Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Unsettled Times

I have very vivid memories of the war years as it was coming to an end. I was born in Cambridge Street in The Sportdman's public house, which up to the present time is the only pub left on Cambridge Street. Where the John Lewis store now stands on the corner of Barkers Pool/ Cambridge St there was a firm called, The Steel City Works, that got bombed, oh don't I remember the sounds around that night!!!. I remember the City Hall getting hit by the tracer bullets, I still think we were lucky not to have the City Hall bombed. I am now in my 68th year and as I walk around the city centre, memories still stick with me of those unsettled times we ALL had in Sheffield. I am pleased that some of old Sheffield remains, it's good to jog ones memories of the past.

Sticklebacks at Wire Mill Dam

After dad got his first car, an Austin A30, he used to take me and my younger brother out for trips a little further afield, and Wire Mill Dam was one of our very favourite places. We'd be armed with a jam jar and fishing net apiece, and spend hours trying to catch the numerous sticklebacks, and watch people sailing their model boats. The sticklebacks were carefully carried home, but they never survived long in their glass jars.

It was a very busy place, the photographer must have been there during the week, and during school term time.

This photo gave me a wry smile, as the photographer must have been standing in the exact spot from which I fell in the water one Sunday afternoon! Dad made me stand up in the car all the way home so I didn't get the seats wet, and I got quite a scolding from mum once we got back.

We were 'The Young Ones'

This photgraph brought instant memories of when, as a teenager, I regularly walked with friends, Barry, George, Eric, and others, from Portland Street (Near the Royal Infirmary) to Crookes Valley Park. There we hired racquets and balls for an hour, and played tennis on the court to the right of the bowling green shown in the photograph.
We were 'The Young Ones', full of energy and careering around the court, whilst the old guys played bowls close by, and  the park keepers made sure we didn't get out of hand.
Now I'm one of the old guys, but the memories come back afresh on seeing the photograph.

Magic and mischief

When it was new , the changing colours of floodlights that swept round the fountain and tinted the sprays looked so futuristic and bright, You could stare at them waiting for the cycle to run over again. At times it froze into grotesque lumps, but the most amazing was when students put Teepol or other industrial strength soaps into it and the froth flowed down the street.  Equally impressive was the fluorescent  dye that gave the water a yellow green radiance. It was much abused but ever entertaining. Shame it has gone, probably offended Health and Safety?

Sheffield - A History & Celebration

Marnock was appointed curator and he laid out the gardens in the fashionable ‘gardenesque’ style in which each shrub or tree was displayed to perfection in scattered plantings. The design of the glass pavilions is thought to have been the result of a collaboration between Marnock, Taylor, Paxton and leading garden designer John C Loudon. The resulting structure, almost 100 metres long in seven sections, incorporated three early examples of curvilinear glass pavilions. Originally the central pavilion was a tropical palm house with the two smaller pavilions at either end housing temperate plants. The gardens were opened to the public on 29 and 30 June and 4 and 5 July 1836, by ticket only - and until 1898 entry was limited to shareholders and annual subscribers, except for special fetes and galas.

Sheffield - A History & Celebration

Despite the rapid population growth and relentless outward expansion, the countryside, in the form of ancient woodlands, riverside walks and moorland, was still within relatively easy reach of most late Victorian Sheffielders, at the end of a short tram ride.

Sheffield - A History & Celebration

The heart of the city changed almost continuously throughout the 20th century as new public buildings, office buildings and department stores were constructed and road building and widening schemes took place. Almost every decade saw the construction of a new city landmark: the Methodists’ Victoria Hall in Norfolk Street in 1908, Sheffield Newspapers’ Kemsley House in High Street in 1916, the City Hall between 1928 and 1932; the Central Library and Graves Art Gallery in 1933; the College of Technology buildings at Pond Street (now the city campus of Sheffield Hallam University) built between 1953 and 1968; the Cole Brothers department store in 1965, the Crucible Theatre in 1971 and Orchard Square in 1987.