Thorney hosts the National Championship - you might have visited in 1879 if you were interested in Fen speed skating....

As I drove to Whittlesey on Tuesday this week, the skating field was clearly visible just south of the Dog in a Doublet bridge. It is flooded and left in the hope that deep frosts will give a surface of ice which is thick and safe enough to use for the Whittlesey Skating Association's races. This is the modern face of "Fen Skating" which was traditional in this area, from at least the middle ages.

In the nineteenth century the rules of this sort of skating were developed, particularly to avoid the issues with lots of betting taking place. This photo shows a poster held in the Museum in Thorney since the 1980s which advertises the first championships held in England with agreed national rules for the one and a half mile race. As you can see, the poster had parts missing, dirt, mould and creases. It seems to be unique as we haven't found anyone who knows of a copy of it.

Consequently, in 2023 we applied for a grant to support the Thorney Society organising for it to have specialist conservation treatment. We were successful in gaining financial support from the Cambridgeshire Museum Development Officer, so were able to go ahead.

Museum Conservation Services Ltd, based at Duxford, were able to provide the expertise with paper which was needed. They painstakingly dismantled the frame the poster was in, then detailed the issues! It was clear that parts of the poster had been lost, but the photo below shows discolouration and also mould which had been growing under the edges of old sticky tape on the back of the poster.

Once the poster was cleaned up, the Committee made the decision to have the missing parts replaced (top right and bottom left). The conservators accessed appropriate paper, then reconstructed what could be done. Below can be seen the names of the Presidents which could be guessed and completed, and the overall title of the Association, but where pencil notes had been added nearly 150 years ago some words remain lost. The font had to be copied from other posters of the age, as some letters like G did not occur elsewhere in the poster we have.

The note that "Fish" Smart had won survives on the right. He was part of a famous skating family from Welney, Norfolk, and was at his peak in the 1870s and 1880s. (He gained his nickname from his swimming ability, and died in 1909.) Unfortunately, we don't know what nugget of information (at the top) followed "The flag used..." as that part of the note is permanently lost.

We also know that the weather on December 8th was so bad that the race was actually held on December 10th! Many people came on the train to Thorney Station, then walked to the course on the Thorney River.

After conservation and restoration, the poster looked as it is below in the photograph. It is also also now safely stored in a sealed and environmentally stable frame to preserve it for the future.

Thank you to the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Small Grants scheme for the funding for this, and to our local Conservator Jayne Sheraton for setting up the project.