In collaboration with Skate Nottingham CIC. With thanks to Chris Lawton of Skateboarding GB.
Skate Beeston aims to engage young people in designing, creating, and enjoying spaces for skateboarding and other physical activities.
Skate Beeston operates as an outreach initiative under the auspices of Beeston Civic Society. It operates in collaboration with Skate Nottingham CIC, a non-profit community development organisation that has engaged more than 3,000 people in activities linked to skateboarding in Nottinghamshire and Nottingham City since July 2017.
Beeston is not well serviced for skateboarding facilities. Beeston Square affords ad-hoc opportunities of the challenging Podium and the ‘Water Head’ sculpture plinth edges. But the cobbled surface does not easily lend itself to skateboarding or other wheeled sports.
This is despite the town’s legacy as an early hub for British skateboarding in the 1980s and 1990s, with a wooden mini-ramp and temporary indoor skatepark providing early exposure for local young people who would go on to be internationally recognised professional skateboarders, including Alan Rushbrooke (now Senior Key Account Manager at Vans Shoes) and Pete Hellicar.
Photo: © Jarrad Thomas
Other spaces have dedicated areas; Inham Nook is a short tram ride away (alight at Eskdale stop) and Beeston Fields is but a trip down Wollaton Road.
A prototype ‘DIY Skate Hub’ design and build project at Beeston Fields Recreation has been built
with Beeston Civic Society in association with Broxtowe Borough Council and professional assistance from international skatepark builders Betongpark.
This was made possible through funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), held by Skate Nottingham and local educational charity Ignite Futures to engage young people in science, technology and the built environment.
During winter 2020-21, 110 local young people designed ideas for new public spaces, working with civil engineers, architects, designers and landscape architects from all over the world. Under-spend from this project, due to COVID-19, provided the £3,100 capital funding for materials, transport and equipment hire for 11 volunteers – supervised by experts from Betong – to construct the two skatepark forms in concrete at the Beeston Fields site. Volunteers ranged in age from late teens to mid-40s and included students from the nearby University of Nottingham Park Campus.
Photo, right and below: © Tom Quigley
Skate Nottingham have since received requests for advice to replicate this project from two London Borough Councils plus several local user communities in Nottinghamshire and the wider Midlands.
Further funds have been pledged by County Councillor Steve Carr from the Community Development Fund.
Photo: © Tom Quigley
Beeston Civic Society 