Three cups recently donated to the Cromwell museum have sparked a search for information about Cromwell’s lost ice skating rink.

“We’re looking for old photos of the rink, people who can talk about their memories of skating on the rink, any information really,” Cromwell museum director Jennifer Hay said.

“How long was it used for? Why was it eventually closed?”

“What sports events were held there?”

“It’s a key piece of Cromwell’s history, and we would like to preserve it.”

Jennifer said the skating rink had been a natural ice dam, situated where the squash club and bike park is now. The Scout Hall was the original rink building.

“A bell would ring out across the town when it was ready to use as a skating rink,” she said.

The three cups donated to the museum and currently on display in the museum front window, show Cromwell had its own winter sports club.

This club is listed by the NZ Ice Figure Skating Association Inc as having been formed in 1950.

These old ice skates are also in the museum’s collection.

The three cups are titled the Cromwell Winter Sports Club Ferris Cup, ½ Mile Challenge Race and the Jelley Cup.

The half-mile Challenge Race cup was presented to the club by Cromwell Taxis in 1954, and has inscriptions of the winners dating from 1954 through to 1973.

Cromwell’s ice-skating rink is also referenced in a book by Arrowtown author Alan Hamilton, “Bringing Arrowtown Alive: Ice Skating in the 1950s and 60s.”

In the early 1950s, Alan and his mate Jim Wilcox wanted to build a skating rink in Arrowtown. In his book, Alan describes the two men driving out to Cromwell to look at the rink.

“Jim and I drove down in my Morris Minor to check it out and it was just a pond in some trees and I thought, ‘gee, we could do that’.”

Anyone with information, photographs or memories of the skating rink is asked to make contact. People can visit the museum during opening hours, call the museum on 03-445 3287 or email Jennifer Hay on [email protected]

Photos Mary Hinsen

Advertisement