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Rotherham

Rotherham photos (20 available)

Old photo of Rotherham

Rotherham maps (2 available)

Old map of Rotherham

Rotherham books (23 available)

Rotherham memories

Clifton Park

Rotherham, Clifton Park c1955

I used to live in tree-lined Lister Street. All I had to do was climb over the back wall to the rear of my house to get into Clifton Park. I remember Sunday School held at the Bandstand: 'Sunshine Corner always jolly fine, is for children under 99, all are welcome and it's all free, Clifton Sunshine corner is the place for me!'. I can remember the kids play area, paddling pool and when the Remembrance gardens were being built. Also prisoners of war sat on the grass there. I put some Roman pottery in the museum with a lad called Keith Harding who I went to school with at South Grove, Moorgate, sadly it's  knocked down now. The teacher Mr ...read more here
Contributed by john wigglesworth

Memories Of Clifton Park

Rotherham, Clifton Park c1955

            I lived near Clifton Park for a number of years. My memories take me back to WW2. During the Summer months my friends and I used to play football,we put our coats down for the goals, we had a good game and arguments too. When we played cricket we played it properly as one of my friends had a bat and wickets.
           Every Whitsuntide all the Sunday schools had a Parade to the Bandstand in the park and had a service. During the WW2 there was the Holiday at Home fortnight. There was an open Theatre named the "Alfresco" where the local Dancing Schools and Bands entertained the public. Also there were ...read more here
Contributed by Stanley Horton

Pupil

Rotherham, the Girls High School c1955

This was my high school from 1960 to 1967. I particularly remember the school dinners and the extensive playing fields. Back then we had 3 hockey pitches, 3 hard tennis courts and 13 grass courts. Not to mention the air raid shelters. Since I have lived in Australia since graduating from uni I wonder what remains of those facilities now?
Contributed by Jan Cody

My school

Rotherham, the Girls High School c1955

This is my school from 1975 to 1980 when it was known as Clifton Comprehensive and not Rotherham Girls High School. although when I was a first year, there were only 2 years above me that were part of the comprehensive system - year 4 & 5 were still of the old high school, all girls, so it only changed to a comprehensive in 1973.
Contributed by diane firth

Thomas Rotherham College

Rotherham, the Grammar School 1957

I went to this school in 1983 to take my A Levels. It was then called (and still is) the Thomas Rotherham College. It is lovely to hear about other people's memories of this place from long before I arrived there! I adored my time there (albeit only 2 short years) and made some strong and lasting friendships.
Contributed by Melanie herrera

Schooltime memories.

Rotherham, the Grammar School 1957

In the early 1940s the bay window on the first floor over the front door of Rotherham Grammar School was that of my second form classroom. On a rainy day we were 'attacked' by one of the other second forms as a result of which I was pushed through one of the windows. Fortunately the wartime shatterproof gauze in place prevented me and the window from falling to the ground. Several of us received six of the best for that lunchtime episode!
Contributed by Alan Rogers

Extracts From Rotherham & South Yorkshire books

Rotherham, Town Hall c1955

The grimly-austere gritstone buildings of Rotherham Town Hall’s Welfare and Health Department are typical of the South Yorkshire town’s ‘muck and brass’ reputation. It was founded on the wealth of the coal industry, and although that has largely vanished now, Rotherham retains its air of gritty independence.
An extract from from"Yorkshire Living Memories".

Wakefield, Bull Ring c1965

Looking towards the Bull Ring from Union Street, we see (right) the rebuilt Strafford Hotel and the former shops, now a café bar. At the centre is the magnificent Cloth Hall building at the head of Cross Street. The Bull Ring is now partly pedestrianised, offering a relaxed starting point for a walk to the cathedral.
An extract from from"Wakefield and the Five Towns Living Memories".

Wakefield, the Bull Ring c1960

The Market Place was renamed the Bull Ring in 1910, to recall the ‘sport’ of bull baiting a century before. In the centre of the Market Place, a busy intersection even before cars were invented, was the Toll Booth (demolished 1857) and the Boy and Barrel Inn (removed 1898). The dominant row of shops has been modernised, but the bus station (centre right), which opened on September 1952, has now been moved a hundred yards to the east.
An extract from from"Wakefield and the Five Towns Living Memories".

At the head of Cross Street the market cross once stood, from 1707 to 1866. Cross Street is now traffic free down to the cathedral and Kirkgate. The magnificent Grand Clothing Hall, left, remains. Designed in an Italian Renaissance style by Percy Robinson (1879-1950), it opened in 1906. Robinson also designed the old Leeds Fire Station. Hartley Shaw’s household furnishings emporium (right) is now an optician’s, but the Black Rock next door, its name commemorating the coal industry, is still a thriving pub. The café at the end of the row is also flourishing.
An extract from from"Wakefield and the Five Towns Living Memories".

Wakefield, Market Place c1965

This scene is little changed in forty years. Market Place still contains Cresswell’s, a seafood shop (left), and a coffee bar beyond. The Shakespeare, right, is ‘as we like it’ these days, a charity shop. The Market Hall, (centre), opened on 23 April 1964; it cost £289,000 and holds 87 stalls, and replaced the old one which was in use from 29 August 1851.
An extract from from"Wakefield and the Five Towns Living Memories".