17 thoughts on “Construction work on Billingham Forum. c1960”
The unique roof structure of the ice rink itself was the brainchild of a Swedish engineer called Peter Jawerth. Once erected he came across to “tune” the steel cables to the correct tension. The building as a whole was always referred to in the office as the “Sports Forum “. Representatives from numerous councils all over Britain came to have a look when it opened,but Elder & Lester didn”t seem to get any more similar commissions as a result.
The Forum Ice Rink was built 1965/66. The consulting engineers were Blyth & Blyth of Edinburgh. I still have a copy of the drawing for the fabrication of the sloping columns. The top and bottom plates are 2 1/2 ins thick, the side plates 3/4 thick.
I recall being a trainee at Elder Lester Architects who designed The Forum and printing hundreds of copies of plans : I think there were about 200 drawings which each had to be copied about 12 times for each issue to the contractor ( Shepherds ) I still have a press cutting from a trade magazine giving a full cost breakdown. Total was just over £1 million plus fees etc.The design team was Alan Ward partner in charge with Ray Todd ,Bob Horsley ,Ian Shuttleworth ,Peter Harrison plus sundry other occasional assistants. Around the same time we were designing Kennedy Gardens ,Thornaby Town Centre ,Billingham Town Centre shopping blocks , Billingham and Seaham Council Offices , British Titan labs in Portrack, plus a myriad of smaller jobs. A huge workload for a firm of that size !
Hi Terry Yes my dad was Charlie (Jock) McInnes. I must have missed your earlier comment about the tennis tournament or I might have asked if you remembered him. I remember him doing the seating for shows. Unfortunately he died in 1999. I have a photo of the five a side team, are you on it? The picture stockton team have my e.mail address if you want a copy of the photo. All the best Moira
message for moira murphy, is your dad jock McInnes ? if so i worked with him at the forum, we used to erect the portable seating for out side shows together. i started as a sports porter on jocks shift.worked there for 18 + years like to hear whats happened since i left, leave a message if you want my email address Terry
I read all the comments about the Forum Ice Rink with interest. The main steelwork was fabricated by Head Wrightson at Teesdale works Thornaby. I still have a print of one of the drawings for the main columns which was drawn by me in 1965. It was normal practice to keep copies of drawings for use in job interviews, particularly those which were out of the ordinary, to hope to impress your prospective new employer !!
Before the Forum was built a fair used to be held on this land and I DID see a flea circus there including chariot pulling and tightrope walking fleas later this fair used to pitch oppersite the Telstar pub. Maybe this is the fair held also at Tilery Stockton a subject that has cropped up lately in recent articles.This would be around the mid 60s to late 60s I think.
I worked at the Forum from just after it opened, there for over 18 years. as has been said it was the Dewar Cup that was held on the rink, a wooden stage was placed on the ice followed by plastic sheet, then the playing surface, which I believe was called rubcore? which was supposed to be none slip. I remember meeting Virginia Wade,the then Yvonne Goolagong, plus a host of the other top players of the time.
Thanks for that Stan, as a complete tennis nut I did know what year it was I only mentioned Arthur Ashe as he became more memorable maybe than the person he was practising against who I had really gone to see and that was Tom Okker. By the way the tournament was The Dewar Cup and rounds were held at various sites including the Royal Albert Hall, it was at the Forum for four years.
The Forum was opened to the public on 17th,July.1967 but was not officially opened by the Queen, who was escorted by the Duke of Edinburgh,until 17th,October.1967. It attracted 25,000 visitors a week at that time and now nearly 40 years later it is still attracting 20,000 visitors per week to use its large range of facilities To think a couple of years ago they were thinking of having it demolished
If I remember correctly the tennis tournament or exhibition matches were only held once. Not sure of the year but they melted the ice on the rink and created the court over the base mat.
Just to put the record straight, the ice was left under wooden boards with a covering of a rubber mat called rudcore. This was layed in strips and the seams glued/welded together, the tournament was part of the Dewer cup, how do I know this? I work at the Forum.
To be correct the ice was left to melt all 40 tons of it three weeks before the Dewar cup , the water off it went into what was known as the pit, The remainder was broken up with chipping bars and put outside to melt into the car park drains. In doing this gave the chance of renewing the depth of the ice each year thus saving energy freezing it, how I know this ? I was one the people who moved it.
I remember the building of Billingham Forum, only because I worked at Isaac Robson from 65-67 and we supplied a few nuts and bolts to hold it up!! The coincidence was my father got a job there and as family members we were invited to go before it opened to the public. Also there used to be a tennis tournament and I remember watching Arthur Ashe practising the year before he won Wimbledon.
Construction of Billingham Forum did not start in 1960. It was officially opened in 1967, and construction would have commenced no earlier than 1965. I just about lived in the place during its first year of operation. My brother Joe was a long term driver employee of Crossleys, the local company that supplied the bricks – he delivered dozens of loads to the site. I played in a band called “Psycho-67” ( along with Steve Bell, who later drummed for the Teesside Panthers). We were the first local band to play the new ice hockey arena at the Forum.
The unique roof structure of the ice rink itself was the brainchild of a Swedish engineer called Peter Jawerth. Once erected he came across to “tune” the steel cables to the correct tension. The building as a whole was always referred to in the office as the “Sports Forum “. Representatives from numerous councils all over Britain came to have a look when it opened,but Elder & Lester didn”t seem to get any more similar commissions as a result.
The Forum Ice Rink was built 1965/66. The consulting engineers were Blyth & Blyth of Edinburgh. I still have a copy of the drawing for the fabrication of the sloping columns. The top and bottom plates are 2 1/2 ins thick, the side plates 3/4 thick.
I recall being a trainee at Elder Lester Architects who designed The Forum and printing hundreds of copies of plans : I think there were about 200 drawings which each had to be copied about 12 times for each issue to the contractor ( Shepherds ) I still have a press cutting from a trade magazine giving a full cost breakdown. Total was just over £1 million plus fees etc.The design team was Alan Ward partner in charge with Ray Todd ,Bob Horsley ,Ian Shuttleworth ,Peter Harrison plus sundry other occasional assistants. Around the same time we were designing Kennedy Gardens ,Thornaby Town Centre ,Billingham Town Centre shopping blocks , Billingham and Seaham Council Offices , British Titan labs in Portrack, plus a myriad of smaller jobs. A huge workload for a firm of that size !
Hi Terry Yes my dad was Charlie (Jock) McInnes. I must have missed your earlier comment about the tennis tournament or I might have asked if you remembered him. I remember him doing the seating for shows. Unfortunately he died in 1999. I have a photo of the five a side team, are you on it? The picture stockton team have my e.mail address if you want a copy of the photo. All the best Moira
message for moira murphy, is your dad jock McInnes ? if so i worked with him at the forum, we used to erect the portable seating for out side shows together. i started as a sports porter on jocks shift.worked there for 18 + years like to hear whats happened since i left, leave a message if you want my email address Terry
I read all the comments about the Forum Ice Rink with interest. The main steelwork was fabricated by Head Wrightson at Teesdale works Thornaby. I still have a print of one of the drawings for the main columns which was drawn by me in 1965. It was normal practice to keep copies of drawings for use in job interviews, particularly those which were out of the ordinary, to hope to impress your prospective new employer !!
Before the Forum was built a fair used to be held on this land and I DID see a flea circus there including chariot pulling and tightrope walking fleas later this fair used to pitch oppersite the Telstar pub. Maybe this is the fair held also at Tilery Stockton a subject that has cropped up lately in recent articles.This would be around the mid 60s to late 60s I think.
I worked at the Forum from just after it opened, there for over 18 years. as has been said it was the Dewar Cup that was held on the rink, a wooden stage was placed on the ice followed by plastic sheet, then the playing surface, which I believe was called rubcore? which was supposed to be none slip. I remember meeting Virginia Wade,the then Yvonne Goolagong, plus a host of the other top players of the time.
Thanks for that Stan, as a complete tennis nut I did know what year it was I only mentioned Arthur Ashe as he became more memorable maybe than the person he was practising against who I had really gone to see and that was Tom Okker. By the way the tournament was The Dewar Cup and rounds were held at various sites including the Royal Albert Hall, it was at the Forum for four years.
The Forum was opened to the public on 17th,July.1967 but was not officially opened by the Queen, who was escorted by the Duke of Edinburgh,until 17th,October.1967. It attracted 25,000 visitors a week at that time and now nearly 40 years later it is still attracting 20,000 visitors per week to use its large range of facilities To think a couple of years ago they were thinking of having it demolished
If it was the year before Ashe won Wimbledon it must have been 1974.
If I remember correctly the tennis tournament or exhibition matches were only held once. Not sure of the year but they melted the ice on the rink and created the court over the base mat.
Just to put the record straight, the ice was left under wooden boards with a covering of a rubber mat called rudcore. This was layed in strips and the seams glued/welded together, the tournament was part of the Dewer cup, how do I know this? I work at the Forum.
To be correct the ice was left to melt all 40 tons of it three weeks before the Dewar cup , the water off it went into what was known as the pit, The remainder was broken up with chipping bars and put outside to melt into the car park drains. In doing this gave the chance of renewing the depth of the ice each year thus saving energy freezing it, how I know this ? I was one the people who moved it.
I remember the building of Billingham Forum, only because I worked at Isaac Robson from 65-67 and we supplied a few nuts and bolts to hold it up!! The coincidence was my father got a job there and as family members we were invited to go before it opened to the public. Also there used to be a tennis tournament and I remember watching Arthur Ashe practising the year before he won Wimbledon.
Construction of Billingham Forum did not start in 1960. It was officially opened in 1967, and construction would have commenced no earlier than 1965. I just about lived in the place during its first year of operation. My brother Joe was a long term driver employee of Crossleys, the local company that supplied the bricks – he delivered dozens of loads to the site. I played in a band called “Psycho-67” ( along with Steve Bell, who later drummed for the Teesside Panthers). We were the first local band to play the new ice hockey arena at the Forum.
Physcho 67…. My brother Mike Rowe played in that band I think?