Latest news with #LewisHobson
BBC News
30-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Durham Wasps founding member 'wished he hadn't left the team'
A founding member of one of the UK's most successful hockey teams wished he had not left it to play elsewhere, his son has Russell Proudfoot, known as Russ, was one of the first men to play for the Durham Wasps when it was formed in son, Chris Proudfoot, said his dad had "left his mark" and missed the Wasps when he started playing for Liverpool in the late 1940s, following a dispute with the owner of Durham Ice Rink. "To be at the conception of something and to start it off... he was one of the founders so you can't say more than that. He left his mark," Mr Proudfoot said. Russ's hockey past has been remembered amid a project to commemorate Durham's ice rink, which closed in is being collected and local artist Lewis Hobson is planning to create a mural celebrating the venue, which was demolished in about the project prompted his family to contact the BBC to offer some of his items and they shared his story. Russ was born in 1923 and briefly lived in Canada as a child before returning to County Durham in the late hockey did not find him until after the end of the war, which had brought Canadian pilots to the area."The locals saw them doing this and they started joining in and they formed a team," his son said. Mr Proudfoot recalls his dad telling him about the freezing cold ice baths he used to take after getting "a real good pounding on the backside with a stick" during a game."He remembered going into the changing rooms, virtually struggling to walk and somebody just filled a bucket of water and pushed them into the bucket."So he was left sitting in the bucket of water, to cool yourself down and stop it from bruising." Although the team went on to achieve remarkable success in the 1980s, Mr Proudfoot said it had humble beginnings."It was rough. I remember my dad saying that," the 68-year-old Proudfoot said the players had no protective clothing so his dad, who had served in the Navy, helped kit out the team with clothing such as thick jumpers."It was a violent sport, it still is a violent sport. Durham Wasps came out of nothing, but they were unbeatable, year after year after year," he left the Wasps in the late 1940s after a dispute over pay with the owner of the ice rink, John "Icy" went to play for Liverpool - but Mr Proudfoot said his dad later regretted his decision. "He said one of the things he wished he had never done was go [there]." Russ's hockey career came to an end in the early 1950s and he returned to his hometown Ferryhill and became a Proudfoot said his dad never took him to the ice rink but he went himself and watched the Wasps as a teenager. His mum was also a semi-professional ice dancer - but the skill did not rub off on him."I was a terrible ice skater. I could get around, but not good enough to play ice hockey," he Proudfoot, who now lives in Sunderland, said it was important to commemorate Durham Ice Rink because "it's not there anymore". "It's not as if someone can go down, a young kid, and say: 'How long has it been here? What's this?'," he said. "They can't do that, there's no-one there. There's no ice hockey. There's nothing. So the history is all there is." Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
BBC News
18-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Durham ice rink mural plan to rediscover lost history
A long-demolished ice rink, once home to one of the UKs most successful hockey teams, could be commemorated with a Lewis Hobson has been rediscovering the history of Durham Ice Rink, which closed in 1996, ahead of creating an artwork for the site on The Sands, where the passport office is now located, was home to the Durham Wasps and the centre of a thriving community hub. Mr Hobson, from Durham, has been collecting artefacts and memorabilia which are being exhibited along with an example mural celebrating the old rink. The artist said he grew up with stories about the importance of the rink and was inspired to find out what its closure meant to people in the city."I was really interested in what this loss means for the community and what has replaced it, if anything has replaced it," he over a year he has been collecting stories about the site and different objects marking people's experiences the accumulated memorabilia are knitted gloves, jumpers, hand-made banners and a handkerchief with the names of Wasps players from the memories and artefacts will inspire a final mural planned for later this year, with a documentary also under way. The ice rink opened in 1940, the vision of local ice seller John 'Icy' War Two brought Canadian pilots to the area, including a handful of National Hockey League professionals, and they formed a services hockey league."This is what really kick started ice hockey in Durham," Mr Hobson, 31, Wasps were founded by an Canadian airman, Michael Davey, and local men in 1946, but it was in the late 1980s and early 1990s that they became hugely successful. "They were like the Manchester United of British Ice Hockey at the time," the Durham artist said."But the rink closed and we haven't had a replacement, so the history was lost." The end of ice hockey in Durham came when the Wasps were bought by the then Newcastle United Sir John Hall, in 1995, who wanted to move the team north. "This meant the team and the community were split. Half went to Newcastle and half stayed in Durham," Mr Hobson rink was closed in 1996 and the building demolished in 2013. Mr Hobson has painted an artwork inside the Place Lab pop-up at the Prince Bishops shopping centre and is consulting with the community to find the "perfect" final design."Because so many people visited the ice rink and so many people really loved it and miss it, my hope is that someone who has a really nice wall also wants a mural," Mr Hobson his exhibition, called Blank Slate, runs until 27 April and also shines a light on Durham's ice skating and street skating Clark, head of culture, sport and tourism at Durham County Council, said the local authority was "in discussion" with Lewis about creating the is hoped the artwork will be painted in the city centre by the end of the year."This history is really important," Mr Hobson said."A mural is the final thing to say this history has been rediscovered." Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
