samssong

When I brought my wife over to Sheffield for a visit in July, I wanted to show off the statue there in the square, fortunately there didn't seem to be anyone sitting there on at that time, not sure if we were just there at the right time or what, definitely not the most attractive area of the city centre by any means though

I often sit in the square in summer love it.

And I have never had any trouble from the lads who congregate there .

The square is a victim of the Council decision to abandon the whole area in its quest to move the City to the Moor area.

Rightiho , Now that we have covered the Town centre pubs may be we can branch out and include our local working mens clubs .

I will start with my very own first membership that being the one and only MIDHILL on East Bank Road .

At around ten years old in 1953 I was first introduced to this smashing little club by my brother in law Tom Hegarty who was captain of the football team , Tom was known by his nick name Tiger.

My job on a Saturday afternoons at that time was to take the orange juice to the players at half time .

No simple job was that for a four and half stone bag of bones who had to climb the stone steps that lead to the one in five sloping football pitch that stood above the club .

So with a gallon tin pitcher I would set of and hope to reach the dizzy hight of the pitch that stood high on the hill above the club hoping not to trip up and spill the lot .

One of my other jobs on those Saturdays was to fetch the ball back from the bottom of East Bank Road as once it started rolling down that hill there was no stopping it until it hit the dip near Ceylon House.

For my efforts I would get free crisps and a bottle of dandelion and burdock or Tizer after the match as I sat and listened to all the uffing and tuffing going on in the club by these giant players after the match.

The Midhill also introduced me to my first glimpse of the sea when in August of that same year I was transported by motor coach to the East coast resort of sunny Cleethorpes .

This trip entailed around 20 busses lining Up East Bank Road and being filled with club members kids .

Like my self this was the only way that many kids ever got away and again like me the first time that they ever saw the sea (although in Cleethorpes case The Humber estuary ) but lets not split hairs .

So we got an apple, Orange , bag of crisps , bottle of pop and ten bob to spend when we reached our destination .

By the time those old Bedford buses had reached the top of East Bank the feast had been consumed and by Gainsborough the last sick deposited in the coach isle swiftly mopped up by the committee mans Mrs who was in charge of all the sick and pee duties while the husband sat at the front in charge of all the tall stories told to who ever was in ear shot .

Another part of the trip involved chip and fish dinner at Beckitts chip restaurant in Cleethorpes and this was achieved by splitting the kids up into shifts of around 50 at a time ,

To facilitate this we were all issued with a cardboard badge that had our name and coach no on one side and on the other was coloured blue ,red , green etc, this meant that the blues had to be at Beckitts for 12 noon dinner , the reds for half past and so on until by 3 pm ish we all had had some snap.

All the clubs in the area did the same trip during the six weeks school holidays and what a wonderful example of socialism they were .

The Midhill had a large new concert room added in the sixties and many of the local lads helped on the building work (nudge nudge wink wink) the committee were wonderful entrepreneurs .

One amusing part to the extension was the concert room roof which if espied from the 101. 102 or 105 buses that traversed East Bank at that time would look very avey cravy in other words it was not very straight as one looked along the ridge tiles .

The lads who tiled it must have spent many an hour inside the old club tap room before going up top and this feature was a laughing topic for many years on the top deck of the passing buses .

The concert room when finished booked all the finest club acts that South Yorks could supply ,from groups to comedians and solo singers.

Very often these acts would not turn up and a committee man (Jack on the bins usually ) would announce this to a packed Saturday night audience resulting in loud boos and feet stamping by the Sam Smiths fuelled crowd.

Jack would hold up his hands shouting "settle down" "settle down" through the mike he would then announce that they had sent a runner up to Flo's who lived up East Bank and she would provide the evenings entertainment instead .

Flow was Flow Midwood who always filled in when required and she should have had a medal for putting up with a crowd that had all come from all or Sheffield to see the latest group and ended up with blue birds over the white cliffs of dover or summat like that.

So the Midhill was my first working mans club and part of my life for many years ,there are many tales that Icould tell about the place but that would take longer to write than War And Piece so I will leave just these few snippets for now .

Other clubs I have been a member of inc The Carlton Club on Gleadless Road, Walkley club, Park and Arbourthorne and Smitheywood .

Perhaps a few tales from those wonderful institutes will follow when the brain clicks in on another day.

They were the days for entertainment, I remember a Saturday afternoon in the Bull and Mouth witnessing such a sight, two ladies fighting over who was getting a 'customer', he just sat there waiting for a winner while they rolled around on the floor like a cat feyt.

It was free love in the Bull and Mouth , for some:hihi:

Are you sure the "girls" fighting were really GIRLS ? This is the Barleycorn ,early 60's you are talking about...lol:D

Doreen and Shirley would have crushed your Walker and Halls if you had suggested that they were any thing other than Ladies.

In fact Doreen was most upset when the Queen visited a local colliery as up to then she!!! said that she!!! was the only lady to have been down the pit.

I am sick of people blaming my ten year old Berlingo for Global warming when in fact the real blame lies with fartting cows.

A study by the University of Versailles has concluded the the cows are just as much to blame as my Berlingo!!! a car I originally bought because the Global warming experts said it was the best alternative to petrol powered vehicles .

Ban the cows .

I wont be voting for Angela Smith at the next election,mind you i backheeled voting for her in the last two elections.She will get thrown out in the next one,i will certainly vote tactically to get rid of her.

She will not be bothered she will get the usual pay off and resettlement fee like they all do .

The summer of 66 ,little lass born , Wednesday at Wembley, and we won the World cup ,all within that summer, it was so good I can't remember it.

Do you think democracy is just about voting in elections? They have elections in Iran but it's not a democratic country, if you dare to speak out against the government you get put in jail and often tortured. Every time you see a protest be grateful you don't live in Iran.

The trouble with Iran is the same as in all Muslim countries , Religious nut cases who keep the people down by preaching codswallop to little kids as soon as they can walk.

No protest there just the same as in Palestine against the gangsters that rule them.

Should Wednesday consider offering a job to Paul Warne as manager?

 

He is doing well over at Rotherham

Megson would shek email up:hihi:

We need a full squad for this one Barnsley are the in form team in this division, any half fit Owls players will be found out.

Smashing of Chris to do this .

To days Star has some wonderful pictures of the Owls players attending the childrens hospital.

The one on page 6 showing Fossi in fits of laughter is a cracker.

The chairman and manager also attended( good to see the gaffers being hands on) .

I trust you meant the smell of the fish and chips.

Of course I did ?

It is not often that I agree with you, but we agree on this one wholeheartedly.

At this rate we will soon be best pals:hihi:

had some good times in the lorcano. if you did"nt pull, you"d always got the fish and chips to look forward too. best fish n chips in town, just outside the locarno, anybody remember them.

You had to treat the lady who you had offered to walk home to fish and chips .

I can still remember the wonderful smell it left on your fingers the next morning .

Why do we seem to have so many injury prone players at Hillsbro .

Never a game goes by without another important member of the team going off injured

It is usually the key players in our team .Loovens, Hutchinson, Hooper, Fletcher and Westwood.

Some times two or three of them are missing at once.

I nearly forgot !!!!!!!!!

The Marples ,we can't leave this booze up without mentioning this Sheffield landmark in another neglected part of our City centre.

At exactly 11.45 pm Dec 12 th 1940 German bombers flattened this pub so today it is 76 years to the day and on a night similar to the one at this very hour .

Around 70 people who had been having a sing song perished in the pub that night, I remember the derelict site in the fifty's along with the one across the road that stood empty and forlorn until the new Marples and C@A across the road raised up from the ashes of war.

The new pub opened in 1959 and what a splendid building it is standing proudly on the corner of High Street And Fitzalan Square .

Sadly no longer trading as pub (the very history of the place should have made it the one to be still in use as it would have been a much better venue than the one Wetherspoons opened over the road).

Any way the new Marples was on two levels the upper one being reached by a magnificent flight of twisting marble stairs , stairs of which i have a very painful memory as I fell down them some time in the eighty's while wearing a pair of those daft platform multi coloured shoes along with flared trousers (so much for the Barney Goodman look that started this thread of in the Lion all those years before).

Upstairs was a concert room although I do not remember any of the Sheffield top groups playing there it seemed to be mostly the odd solo turn and some times a piano and organist encouraging a sing song much like the night when the bomb fell in the war years .

There was a bronze plaque just inside the High Street entrance remembering the lads and lasses who died but I don't know if it is still there.

Any way thats the Marples getting its mention and I will leave it there until the old grey matter revs up again and my typing finger is out off plaster.

Yes I live on a council estate yes I have a staff but chat I most definitely am not.

We all like a good chat on here:hihi:

It is not very often that I agree on any thing that Boris Johnson spouts, but his recent outburst saying that Saudi Arabia is responsible for much of the troubles in the middle east is bang on.

These so called friends of our Country who are fawned over by our Royals and many in Government are the World's biggest gangsters who treat even there own people with disdain especially the women in their Country.

For old times sake Jim.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mtDx5CLS_k

I was there, Mobley was a colossus that match.

On the very edge of Town was Sheffields own Sodom and Gomorra,but with a laugh on its face and a story to tell of nights in the sixty's and seventies ,nights that have never been surpassed due to the shutting down of our Towns best ever dance hall The Locarno.

Any who was any one around Town at that time headed for the Locarno on a Friday ,Saturday and Sunday nights.

Due to its location the pubs that surrounded it did a roaring trade and through the fog of years I will try to remember the good times that surrounded the Moorfoot, London Rd area .

If we start at the first port of call then that would be the Travellers on the Moor , entering this pub was like entering Dirty Dicks in London as the place always seemed dark and foreboding with nicotine stained walls covered in posters advertising the latest turns that were forthcoming to the rear large concert room .

A miner (or is it minor) bird would greet you as you entered telling you to go forth and multiply and this fowl was often accompanied by its owner and landlady who would do the same if you crossed her as she showed you the front door.

The concert room was at the very rear of the pub and the stage had a pair of mucky curtains that were drawn back when the turn came on , the turn was some times a singer or a comedian and they were usually introduced by Bobby on the drums and Vera on the piano to a great fanfare of drum rolls and piano banging.

By far the most popular turn was Ron Delta a Sheffield legend of a comedian who should have been on T.V as he was as good as any that had national fame at that time .

The only problem was that Rons material was usually very blue and risky as he stood with fag in hand telling the latest bedroom or below the waste line joke as he had all and sundry in stitches peeing them selves with laughter.

Walk down the Moor for a couple of hundred yards turn right onto Cemetery Road and you come to the pub that was packtist fullest pub on a Friday night that I have ever know .

Eric and Irene Whittington were the hosts and a very smart couple they were both in business and looks.

You entered by the front door and to the left was the best room and the bar , The bar was Cheers type one that was surrounded by front room , rear room and side area .

All these areas got so packed at weekends that it was almost impossible to move one way or the other.

The stairs on the right that led to the living quarters ( as you looked forward) also had drinkers sitting on them and Eric had placed his radio gram on the landing so as any one could put on the latest Sinatra , Frankie Lane or Ella record as they were his favourite artists.

One regular at the Oak was a ready mix lorry driver called Dennis and his party trick in the packed pub was to ask the lasses in the packed pub to feel how soft the leather was on his new belt this resulted in many loud screams for some reason although to this day I do not know why a trouser belt caused so much mirth and laughter in the pub.

Across the road near the Lacarno was the Hermitage (is it still there) and this newly built pub boasted a sweeping staircase leading to a balcony area (not a wise architectural idea when the daft lads had had a few pints on a Friday night as many a pint some how tipped over onto the crowds below in fact many an unlucky customer ended up in some ones lap as they some how exited the upper floor the quick way down.

The Hermitage also had strippers on stage on various nights making this pub a must go to venue for young lads out for a bit of an eye full.

Next pub up was the Albion and this was just above the Lacarno on London Road .

The cliental that used the Albion were shall we say the more mature types among the Lacarno crowd as this was a pub that insisted on standards ,no swearing in front of ladies (taken for granted in them days any way) and one was expected to move away from the bar and sit down on the plush backed seating

The Albion walls were covered in horse brasses and paintings of hunt scenes and was a pub that was a bit up its own arssse for us lads from the Lion .

Where next we must have missed summat anp't we.

Ken Knighton and who ever played along side him .

He terrified opponents when all teams had real hard men in mid field.

My wife and I were having a discussion about something and the topic of conversation turned towards when we were both school children and shops that our parents use to take us to for our uniforms etc.

 

This would be in the mid-fifties to early 60's.

 

Our parents use to take us to the S&E co-op that use to be at the bottom of Ecclesall Road,

for our full school uniform, PE equipment etc.......anyone remember it ?

 

Then we would go to a stationary shop just off the bottom end of West Street called Andrews

for all our excercise books, geometrical drawing sets etc - when not at school I was a regular visitor to this shop to buy ' I Spy Books ' anyone remember this shop ?

 

On Campo Lane there use to be a shop that sold uniforms and camping equipment for

Cubs, Lifebuoys, girlguides and brownies.......remember this ?

 

A bit further up Campo Lane opposit a pub called The Golden Ball there was a DIY shop called Silverstones.....remember this ?

 

There were some good shops about during the 50's and 60's - nowadays its either poundshops or eating places that have taken their place.

The Golden ball was often referred to as the Gilded knackker by the Town crowd .

What is embarrassing for our great nation, is that too many people, don't wish to accept the democratic wishes of the people, which voted to leave the EU. The court case and other disruptive actions initiated by sore losers are not helping the UK in negotiations to leave the EU.

What gets my goat is who is footing the bill for all the pin striped suits sitting on the panel deciding how the peoples wishes should be carried out.

The Uk voted out and we should be just that no messing ,no panels , no back tracking . OUT.

I am so disappointed.

 

I was on the sheffield to meadowhall tram this evening, it was packed.

 

2 boys, 13-14 started swearing and talking in the most offensive way, mostly about homophobic they were.

 

After a couple of minutes i thought enough is enough and drew the matter to the attention of a conductor, the boys heard me do so and i wasnt bothered tbh, that they knew it was me.

 

The conductor did ask them to pipe down however the boys decided they were affronted by the attempted curtailment of their 'freedom of speech' and gobbed off even more. The tram then came to nunnery square and the conducter said 'im getting off now' and then did so.

 

The boys then loudly proclaimed their entitlement to say what they wanted and how dare 'she' meaning me, try and stop them.

 

I am disappointed that a blind eye was turned and realised that indeed they were entitled to say what they want because for the most part they will never be taught any different by society as it is now.

 

Im not a serial do gooder, i just wanted to do what i thought was the right thing and not turn a blind eye to disgusting, offensive, homophobic, ignorant 'bants'.

 

I will continue to challenge and stand up to these oafs, i will continue to fight this 'it's not my problem' society we live in.

 

Ah well.

The conductors more often than not ignore this disgusting practice.

Swan and Kay