Silver Blades on Queens Road, just outside the city centre, opened in 1965 and the ice rink was hugely popular with families until it closed in 2005, two years after iceSheffield launched. It was Sheffield’s first ice rink and hosted the city’s first ice hockey club, the Sheffield Lancers, who existed long before Sheffield Steelers were formed.

Lifelong friendships were forged and romance blossomed on the ice, with people fondly recalling the ‘affordable prices’ and the ‘great taste of grits in the cafe’, and telling how many years later they are still best friends with those they met at the rink, and in one case how a date there had led to a marriage which stood the test of time.

Today, the building is home to Skate Central roller skating arena, which hosts everything from children’s birthday parties to roller hockey league matches and amateur boxing contests.

These retro photos from the archives of The Star and Picture Sheffield show skaters having fun on the ice at Silver Blades between the 1960s and the early noughties.