RICHARDJ

Hi Joan Many thanks for your reply, what a fantastic coincidence that I visited the forum at the same time your message was on it. I spoke to my long time friend on the 'phone (& your ex neighbour) Keith Allen about it & he said it had to be you because there were too many similarities - 2 sons, Carrfield, Newfield, Rushdale Rd, Miss Carr... small world. My partner & I moved over to Spain last September to the actual house my dad was born in after spending 8 -10 years rebuilding, remortgaging, then remortgaging again, with lots of blood sweat & gallons of tears. Regarding Heeley; the irony is after I left in 1981 I went to work with adults with learning difficulties at the back of the old school house on Gleadless Road, somewhere I used to play as a kid. I then worked for the NHS as a manager of a mens health centre, and then as their lead trainer in diversity & equality before starting my own training & consultancy business. Decided a coupler of years ago that although I used to love Sheffield I no longer felt the same, it had changed & so had I. Also working all over the country had lost the buzz that it originally gave me & I realized I needed to start thinking about ME for the first time in my life. So now I am freelancing teaching English in Spain. SO... I put one post on the forum & here we are. I have so many memories of Heeley Green & all the happy times spent playing on Kent Hill, around the scout hut, avoiding the dispeasure of Miss Carr who seemed to want Keith, your Martin & me sent to borstal just for walking past her window!!! (She may have had a point) I do hope you are well, great to hear Martin & John are doing fine; I remember Newfields Mr Wilson (chinney) back in 1970 telling all of our class that we would never amount to much because we had an "attitude" - we also had longish hair, trench coats & liked the new rock music that was so important to us - well I think we proved him wrong many times over. Best wishes & I will tell Keith we have "spoken" Keep reading the forum I have lots more memories to share. Richard

MEMORIES FROM HEELEY GREEN 1953 - 1981 Semi - retired moved to Spain in September, looking for bits about Sheffield came across this site, brought back some fantastic memories of Heeley Green. I lived there from 1953 (born on Carfield St) until the council & it's steamroller of "progress" destroyed it in 1981. Memories of Wileys (now Colins) on Heeley Green corner; the beer off where you could buy a pint of (British ) sherry & take it home in a plastic bottle for granny. Mr Bussey the butchers, always thought to be posh because he had a caravan "somewhere in Derbyshire" everyone said he made his money selling "under the counter" meat during the war (?) Chambers the fishmongers, Frank Woolhouse the newsagents, I was one of his long suffering paperboys, his wife always had a fantastic suntan "they went on cruises." His brother had a betting shop on Gleadless Rd opposite the Heeley Cinema.There was the Law sisters sweet shop, I used to spend ages deciding what to choose from their penny tray & their grandson Kenneth became a school friend at Newfield. I remember Tingles the drapers, although my mum & the neighbours used to go in to find out the local gossip - sorry news. Mrs Jackson had the sweetshop on the corner of Gleadless Rd & Carrfield Rd, she sold everything, it was always rather dingy, dark & smelled of cat pee, everyone's mum said not to buy anything in there because you would get THE POLIO... but kids being kids we used to indulge in her penny orange jubblies or frozen orange bottles & then go to bed fingers crossed that THE POLIO hadn't got us. Great days, The Docker, Cat Lane Woods, all the bits of spare land for kids to play on without any worries apart from the dreaded cries around 8 o'clock "Richard/Steven/Linda/David"...add your name.. from all the mums shouting us in for bed; followed by a howl of "aaaww can't I stay out a bit longer, Andrews mum says he can" the lies we told to stay out playing for an extra ten minutes. Truly a fantastic place to grow up in. Lots more memories but for now I' ll just say who remembers the tripe shop opposite Taggy's Best wishes to all If anyone remembers me Richard Jorda, My mum was Mary & my dad, from Spain was Francis, leave a message.

Rhonda were your sons called Martin & John Hunter or have I got you mixed up in the mists of time. I used to play on Rushdale Rd back in the late 60's & remember Miss Carr always being on the warpath even (on the odd chance) when we hadn't done anything!