Cold Comfort

Ice skating is a timeless way to enjoy a wintry day. Amanda Randall looks at how our ancestors got their skates on

- Amanda Randall

We’re used to seeing artificial skating rinks pop up in town squares, parks and outside garden centres every winter. Our passion for skating is nothing new; for over 100 years ice rinks have attracted those with the time and money to participate, and long before that people living near lakes and rivers have skated for practical reasons.

The precise origins of skating are unknown, but at least 4,000 years ago Northern Europeans attached pieces of bone or wood to their feet by leather straps to travel over ice sheets while hunting or looking for somewhere to live. Frozen waters also afforded enjoyment and sport. In 1190 William Fitzstephen, the subdeacon to Thomas Becket (the Archbishop of Canterbury), wrote of young men playing on frozen water in North London, tying bones to their feet so that they slid “as swiftly as a bird flyeth”. Loosely organised skating competitions probably date from the 14th century. When the draining of the East Anglian fens began in 1660, the Dutch engineers bringing their technical expertise naturally also brought their iron skates, a material commonly used for skates in Scandinavia and Holland from around 1250; and during the early 1500s the Dutch invented the double-edged iron blade that allowed for propulsion without the need for poles, which had until then been essential.