Colchester Rollerworld: 'This place is bigger than just roller skating'

Rollerworld has been in Colchester for more than 32 years

For more than 32 years, generations of roller skaters have flocked to Rollerworld in Colchester. The roller skating scene there brought couples together, led to international honours for some and is recognised by many as a world class rink. Amid fears that it might have to close next month after a dispute over rent, the BBC has been speaking to people about their stories of Rollerworld.

'My retro white skates'

Melanie Battle has passed her boots down to her daughter

"I would skate every Wednesday evening with friends, and after about a year, my parents bought me my own white skates with pink wheels," Colchester primary school teacher Melanie Battle says.

She started skating at the age of 12 at The Triangle in Colchester, Rollerworld's predecessor.

The small rink was about a quarter of a mile from the current venue and its owner went on to build the new rink on Moorside.

Melanie was one of many who happily moved on to Rollerworld.

Over the years, Rollerworld has proved popular with screen and stage stars such the late Barbara Windsor

"The hire skates at the time were blue and red - and horrible - so to have the iconic white ones was very exciting," she says.

"I kept these skates safe when I moved away to university, bought my own house, had two daughters... and last year I was able to pass on my retro-style skates to one of my daughters."

Now aged 48, she says her husband asked her to throw the skates away many times, but she would tell him if they had daughters they might like them - "and they do".

"They're still skate-worthy, we've had them checked, but they're really retro and very 1980s," she says.

"We have had several skate parties for our two girls at Rollerworld, and school skating nights - I am so sad this facility is under such a threat.

"It's a real shame, especially with Colchester getting city status.

"It's got a world-class skating rink and we need it here."

'An iconic venue'

Nic and Barry Moss met through their shared roller skating hobby

Barry Moss, 50, from Brightlingsea, Essex, met his wife through their shared love of skating.

He had his first taste of life on the rink at the age of 10, skating at The Triangle in Colchester.

"I'd go there every Friday and Saturday as a teenager, which made my mum happy as she'd know exactly where I was."

He met Nic, now Mrs Moss, when they were 15.

When Rollerworld opened, he and Nic would skate there together, and for a time he worked as a rink steward, "scooping people up", he recalls.

It became a family thing.

The venue has proved popular for decades

"We'd take our kids when they were little, and our niece - in fact pretty much the whole family has gone at some point," he says.

He'll be back there for a Halloween event later this month.

"Rollerworld is an iconic venue that has entertained children for years."

He says its closure will be "devastating".

"It's such an opportunity for Colchester to have a world-class venue like this - but that opportunity is going to be lost."

'Born to be on wheels'

Myla, aged seven, has lessons at Rollerworld

Myla, aged seven, dreams of becoming an artistic skater and one day competing for her country, but her "dreams are being crushed", her parents say.

She got her first skates at Christmas but mum, Elle Lawson, says: "It's like my daughter was born to be on wheels.

"She can be a bit clumsy on her feet - she'd trip over her own shadow - but put her in skates and it's quite something."

Myla and her father Tom, who has also taken up roller skating

The family travels about an hour from Maldon, Essex to Colchester several times a week, where Myla has group lessons and private artistic lessons.

Her dad Tom has also taken to the skates and has adult lessons at the rink.

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The family is just starting to make memories at Rollerworld but Ms Lawson says they are "devastated" that it may close.

"It's such a wonderful community and so important for people's physical and mental health - I do worry about that, if it closes."

A history of roller skating

Plimpton's 1863 four-wheeled roller skate

• John Joseph Merlin, a Belgian inventor, was the first recorded person to invent a roller skate, in London in about 1760

• It wasn't until 1863, that American inventor James Leonard Plimpton patented a four-wheeled roller skate that was capable of turning. Before that, skaters had to stop and pick their feet up

• He opened the first roller skating rinks in New York and Rhode Island and, by the mid-1870s, there were 50 rinks in London

• The popularity of skating has waxed and waned but has proved popular on stage and screen including Charlie Chaplin's Hollywood 1916 movie The Rink, to Rollerball and Xanadu in the 70s and 80s, to a roller disco featuring in the Netflix hit, Stranger Things

• During the pandemic lockdown periods, its popularity surged again, with some skate retailers reporting an 800% increase in sales

'Embrace this asset'

Faye Wilson skated competitively and still loves taking her nieces to Rollerworld

Skating lessons as a teenager at Rollerworld led to a place on the England roller hockey team for Faye Wilson, now 41.

"None of this would have happened without Rollerworld or the people I met within it," she says.

"I travelled the country and the world, and I never found a venue that remotely compares to the facilities at Rollerworld."

Ms Wilson (bottom right) was selected for the England roller hockey team and played in the world championships in Germany in 2000

She first went to the rink in her home city when she was 12 and still skates regularly, taking her nieces, aged seven and 14.

"I know how important this place was for my health and wellbeing as a teenager, and for building a network of friends that I still have," she says.

"I wanted this for my nieces. I see their confidence, and their freedom grow here, and I hoped it would be open for their lifetime, and their own children one day would have the same experiences.

"There's a bigger picture here."

Faced with the venue's closure, her message is: "Embrace this asset."

'I took her to McDonald's'

Gary and Emily Allard met at Rollerworld and took their two sons there from a very early age

Gary Allard and his wife Emily are another couple brought together by Colchester's skating scene.

He worked at The Triangle for several years before moving to a full-time job in maintenance, management and DJ'ing at Rollerworld, which he did for more than a decade through the 1990s.

"I was about 18 when I first saw Emily skating round - she's quite small, but I just saw this big mop of hair," he says.

"I took her to McDonald's."

Presenter Phillip Schofield, pictured with a member of staff, was another celebrity to grace Rollerworld

Their own children, Ben, now 16, and Olly, 12, practically grew up at the rink, skating there since they were about 18 months old, he says.

"People couldn't believe it when they'd see these little people flying past them.

"The boys haven't known anything else."

Emily Allard shows off the tiny skates both their children used when they were younger

During lockdown, Mr Allard even built a mini rink at home so Ben could practise his roller hockey shooting skills.

"There have been a lot of tears in Colchester over this closure," he says.

"It'll be tragic - there's nothing like Rollerworld."

Rollerworld's owners, Jason and Anne Khan, say they cannot afford the proposed annual rent rise from £100,000 to £250,000, and would have to close the venue at the end of November unless they were offered a rent reduction.

The landlords, Petchey Holdings, say the company has been in negotiations with the owners for more than two years, had "previously offered [them] terms for a new lease below the market rate and remain open to continued negotiations".