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Get Your Skates On!
a history of Plymouth's Roller Skating Rinks 1874-1989
by Diana Lawer
This lavishly illustrated 218-page softback examines in words and
pictures how the new roller skating craze ‘rinkomania' caught on in The Three Towns Plymouth,
Devonport and Stonehouse in the early 1870s and remained a popular pastime through to the 20th
Century.
It describes how nine Victorian rinks and subsequent venues like the American Rink, Ebrington
Street, and Millbay Rinkeries flourished at the height of the craze and explores:
● the history of roller skating
● the skate designers and manufacturers who supplied the equipment
● the buildings acquired or purpose-built to house the rinks
● the entrepreneurial skills of the promoters competing for custom
● the legion of skaters, young and old, who formed a whole new leisure strata in
Plymouth society
The book contains over 85 rinking postcards, including colour, and rare views of Plymouth rinks
and skaters, along with 115 other illustrations and maps providing a valuable pictorial record
of how The Three Towns embraced the roller skating boom with great enthusiasm.
| Published in December 2007 |
ISBN 978-09557-442-0-4 |
priced at £ 10.99 (or £ 12.50 to include post & packing)
Available from/cheques payable to
Diana Lawer, Three Towns Publishing, 35 Higher Compton Rd, Hartley, Plymouth, PL3 5HZ Tel:
+44 (0)1752-775289 |
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