Sheriff Hill 1940

A Memory of Sheriff Hill.

I would define the center of Sheriff Hill to be the intersection of Southend Terrace, Windy Nook Road, Sodhouse Bank, and Church Road. I was born not 100ft from the intersection on Windy Nook Road.
Our cottage ajoined the Travellers' Rest; in fact our coalhouse, 'nettie' and later the air raid shelter were abutting the 'Quoit' as it was called. I found out much later that the original name of the Travellers' was in fact The Golden Quoit. Across the road from us, on one corner was Bradshaw's sewing shop selling thread, zippers etc, and down the back, Stainthorp's butcher shop. On another corner was Charnwood's, a grocery shop, and then on the NW corner, Hida's general groceries.
Hilda's husband, I remember was Willie Robertson, the verger and gravedigger at St John's. I remember getting a tongue lashing from him when, as a child, I asked if he ever found a skull, to keep it for me.
Down the bank from Hilda's was Benny the butcher, and then Pegg's shop, and further down, past the paint shop was Steele's fish shop (their son later part of the Animals rock group), then the Zion Chapel.
Behind Bradshaw's and Stainthorp, Billy Howarth had a coal yard selling coal from his horse and cart. Billy had a terribly disfigured leg and had a cage on the bottom of his foot, so he could walk. The enterance to Billy's yard was off Hewson street where I spent most of my early childhood.
I remember, in Hewson Street there were twins, Maureen and John Hall. (Maureen later had a dress shop opposite the Shipcote Cinema/ Springfield Hotel.) And Audrey Reece, whose grandfather was the local bookie, and Alan Freeland, and Eleanor Veitch, who lived directly above my grandparents.
On Southend Terrace, lived Alan Gray, whose father was the local 'bobby,' and on Church Road, Alan (?) Pharoh.
My father, who is still living in Wrekenton, worked at Heworth Colliery, alongside my grandfather who later was seriously injured in a roof collapse. He used to come home black, as the Heworth didn't have baths, cutting through the fields and the Fell Dykes, on to Windy Nook Road. I would help wash him in the kitchen, if he was on the right shift.
I joined St John's choir when I was about 11, mainly because my pal was in the choir and I went with him. But St John's did a lot for me, and I've been a strong Anglican to this day. My aunt, who is almost 90, still attends St John's regularly.
I was growing up during the war so much of Hodkin Park was taken up in allotments, now slide or swings as all of the metal had been taken for the war effort. At the enterance to the park, on Sodhouse Bank. there was a tiny building, which I recall as being a police office, but not sure what it was for.
Along Windy Nook Road, past our cottage was the Co-op, where, for every purchase, you got a small receipt which we totalled each quarter, and got our 'divvy.' Then there was the White Swan, my grandmother's favourite haunt (oddly enough, although my dad would have a drink, he wasn't in the habit of going to the pub). After the Swan was an open field belonging to Johnny Reay's farm, then the farm itself.
My grandmother, possibly because my grandfather was invalided after his accident, used to care for the dying, act as midwife, and 'lay people out' preparing them for burial, and I remember particularly hearing of her efforts to get the body of Johnny's dead father down from the upstairs bedroom to the front parlour.
I'm retired now, after a life of travel, on the west side of Houston, Texas.
Bobby Hall.

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