10/03/2024
The Boneyard Skatepark 1997 - 2024
We are incredibly sorry to say the Boneyard will never be able to reopen at our historical home in Tattenhall. Following the storms in October 2023 the building suffered more than the usual water damage. As regular users know the roof of the building had been a problem for many years. The damage lead to various inspections of the building and by Christmas we believed we could find a way to undertake once in a generation roof and electrical upgrades to enable us to re-open. But this was not to be…..
In the new year concerns about the structure of the building had to be investigated and the landlord graciously paid for an independent firm to assess the building and its use. As well as the planned work it confirmed that there were other immediate problems, which nobody had appreciated previously. The biggest problem for the skatepark was again water, but this time the lack of water supply to the building used as a club for young adults and children. More worryingly for the “business” and our potential funding was the identification of further structural issues that would need to be addressed in the coming years.
Unfortunately by the end of February the volunteers (including former staff) had to agree with the landlords earlier assessment that the building was at the end of its life. This is not something anyone wanted and we have explored all avenues to keep the spiritual home of the Boneyard alive. But the reality is we would have struggled to fund the roof repairs and electrical upgrades, but the scale of the work we hadn’t originally considered would have been more expensive than this…. and there would be more to come in a few years.
For over 25 years the Tattenhall building has been a home for kids & adults of all backgrounds to enjoy the sports they love. The Boneyard moved into that building soon after forming, it was far from new in 1997 and so it was inevitable a day would come when the building could not be used. We are just sorry it came about so suddenly. But like the death of a much loved friend, we hope people can look back on the great times it gave us in that quarter of a century.
Where do we go from here? Unfortunately this is not clear. The volunteers have been entirely focused on the goal of re-opening and so we are only now turning attention to the options. Identifying a new building will be the first challenge but raising funds to build an entirely new facility will be the greater. There is so much passion and so much desire to create another 25 years of history, we need to pull together to rebuild.
