Cathy Yates

If Yer Not Ard Ya Shunt A Come by Margaret Parkin - 7/10 This book is about a lad growing up in Walkley in the 40s & 50s and eventually becoming a caver. Parts of it are really funny - I laughed out loud. I found the caving part really interesting. You can get it in the Star Shop, I haven't seen it anywhere else.

I had the same problem with my son. However, by the time I went back to work I was beginning to think about weaning him anyway. I carried on breat feeding morning and evening for a few weeks but found he virtually weaned himself soon after - probably the milk wasn't as good with me being so much more stressed when I was working. Anyway, I found that though he wouldn't look at a bottle he took to a feeder cup with no trouble at all.

I wonder how long back-knacking went on for? I'd have had heart-failure if my kids had done it. Were lads still doing it up to the time when Walkley was redeveloped?

Apparently 'back-knacking' was a popular activity amongst the lads of Walkley in the 1940s and '50s. It involved travelling long distances on the tops of boundary walls and the roofs of outside lavs! I discovered this fascinating piece of information from a new book, 'If Yer Not Ard Ya Shunt A Come' by Margaret Parkin. The book tells the story of Bernard who was born just months after the devastation of the Sheffield Blitz.There’s little left now of the working class Walkley of the 1940s and 1950s that he fondly remembers – the characters and landmarks he describes so vividly are long gone. His childhood was often clouded by his father’s cruelty but he also lived through decades when children had freedom today’s youngsters would struggle to believe. As ‘one o’t’ lads’ young Bernard got up to all kinds of crazy pranks and mischief – an ‘Anderson Shelter sledge’ and classroom high jinks with a stink bomb are just a couple of his favourites. But it was his drive to explore the world, master new skills and make something of his life, despite his unpromising start, that really sets Bernard’s life apart. In 1962 he found, in caving, what he had been looking for and it became his passion. The sport, the camaraderie and the thrill of being one of the trio who discovered a whole new series of cave passages at New Oxlow made this a high point of his life. The book is a good read - very interesting and, sometimes, vey funny. (You can get it from acmretro or the Star Shop).