In midwinter, around St Hilary's Day, flooded portions of the Wide Open and sections of Tees would freeze, and the people of Greatham and Seaton Snook would take to the ice to skate joyously in the bracing cold air. Mr Vitty from Seaton was a particularly elegant skater, floating backwards across the ice and even making pirouettes in the air!

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John Leatherhead, Stories of Someone Else's Childhood (1958). York: Rowntree Press (out of print)