PREVIEW

Before first light a young skater uses a torch on the ice. Skaters take to a piece of natural ice in Upware, Cambridgeshire. Fen-skaters make the most of the frozen flooded fields that they have been monitoring over the cold snap. They have to take the opportunity to get on the ice while it lasts. The beauty of this natural skating is that it is very safe with the ice only 4 inches deep at its deepest, on solid agricultural land. It may well be years before the conditions are right again. They hope if the winter is cold enough for long enough that a skating championship will be able to be held (last held 2009). This tradition occurred when the iced flooded fields existed for an extended cold period and farm workers, unable to work the land, put on their skates and raced each other in championships for food, money and trophies. Sadly this tradition is becoming lost, with many of the skaters in advanced years.