positive, but that location will always be fondly remembered for those experiences. Now it’s gated off and completely inaccessible. I can’t even begin to put into words just how much that truly sucks.

Sheridan centre flowerbeds

In the summer of 1996, and for many years before then, the flowerbeds in the sheridan centre would be sessioned during the evenings and weekends with many different trick combinations being thrown over and sometimes, to much relief, landed too.

Fast forward a year and the local council had completely removed the flowerbeds, much to my disappointment. Now it’s just a seating area in a mostly empty and depressing ‘shopping’ area.

The Church wall

Another location that, in the mid 90‘s, saw some crazy lines being thrown down and landed only for it to become degraded thanks to the reallocation and skateboard wheel un-friendly resurfacing of the church paths. Way to go guys.

Sainsburys Car Park

Mid to late spring 1991 and the newly relocated Sainsburys superstore was due to open. To the local skateboarders the car park was like a series of favourite christmas presents all received at once. Clean and smooth expanses of tarmac punctuated by raised curb islands, flowerbeds, rails, bollards and other urban ‘furniture’.

I fell in love almost immediately.

I’d rush home from school and skate there into the late hours of the evening trying various manual roll/nosewheelie combinations on the curb islands and over the following years, second only to the town park, it became a central location for skateboarding.

I can still remember the feeling of landing 360 flips over the curb islands, pictured below, back in April 1995 and how fantastic it felt to just roll and roll through the entire length of the car park which seemed to stretch on forever.

Now the ground is mostly worn and strewn with holes of differing sizes, some of the ‘furniture’ that I used to skate almost religiously has been removed and, like so much of what I remember from my previous experience in this town, the environment has lost its once former charm.

Seeing so many locations from what were some of the best years of my life become degraded with the passage of the years is pretty harsh to take, particularly when so many memories and recollections are tied up with them.

I only wish that I could have got some video footage of sessions that went down in those locations throughout the 90‘s just to contrast that with what they have now become. It’s hard to accept that so many of the newer generation will never have any knowledge of or exposure to those times. That a large part of that town’s particular subculture’s history has been lost forever.

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