THIS week we’re looking at Skem’s original public art masterpiece.

Many moons ago – long before it was decided our roundabouts needed to be littered with loads of weird conceptual designs to distract us from the road – Skem just had the Conny Pyramid.

From the mid-1980s, kiddies being dragged along for the weekly shop would gaze at in amazement while the more curmudgeonly would only tut and say: “Huh, wonder how much that cost us in taxes!”

Standing 11 metres high outside the old outdoor seating area, it was actually a wooden and concrete homage to the old Skelmersdale Development Corporation logo.

In fact, it was intended as a “parting gift” to Skem as the SDC was wound up in 1984 and was taken over by the Commission for New Towns.

At that point the Concourse was owned by CNT and remained so until sold off to a private company called Ossory Road.

In 1989, the centre was extended and the grand, glass facade was added. The multi-storey car park was also built and because of that, the pyramid went as well. That’s not to say that some weren’t glad to see the back of it.

Just a few years after it was installed, concern was mounting about kiddies climbing up onto the pyramid and potentially hurting themselves. Remember, these were the days before ‘elf and safety was properly invented but nevertheless it led to the old police superintendent for Skem, Barry Williams, saying at the time: “We’re very concerned about this. There’s a very real risk of injury if a child slips.”

Sid Hughes, who had a shop opposite, added: “Someone will either be killed or seriously injured. The pyramid is a waste of money.”

But whatever became of the pyramid? Surely, something which symbolised a major part of Skelmersdale’s history would have been saved?

Unfortunately not, according to the Concourse’s assistant manager, Kath Walters, who has been there since 1974 and remembers the pyramid very well.

She told me: “Trimmers hairdressers was outside then as there was a big square with seating and which included the pyramid. I remember people complaining about it so when the Concourse expanded it was just a case of demolish it.”

So there you have it, another Skem icon disappears from our landscape never to be seen again except in old photos. It’s funny actually, given that even though there were complaints about it at the time, people seem to remember it for all the right reasons.

Then again, as the old saying goes, you never really know what you’ve got until it’s gone...

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