Eden Project

Children from flood-hit school mark re-opening of Eden ice rink

More than 100 children whose own school was flooded out got their skates on today to re-open our ice rink. The pupils from Pondhu Primary School in nearby St Austell enjoyed the first skate on the rink since it was put out of action for a month due to the flood.

The rink was among several areas of the Eden site hit by the flood on 17 November which affected hundreds of businesses and households in mid Cornwall. The rink was one of the worst affected areas but after major repairs and testing, it will fully re-open to visitors again at 11am tomorrow (Friday 17 December) – a month after the flood.

The 120 children aged seven to 11 from Pondhu Primary were invited for a free skate as a curtain-raiser to the big re-opening. The school was also badly affected by the flood and was closed for a week.

Eden’s managing director Gaynor Coley said: “Tomorrow (Friday) will be one month to the day since the big flood in mid Cornwall which affected so many people in their homes, businesses and schools.

“It has taken us that amount of time to get our ice rink back up and running again. We thought there could be no better way to mark this occasion than to welcome children from one of our local schools which suffered a deluge on 17 November, just as we did.

“It has been brilliant that the children of Pondhu Primary School have been able to have a great day out exploring Eden and having a whale of a time on the rink.”

Pupil Megan Adrien, aged nine, said: “It has been really fun ice-skating. It was hard when we were flooded at school. We had to go into the council offices for some of our lessons.”

First Devon & Cornwall and Truronian Holidays provided free coaches to transport the children to Eden.

The first skate for visitors tomorrow (Friday 17 December) is at 11am with 40-minute sessions happening on the hour until 8pm. A skate costs £5 on top of the entry fee. You can book a skating session online or ring the Box Office on 01726 811972. For full details of opening times, see our ice rink webpage. The rink will be open until 27 February.

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A Time of Gifts Calendar, Community, Flood

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A Time of Gifts, Christmas, Community, Flood