Skates have been used for travel, fishing and pleasure from the Bronze Age through to today.

This worked bone skate has been manufactured from a horse metatarsal, a bone commonly used to make skates, as were the metapodials of cattle and, more rarely, deer leg bones. Although these objects are most commonly recognised as skates, other uses proposed include tools to smooth textiles or worked leather.

The skate was recovered alongside mid 12th-13th century pottery and a similar date can be considered for it. The anterior (front) side of the metatarsal has been smoothed flat, from contact with the ice, and the posterior (back) side shows polish along the medial ridge where the foot has worn the surface. The distal end has been removed and rounded over and there has been some trimming to both the heel and toe to create a slight upswept profile that likely improved performance.

It is noticeable that this example has no strap-holes to attach the skate to the foot. This is not uncommon, because it was not essential for bone skates to be tied to the feet, since the method of skating differed from that seen today, with propulsion being achieved with the use of a pole.

A vivid account of skating on the frozen marsh at Moorfields, London, was recorded by William FitzStephen in 1173 in his Life of Saint Thomas of Canterbury:

‘Others, more skilled at winter sports, put on their feet the shin-bones of animals…and, holding poles shod with iron in their hands, which they strike from time to time against the ice, they are propelled swift as a bird in flight or a bolt shot from an engine of war…’

FitzStephen also describes how dangerous skating could be:

‘Often a leg or an arm is broken, if the victim falls with it underneath him; but theirs is an age greedy for glory, youth yearns for victory and exercises itself in mock combats in order to carry itself more bravely in real battles.’