In the first of a two-part history of Durham Ice Rink, David Simpson recalls the earliest days of ice skating in the city.

THE people of Durham were no strangers to ice skating even before the days of the Durham Ice Rink.

In days gone by, people took advantage of ice on ponds and rivers during periods of cold weather.

Out came the boots, and huge gatherings of people paraded across the ice at high speed in their skates for shear pleasure.

Old photos of Durham confirm the popularity of skating. One image, from 1929, shows schoolboys skating on the Wear near Framwellgate Bridge, while a Victorian photograph of 1895 shows skating families gathered on the river near Prebends Bridge.

But the story of Durham's riverside rink begins about a hundred years ago, 20 miles to the south-west of Durham City in the Teesdale village of Lartington.

Here lived the Smiths, a family of 14 children whose father was a Smith by name and smith by trade. Indeed, for four centuries the family was dedicated to the working of iron.

It was the 13th of the 14 children who came to be the founder of ice skating in Durham. His name was John Frederick James Smith, and he was destined to become Alderman Smith, the Mayor of Darlington and later the Mayor of Durham City.

However, almost everyone who recalls his name remembers him more affectionately as Icy Smith.

As a boy, Icy and his brothers had spent the coldest winter days skating on the frozen fish ponds at Lartington. It was a pastime that gave them much joy, but also brought disappointment each time the sun appeared to spoil their fun.

Icy had an inquiring mind and was determined to find a solution to the problem.

He recognised that by the time he was old enough to join the family business there would be too much competition from his siblings. So by the time he had reached his mid-20s, in 1907, he was already in pursuit of his dream.

Icy's early efforts proved disappointing, and he soon discovered that the costs of sustaining a whole field of ice were astronomical. This was an age when the mechanics of refrigeration were very much in their infancy.

Nevertheless, Icy recognised that the production of ice on a smaller scale for commercial and household purposes was a far more practical pursuit.

Despite the scepticism of others, Icy recognised the business potential and established a factory for ice production in an old mill at Barnard Castle.

Initially, it produced about a ton of ice every 24 hours, but demand was increasingly high and the factory was extended. He followed it up with another factory at Darlington and then one at Durham.

The Durham factory was only a short distance along the River Wear from the point where his ice rink dream would become a reality.

Throughout the 1930s, the development of small, practical household refrigeration improved and posed a major threat to his business. He increasingly turned attention to his original dream.

Icy purchased a row of terraced houses near the river in Freemans Place, on the site of an ancient water mill that once belonged to the Prince Bishops of Durham.

The noisy weir was built at this point across the River Wear in times past to generate power for the mill. Icy wanted to utilise this same waterpower in new ways.

Rubble from demolished houses had been dropped into the river, raising the water level, and this facilitated the use of the river for the generation of hydro-electrical power. It would help to considerably reduce the running costs of the rink.

Icy's riverside rink required the setting of seven miles of pipes that would lie beneath the great pad of ice to keep it cool. The pipes were in place by 1939, but when the rink finally opened on the March 6, 1940, it was somewhat exposed to the elements.

There was, initially, no roof of any kind, but an enormous marquee, allegedly the largest in the world, was soon brought in to cover the rink.

The marquee was erected in the style of a Big Top circus with the support of two poles. The poles were frozen into the ice and provided a novelty obstacle for skaters to navigate around.

Unfortunately, the marquee was very much at the mercy of the winds and it ended up in the river on more than one occasion. In 1944, a severe gale destroyed the marquee altogether, and a new ice rink with a permanent roof was an essential requirement.

But despite the problems with the weather, ice-skating - including ice hockey - was a well-established leisure activity in the city by the end of the Second World War.

In next week's Durham Memories we remember the second Durham ice rink and the growth of the famous Durham Wasps Ice Hockey team.