NOSTALGIA: New craze arrives in the summer of '77

With six weeks holiday from school stretching out before them, Denton youngsters were discovering the latest American pastime - skateboarding. 

First you had to persuade mum or dad to buy you a skateboard. 

Bardsley and Hulse toy shop on Manchester Road was the go-to-place where boards ranging from cheap and cheerful to the more expensive and sophisticated were flying off the shelves.

Eleven-year-old John Heywood of Norfolk Avenue had a lot of fun learning the essential moves with his cousins Deborah and Danny Black, aged 11 and seven, of Linden Road. 

He told our reporter he first became interested after watching skateboarders in action on a TV sports programme. 

“They had an obstacle race with paper cups on big skateboards,” he said.

The shop manageress Mrs K Bardsley said the craze had definitely gathered momentum since the start of the school holidays.

“The children who come in to ask about them are about 11 and 12 mostly.” 

Although skateboarding had initially seemed more popular in the South, Mrs Bardsley believed the North was quickly catching up.

John’s parents admitted they were concerned about the youngsters skateboarding near traffic and other pedestrians and had told them to be extra careful - a warning echoed by Tameside’s road safety officer Richard Neale.

He said ideally a safe area should be set aside. But at the time, no provision had been made in any of the borough’s parks or playing fields and sadly it seemed highly unlikely there would be an official skate park anytime soon.