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Do you remember how mucky Sheffield was before the clean air act?

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Something on another thread reminded me just how 'mucky' Sheffield was before the clean air act came in. It was on a Saturday morning and I was on the railway at the time, mid 50's. I was on a duty called 'relief' and a driver and myself had to walk down to Brightside from Grimesthorpe to change over with another engine crew. They were cleaning the furnaces at English Steels or something, and the whole place was yellow. I'd never seen it as bad as that.

Another time, I was on my way to Heeley top on the tram, sat in the back bay looking back toward Sheffield City Center. All you could see was the Cathedral spire and and Vulcan. Man, it was mucky back then.

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now that was pollution, every day the same and now we cant even have a fag without getting nicked. I would imagine every house with a coal fire belching out smoke equalling

4 million fags a day, and the amount the steel works put into the air does not bear thinking about.I,M OF FOR A FAG

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That's why as kids in the 50's we were taken out to Derbyshire at the week-end to get a bit of fresh air!

I used to stay with my granny in the school holidays too, she lived in Cleethorpes - what a joy that was.

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I can remember all the buildings in town, including the Town Hall being jet black with the soot in the air. Everything was sand blasted after the clean air act was passed. I can remember, as a child, going out on a winters morning to school and the air being so thick with smog that you could taste it ! If you blew your nose your hanky would be black.

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I came to live in Sheffield in 1984, and I clearly remember driving in to Sheffield down the Parkwys a few years later and seeing a large yellowish cloud spread over the city - and that was AFTER most of the steel foundries had closed.

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My memory is coming home from cornwall when I was a kid and noticing the smell when we hit south yorkshire.

 

mucky

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daven, I remember Carbrook School (lately players cafe) at Attercliffe, being sandblasted clean. I would only have been 2, or 3 at the most. I remember how odd it looked, changed from blackened stone to pristine-looking sandstone colour.

 

I have seen the phootgraphs of the Town Hall, all black and filthy-looking, but I don't remember it being cleaned. does anyone know what year the TH was cleaned?

 

Also, I'm a bit curious, Darnall road school was cleaned. Sharrow Lane school was, Carbrook, Brightside, Lowfield, Anns Road... the church and school (?) the one on the right-hand side of Elesmere road as you head out-of town was cleaned up, Earl marshal (now fir vale) was, Orphanage road was cleaned, Porter croft and Highfield were. Daniel hill school, crookesmoor and netherthorpe, asn Springfield schools also got the sandblaster treatment.

 

the one near Wisewood (Malin Bridge?) was, as were Bole Hills, Crookes Endowed, and the two schools at Walkley, Hillsborough School and Beeley Wood, and the other school on Halifax Road, (Parson Cross School) were.

 

but, Gleadless and Handsworth Schools, Lydgate school, Burton Street school, Pye-Bank and Woodseats school, the two on Meersbrook (Meersbrook Bank and the one near Albert Road) weren't, Salmon Pastures and Greystones School weren't, nor was Carter Knowle, to my knowledge.

 

I find it a bit weird that some were, and some weren't, and gernerally, the proximity or lack-of doesn't give any clues... does anyone know why this happened?

 

I wonder... maybe some schools opted out, or maybe the money ran out part way through "Operation Sandblast"...?

 

sorry, this is a rambl-y geek-y post, but I am quite curious why some were and some weren't cleaned.

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I have seen the photographs of the Town Hall, all black and filthy-looking, but I don't remember it being cleaned. does anyone know what year the TH was cleaned?

 

It was cleaned in 1957, to commemorate its 60th anniversary. The cleaning disappointed my grandad (an ex-miner). He said "I allus thought it were made o' coil"...

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I find it a bit weird that some were, and some weren't, and gernerally, the proximity or lack-of doesn't give any clues... does anyone know why this happened?

 

I wonder... maybe some schools opted out, or maybe the money ran out part way through "Operation Sandblast"...?

 

 

ISTR that the money ran out. There were protests and petitions and lots of letters to the Star at the time.

 

I can remember the churches in Highfields being done and the Cathedral in town. One of the last 'public' buildings in town to get the treatment was St Marie's on Norfolk Row....about 1972 I think.

 

The old sootiness can still be seen in semi-rural parts of Sheffield - some of the field boundary walls around Grenoside for instance still have their 1950s patina :)

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I can remember all the buildings in town, including the Town Hall being jet black with the soot in the air. Everything was sand blasted after the clean air act was passed. I can remember, as a child, going out on a winters morning to school and the air being so thick with smog that you could taste it ! If you blew your nose your hanky would be black.

 

I do remember once getting the number 9 to school from the stop opposite Lowfield school. The bus was crawling along at about 5 mph because the visibility was so poor and then at the top of Sheldon road the top deck of the bus was in bright sunshine and the lower deck still in thick fog !!

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daven, I remember Carbrook School (lately players cafe) at Attercliffe, being sandblasted clean. I would only have been 2, or 3 at the most. I remember how odd it looked, changed from blackened stone to pristine-looking sandstone colour.

 

I have seen the phootgraphs of the Town Hall, all black and filthy-looking, but I don't remember it being cleaned. does anyone know what year the TH was cleaned?

 

Also, I'm a bit curious, Darnall road school was cleaned. Sharrow Lane school was, Carbrook, Brightside, Lowfield, Anns Road... the church and school (?) the one on the right-hand side of Elesmere road as you head out-of town was cleaned up, Earl marshal (now fir vale) was, Orphanage road was cleaned, Porter croft and Highfield were. Daniel hill school, crookesmoor and netherthorpe, asn Springfield schools also got the sandblaster treatment.

 

the one near Wisewood (Malin Bridge?) was, as were Bole Hills, Crookes Endowed, and the two schools at Walkley, Hillsborough School and Beeley Wood, and the other school on Halifax Road, (Parson Cross School) were.

 

but, Gleadless and Handsworth Schools, Lydgate school, Burton Street school, Pye-Bank and Woodseats school, the two on Meersbrook (Meersbrook Bank and the one near Albert Road) weren't, Salmon Pastures and Greystones School weren't, nor was Carter Knowle, to my knowledge.

 

I find it a bit weird that some were, and some weren't, and gernerally, the proximity or lack-of doesn't give any clues... does anyone know why this happened?

 

I wonder... maybe some schools opted out, or maybe the money ran out part way through "Operation Sandblast"...?

 

sorry, this is a rambl-y geek-y post, but I am quite curious why some were and some weren't cleaned.

I like the fact that Pye Bank didn't get the treatment, it always was a bit gothic looking and black suits it, sitting on top of the hill. Mind you, I suppose it's been done now.

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I like the fact that Pye Bank didn't get the treatment, it always was a bit gothic looking and black suits it, sitting on top of the hill. Mind you, I suppose it's been done now.

 

actually, texas, it hasn't!

 

It's still the same as 20-odd years ago, when my son went there. (give or take a boarded up window or two! :lol: )

 

It's still dark and brooding, only now, with all the maisonettes, and towerblocks, etc having been demolished around it, it seems to stand, all forlorn and alone on the summit of the hill.

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