With winter now (hopefully) well and truly behind us, we finally had a dry window in order to round up some willing participants and continue our Raiders of the Lost Park mission, uncovering and foregrounding some of the more random, long forgotten and all round ‘interesting’ skatepark layouts of the UK.

Geographically switching things up, this time around we delved into the myriad of unique skateparks found in and around Milton Keynes, and after much deliberation as to which bizarre number was to be our first MK Raiders subject, it was agreed that the Olympic level facility at Pennyland was the most deserving.

Located in the middle of the Pennyland estate, I’m not even sure the term ‘skatepark’ really applies here – maybe ‘bandstand’, or ‘two block’ is more appropriate.
The ‘skatepark’ seems to have been an afterthought to be honest, consisting of dumping a couple of ‘almost too steep’ and ‘almost too short’ hubbas onto a bandstand that otherwise houses a lurking shelter, presumably intended for spectators of the neighbouring football/basketball/ball games pitch.

Around the corner from the two-block, you can also find a flatbar and a curved block, both of which sit on a surface that’s pretty much too rough to skate. Unfortunately, (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), on the day we decided to visit, the flatbar and block were both far too wet to even consider touching so we had to make do with the hubba area.

With the main bandstand set to be the main focus of our session, the crew set about trying to unlock as many lines about thing as possible, with varying degrees of success. Along for this particular Raiders mission we had Fabric Skateboards and Nike SB representative Mark Stern, The National Skateboard Co. and Vans UK flow rider Josh ‘Jman Gregs’ Gregory, Towcester’s resident rad mum Zeta Rush, and Milton Keynes local Jamie Staples, who managed to join the session fresh from copping some items from the latest Supreme drop.

For footage and photos from previous outings – including an exploration of Huddersfield’s most awful council parks with the Endemic Skateshop crew, and days out to Nunroyd skatepark and Tunstall skatepark near Stoke-on-Trent with the Welcome Skateshop squad and assorted friends – be sure to head on over to the Raiders of the Lost Art tag.

It goes without saying that if you’ve got a park local to you that fits the Raiders bill, get in touch via YouTube comments, Facebook or Instagram (tag us in with #somebodycallnyjah) and we’ll head over and give it a seeing to.
Until next time…