LAST week we enjoyed looking at some photos of roller skating at the Sidney Hall in Weymouth.

Former skating teacher Babs Masters shared some photos with us.

One featured four little girls who were having skating lessons and we asked if anyone was able to identify the little girls in the photo.

One of the girls has been identified as none other than Weymouth and Portland Mayor Kate Wheller!

She is the second from the right in the photo.

Kate said she has many happy memories of roller skating at Sidney Hall.

She said: “I loved roller skating. I used to skate every Saturday morning and I did a figure skating badge.

“I think I am about 11 years old in the photo and I had a K embroidered onto my dress which you can see.

“I remember Cheryl, who is also in the photo, who lived at Ashton Road. Unfortunately I didn’t keep in touch with the other people in my class in the photo.

“I must have been about 13 or 14 when I gave up skating at the Sidney Hall. Roller skating there was so popular. The great thing is that it wasn’t expensive and you could always borrow some skates if you didn’t have your own.

“It was a really lovely surprise to open up the Echo and see a picture of me at that age!”

Thanks also to Peter Tizzard of Weymouth who got in touch to tell Looking Back about his memories of getting his roller skates to use at the Sidney Hall from the Co-op in Weymouth.

He said that Mr Lloydsworth, who used to operate the rink, had another rink and people from Weymouth would visit the rink by travelling in a VW minibus.

“People also used to skate behind the minibus when it was in the carnival,” he said.

“I also remember Denis Phillips, the floor steward who used to work for Dorset County Council, who used to live in Abbotsbury Road close to where the chip shop is.

“Me and my wife Maureen have still got our roller skates. We used to love going there, there was no trouble.”

This week we’re going to round off our memories of roller skating at the Sidney Hall with this final batch of photos.

Roller skaters from the Sidney Hall played a big part in Weymouth Carnival in the 1950s.

Babs’ final images are these three photos taken in 1954 of Weymouth Carnival.

One of the photos shows some glamorous skaters pretending to be horses. A second photo shows the glamorous skaters going along the carnival route with the ‘ringmaster’.

Babs said: “It was very hard skating the route as our skates had very small wheels and it was very easy to trip over.”

The final picture shows some roller hockey players from the Sidney Hall.

Roller hockey was also a popular sport on the hall’s rink.

Babs has been able to identify two of the roller hockey players in the photo. They are Frank, whose surname is unknown, from Dorchester, who is in the middle in the photo, and another man in the photo is Ken Conning, she thinks.

n If anyone else can name the other roller hockey players in the photo, we would love to hear from you. Call Looking Back on 01305 830973 or email joanna.davis@dorsetecho.co.uk