1. The History
The Ski Village was apparently the biggest artificial ski slope in Europe and drew people to Sheffield from all over the UK and further afield. Built at a cost of £2.5 million by city entrepreneur John Fleetham, and unveiled in 1988, in its heyday Sheffield’s Ski Village attracted 180,000 visitors a year. The country’s top skiers would gravitate to the city just to use the state-of-the-art site. A national training centre was developed for the British Ski Federation, with a 30-degree ramp and a 60ft pool for skiers to practise twists, turns and somersaults into water. Facilities grew to include a bowling alley and space for children’s birthday parties and even weddings.
There are echoes of Gatecrasher with it all. Both the Ski Village and Crasher burnt down at apparent continuing levels of popularity, in slightly dodgy circumstances. The main building burnt down at the end of April 2012 and now, less than a year on, there is no chance it will ever re-open again, given the scale of vandalism it has been subjected to after the initial fire. Two questions remain. The first question is why the site was allowed to fall victim to further fires (undoubtedly arson this time). The owner's failure to claim insurance on the subsequent fires were the real nails in the village's coffin, especially after the insurance ran out in August 2012. The second question is why was so much stuff left to the wreckers, thieves and vandals?
2. The Explore
It’s almost ten years to the day that I explored this place. Not too sure why I didn’t do a report at the time. Maybe I thought it wasn’t meritous of a report back then. When I went around it was late March and it was very snowy as you can see from the pictures. There was still quite a lot left and although the idiots had been in smashing stuff up, the many fires that were to follow hadn’t yet ravaged this once buzzing facility. I went back more recently, and the place was gone. It was barely recognisable. In fact, the only thing that I could relate back were the gates that were still intact and patches of the artificial ski slope.
3. The Pictures
Front gates:
Oh dear…
Abandoned JCB:
The main slope:
i
Cool bit of graff:
Outdoor after-piste:
i
One of the first bits to suffer from the arsonists
And this bit from the vandals:
Ski-lift:
Looking down the slope:
More wood that would very shortly also be burned down:
Flickr
The finally, the infamous old tank:
And a few from more recently (June 2018):
The Ski Village was apparently the biggest artificial ski slope in Europe and drew people to Sheffield from all over the UK and further afield. Built at a cost of £2.5 million by city entrepreneur John Fleetham, and unveiled in 1988, in its heyday Sheffield’s Ski Village attracted 180,000 visitors a year. The country’s top skiers would gravitate to the city just to use the state-of-the-art site. A national training centre was developed for the British Ski Federation, with a 30-degree ramp and a 60ft pool for skiers to practise twists, turns and somersaults into water. Facilities grew to include a bowling alley and space for children’s birthday parties and even weddings.
There are echoes of Gatecrasher with it all. Both the Ski Village and Crasher burnt down at apparent continuing levels of popularity, in slightly dodgy circumstances. The main building burnt down at the end of April 2012 and now, less than a year on, there is no chance it will ever re-open again, given the scale of vandalism it has been subjected to after the initial fire. Two questions remain. The first question is why the site was allowed to fall victim to further fires (undoubtedly arson this time). The owner's failure to claim insurance on the subsequent fires were the real nails in the village's coffin, especially after the insurance ran out in August 2012. The second question is why was so much stuff left to the wreckers, thieves and vandals?
2. The Explore
It’s almost ten years to the day that I explored this place. Not too sure why I didn’t do a report at the time. Maybe I thought it wasn’t meritous of a report back then. When I went around it was late March and it was very snowy as you can see from the pictures. There was still quite a lot left and although the idiots had been in smashing stuff up, the many fires that were to follow hadn’t yet ravaged this once buzzing facility. I went back more recently, and the place was gone. It was barely recognisable. In fact, the only thing that I could relate back were the gates that were still intact and patches of the artificial ski slope.
3. The Pictures
Front gates:
Oh dear…
Abandoned JCB:
The main slope:
Cool bit of graff:
Outdoor after-piste:
One of the first bits to suffer from the arsonists
And this bit from the vandals:
Ski-lift:
Looking down the slope:
More wood that would very shortly also be burned down:
The finally, the infamous old tank:
And a few from more recently (June 2018):
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