Travelling down the A1(M) on a recent trip through the UK we decided to stop off in Saffron Walden for lunch, as it was very close to the place I would be picking up some photographic frames. I suggested we could sit at the skatepark, since the weather was reasonable, and watch the skaters while we ate our lunch.
Three things occurred to me, while we sat there and ate our lunch. The first being that it had been over twelve years since I had left the UK, over twelve years since I had last really skateboarded, and over twelve years since I last visited this skatepark. A skatepark that was my local for a not insignificant amount of time.
The second thing that occurred to me was that there was only one skateboarder at the park, compared to several scooter riders. That didn’t really matter, these things are cyclical and I assumed skateboarding to be in a lull at the moment. That assumption was backed up when we witnessed a demo at Southsea skatepark the next day, where the scooters and BMX riders also outnumbered the skateboarders by roughly ten to one.
The final thing that occurred to me was that all of the users of the park we could see were younger than the park itself, it having opened in the summer of 2007. I then realised that the park was now 18 years old, as we sat there and ate our lunch in the summer of 2025. That would put the age of the park the same as the skateboarder’s memory to whom it is dedicated to at the age he died: Andrew Minet.
Saffron Walden had effectively become my local skatepark when I moved down to a small village on the outskirts of South Cambridgeshire, at the end of 2007. This was not long after the skatepark had opened, and not long after I had witnessed the Plan B demo1. I thought it would be a nice place to skate, but didn’t think more of it until I saw a job opening in Cambridge a few months later.
I applied for the job, was invited down for an interview, and combined that with another trip to the skatepark. That trip resulted in this photo:
I didn’t get the job.
A couple of months later I saw the same job being advertised so re-applied. Why not, I thought? I was invited down for an interview again, and this time was successful. So near the end of 2007 I packed up my things and moved to South Cambridgeshire.
Where I ended up living was a short 20min drive to Saffron Walden, so I would head down to the skatepark most weekends, and on summer evenings after work.
Over time I became familiar with the locals, and the locals became familiar with me. We would skate together at the park. Occasionally I would see them elsewhere, perhaps at a demo or two in another part of the country. Usually down in London, or Hastings, or somewhere else relatively close to Saffron Walden.
Every time I went to the park I would take my camera equipment with me, but I rarely got it out. I think I probably visited the park several hundred times in the six years I was there, but I shot no more than twenty photos.
My camera was always there in the boot of my car, in case something caught my eye or some random pro or team turned up. Which sometimes happened, but for the most part I was more interested in skating the park than shooting photos. I was pretty much over shooting skate photos by that point.
And I became a much better skateboarder, which was a combination of skating more, a good park, and shooting fewer photos. The park was rarely busy, and had opened before the deluge of scooter kids, so you could blast around the perimeter for hours on end.
I did shoot the occasional photo, and you see some of them here. I didn’t do anything with them because I wasn’t compelled to. Skate mags rarely ran photos from parks, unless it related to some sort of large event, or it was a known skater.
And that didn’t bother me, I was shooting photos for the pleasure of shooting photos, and skating for the pleasure of skating. My favourite photo from the park is probably the one above. You never used to see people doing sugarcane grinds.
What made Saffron Walden unique in the UK was that it had been constructed by Dreamland, known for their large flowing concrete parks found in the Pacific Northwest.
At the time outdoor parks in the UK were, well, shite. Poorly designed, or poorly constructed, or just an afterthought. Often built by companies that had absolutely no link to or clue about skateboarding. Sure, some had a nice mini ramp, or a good ledge or bank or hip. But most were terrible off the shelf things lacking any imagination.
Saffron Walden raised the bar substantially.
Inevitably the presence of a brand new park, constructed by a company with a high reputation, resulted in a steady stream of visitors from all over the country in those first few years. It was probably influential in my decision to move to Cambridge.
I would be down there with the locals on a Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday afternoons, and sometimes another evening midweek in the summer. After a couple of years floodlights were added which opened up nighttime and winter skating. Weather permitting of course.
Most people I used to skate with down at the park are likely now in their late twenties, mid thirties, or older. Statistically they’re probably like me, in that they’re no longer skateboarding. I’m sure some still are, but in reality most that skate aren’t lifers. I’d guess most don’t make it past a decade.
I know I’m begging the question with that statement, but that’s my impression having spent almost two decades doing it. Over the years I would witness people come and go. They would be massively into it, as if it consumed them. Then one day you would realise you hadn’t seen them for a while, and would wonder what happened to them.
And then I myself was gone.
Over the next eighteen, thirty-six, or, heck, even fifty-four years, lots more people will come and go. Almost three generations. At that point everyone involved in the park’s creation will be gone as well. What a remarkable legacy.
After leaving the park, having eaten our lunches, we got back on the road to head down to Southsea. Gone once more, I thought to myself that it’s unlikely I will ever visit One Minet Park again.