Rollerama - great Harwood
 

just been chatting with a friend about what we used to get up to

did anybody used to go to The Rolerama skating ring in great harwood ?

eee they were the days

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

What time era you talking about here ?

Remember my mum goin on about how she used to always go to a roller disco.

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

I used to go rollerama at Hyndburn Sports Center .... haaaaaaa good days, used to love it. The boots always had a massive Orange stopper on the front, If you wasn't careful, you could lose all your teeth!! :D

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

Rollerama/roller disco used to be at the hyndburn sports centre in the 80's.

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

yeah i used to go there, a bloke called John Boast used to have it in the late 80s

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

Great Harwood had a roller skating rink in the 60s went once nearly broke me neck:D, don't think it was called Rollerama Keetah, we just knew it as the skating rink.:confused:

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

it was called rollerama in the 80s cashy

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

i am sure was but this one was up the stairs, just off the town gate, in great harwood - and it always smelt of chips :o

yeah i remeber john Boast my dad always said "hes a bad un":D

im talking about late 80's

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

no idea:confused:Keetah never said what era?

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

lol

it was actually the phoenix rollerama

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

now ya got me thinking, before Rollerama was that the "Salchow" skinners nightclub that got mysteriously burned down,just after he'd shopped a guy i know.:D:rolleyes: ask yer dad Keetah,

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

Maybe it was in a different place then because my mum used to say she lived in a flat where the skating rink was - before it was a skating rink

or maybe that was even before it had been a skating rink in the 60's maybe you know cashy ?

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

I went to the one in Harwood and the one at Hyndburn Sports Centre....Happy Days. :D

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

lol that name would never have been cool enough for a teenager to say - perhaps why i remember it only as rollerama lol

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

not well up on Harwood:confused: only the boozers of the 60s was a Top Night out, ;)

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

its still a good night out in Harwood, i love going

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

Know any of the Deans flashy ?

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

Yep it was on the town square up a flight of stone steps , above the gas board showroom, spent many a friday night there when I was young , going back a bit here , but a Great Harwood roller hockey team once represented Gt. Britain in the World championships , think it was during the 50s and if I'm not mistaken a collection was taken up in the town to help subsidize the players fares to Switzerland .
As a night spot I dont remember it being called the Salchow , thought it was called the Towngate at one time

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

no, dont think so, i was from Accy keetah, lived in Blackburn for the last 12 years, how old are ya?

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

yeh same place think it changed to salchow later, i know a few Deans Keetah, wether they are who you mean is debateable its a prettycommon name around our way/

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

that name rings a bell , but can't remember why

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

ha ha i remember going there, the room was tiny and if you fell down you stopped everyone from going round, and trying to dance whilst skating at the disco was hysterical :do-one:

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

Lmao yep, that was the one :D

If people were skating very fast, there was always a mass pile up :D

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

lol he was a dodgy geezer, went abroad and adopted foreign babies, was in the paper a lot, my mum used to clean for him

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

another name that rings a bell=QUASSIMODO:D

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

what years are we talking about , I left the area in 72 so it must have been before then :confused:

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

i only remember him from the late 80s, i think he had a couple of businesses in Harwood, he'd be around 60 ish now i think

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

you know if he was an Arroder , maybe i remember the name from skoo ;)

(apologies for thread wander )

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

ah possibly :D

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

theres a group on facebook for this venue !!

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

There were two roller skating rinks - one in Harwood and one in Rishton.
The one in Harwood was called Mercers and the one in Rishton was simply called Rishton Skating Rink.

I remember falling on my arse many times in both of them.

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

When Skinner had it, it was called Towngate Social Club, He sold it when he bought Martholme Grange, It did burn down and I remember Fred comming to a Barfitters that I worked for in Sabden to get new tables and chairs when it was refurbished after the fire, I actually went to the reopening

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

I remember the rink at Gt Harwood well, I have a photo of myself aged about 7, taken there. It would be around 1963.
In the 70's it was a nightclub, owned by Fred Skinner, went there a few times too.

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

Some of the local kids (in Accy, Willows Lane area) used to mention a roller-skating rink in Snuffy. This would be around the early 1950s. I never went, I couldn't even stand up on my roller skates when they were in the box!

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

in the early fifties harwood skating rink was owned by len mercer his wife was cashier son john skate mechanic I am quite friendly with his son also called john he lives in accrington but can be found most friday nights in the rishton tory club john senior ran a shop on whalley road near to were the star cinema was dealing in any sort of tat Marion mercer lens daghter was a champion skater skating al over the uk and abroad norman the oldest son was the most famous one being captain of the england roller hockey team through he fifties and sixties untll the sport declined The great harwood team when it was at its peak was as follows j banks goals j talbot full back then norman mercer in mid rink position alan barton wing brothers tommy and albert birtwiistle the goal strikers transport for the team and there supporters was by walter barnes rishton luxury coaches

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

I use to go roller-skating in Great Harwood in the early 60's, it was a bit rough and ready. I remember the guy who ran it use to use horse liniment on any cuts and burses, and there where plenty of those plus the odd broken bone.

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

we just called it, the skatin! haha i have a facebook group for it, its called rollerama. go see! theres lots of old faces on there.

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

Went roller skating up Harrod in the 60s, they also used to play 5 a side footy up there. Any body else remember that?

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

This is the son who use to own the gt harwood phonix rolleramma!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

john Boast did not own it! when it was a skating rink! It was Jack Galloway and David Galloway who bought it from fred skinner when it burt down. We rebuilt it and it was a rink again!!!!!!!!!!!! john boast bought it after and then it was made into a snooker Hall!

Fact sorry guys you all got it wrong!!!!!!!!!!!! and when fred had it it was a skating rink and a gambling hall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

norman mercer trained me and others in the 80's where we went from 2 division to 1st :-) thanks to morman and tommy and fred :-) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

After it had burnt down that's when Fred bought Martholme Grange which was originally opened as a nightspot/casino/eatery, but just after it opened the rules changed on casinos and that part was shut and later opened as a carvery, before Fred actually sold it to Alan Begbie, I was there the day Fred did the deal

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

hi i am michelle robinson "mercer" i am len grandaughter and mum was marion the world champion , i remeber the roller rink very well and so do my three brothers we spent many hrs with are mum and dad and are grand parents there we were the kids running round lol, mum passed away in 2010 and my father this yr ....

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

hi I remember the roller rink as it was my grandad len who owned it and then my parent s took over marion mercer married name winder , tom my dad .We were all taught to roller skate nt as good as my mum as she was world ,europe and uk champion .We have got lots of old photos of the rink as len loved to take photos all the time of us kids , len passed away when we moved to northcliff of china flu . then uncle john died next of a heart attack and then norman and then my mum in 2010 .It was agood part of my child hood and some very fond memories.

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

Now I know why you are familiar Cashman, always knocking young girls down!!!!! Only kidding, used to go there every Saturday afternoon.

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

i seem to remember calling it phoenix?

I remember being took roller skatin wi mi older brother in the late fifties early sixties in Harwood you had to go up a flight of stairs to get in happy days.

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

What memories this brings back. The roller rink was my second home in the 50's I remember Marian and Tom, Len of course and others. I thought I'd won the Olympic gold when I won the monthly novice cup then I was 3rd in the yearly. I was Edna Entwistle in those days and I went with my sister Sheila and friend Valerie Pontefract. I remember Jean Byron, Irene Jennings, Norma Worsley, Mildred Dugdale...probably all have different surnames now and Millie died a year or two ago. Have one or two photos Len took and I still have my golden figuremater skates but not the boots. My granddaughter took up ice skating at Blackburn and I lived my dreams again through her. Happy days.

Re: Rollerama - great Harwood
 

Being an arroder, I was also a regular skater during the 60s.

P.S. Welcome to Accyweb!