Janner

There may not be many left now from my time at the Tech. I'm 90 now, left the Tech., happy days, in 1949.

Last year I visited an excellent museum, really interesting & full of Sheffield history, it's called Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield City centre. They even had one of the old cast iron combined fireplace, oven etc. it was made by William Green's of Ecclesfield, my Dad worked there.

We lived in Shiregreen, we were not evacuated. We had a family from Croyden, London sent to our family. There were 10 children spread between various members of our family. At one time during the war we had 2 Welsh steel workers stay with us for a couple of weeks.

I lived in Sheffield from my birth in 1932 until I joined the RN in 1949. I have lived in Plymouth now for many years. Last year I went back to Sheffield & visited all the places I lived in & all the schools i went to. The remark on the growth of trees is so apt, streets looked unfamiliar because the trees & hedges had grown so much. Standing in the city centre the City Hall had disappeared behind an erruption of greenery & it looked wonderful. The old dirty, smokey City has been transformed. I'm glad you are recovering , all the best for the future.

Biker, do you mean the same class as me, janner left in 1949.

When I first started drinking beer was 8d a pint. I joined the RN in 1949 my daily rate of pay was 1s6d.

The preceding remarks in my experience are totally unjustifide & a slander of the fine teachers who gave me a good ,all round, education.

I understand that Gregg House Rd school is now part of Hartly Brook school. Gregg House was a junior school. I went there in 1937 whe i was 5 yrs old.

I have just returned to Plymouth after a nostalgic visit to the City of my birth. I stayed at "The Leopold" my old school, the CTS. I visited all the places where I lived & went to school. I also visited a splendid museum on engineering, brilliant. Having seen "buffer girls" with their brown paper covered legs there was a model dressed exactly as I remember. In one room there was an old style coal fire grate & oven, it was made by W Green's of Ecclesfield where my father worked. At the age of nearly 89 I don't susppose I will see Sheffield again. I have to say I was impressed on how the City looks , it certainly looked on the up & up. I was surprised that no one I spoke too did not know who Derek Dooley was, even with a road named after him. The visit reminded me what a lovely childhood I had even though we had bombs dropped on us. Good bye Sheffield.

My mother Doris Garratt was born in 1907, the address was 205 Pearl St.

If my memory is correct , I bought a sheath knife from a shop in the wicker in 1946. I was 14 yrs old, wouldn't happen today.

I had an uncle who was at Dunkirk. After the Sheffield thursday blitz he came home to see if we were all OK. On the sunday blitz I was sat next to him in the air rais shelter. The sound of the AA guns, German aircraft & bombs dropping made him shake. Sitting next to him I didn't fully understand, but, then I was about 9 years old. My father was exempt from conscription because he worked for William Green's who made cooking equipment which was being fitted in ships being rapidly built to ensure the Nations survival.

I left the Red Caps in 1946, I often wonder what happened to the school photos which used to be taken on the playing field.

My mother's reply to "what's for tea?" was one of two, firstly " a run round the kitchen table & a kick at the pantry door", the second more crudely was " <removed> wi sugar on!"

Weren't marbles sometimes called Allies/Allys ? Before the war we used to play marbles like golf is played, we dug little holes in the grass verge of the pavement, whoever got round in the least shots, won.

I remember in the late 40,s a cafe opposite the Market, it was called Davies. They did great tomato sausages,

In 1948, i used to go to the Youth Club in the school, the field was very handy for some teenage fumbling.

When I left the Tech. in 1949, I joined the Royal Navy. While waiting for the date to leave I got a job as a shop assistant in an Hardwear shop which was situated by the side of the Peace Gardens.

It is really sad to read remarks like this. I with my parents moved into a brand new house on Shirehall Rd. about 1933,I was one year old. I lived there until 1940, then Hatfield House Lane. So, all my childhood in Shiregreen, it was wonderful. We always had brilliant neighbours & it was a very safe area, apart from German bombs.

I love the nostalgia of the past. I was born in 1932 & as a Baby lived on Shirehall Rd. Moved to Hatfield House Lane in 1941, then to Masters Rd Parson Cross from where I joined the RN in 1949. Have lived in the SW since I joined up but I never forget my happy childhood in Sheffield.

I remember one of my Dad's work mates was Athol Higgins, he was still living in Ecclesfield about 15 yrs ago, I expect he will have passed away by now.

Is the foundry referred to William Green's, makers of stoves & grates. If this is so my father Ernest Miller worked there all his working life. He moved to London about 54/55 to be Green's maintenance & fitting engineer for the South of England.

The Jewish cemetery I remember was on the right side of the road, down from Lane Top going towards Ecclesfield. We youngsters, in the 40's, used to say, irreverently, that Jews were buried standing up!

I lived on Hatfield House Lane until 1947 when I was 15. Concord Park & Wooley Woods were our second homes. The old men on the bowling greens would show us how to bowl & all about the ball's inbuilt bias. At the Wooley Wood end of the park there used to be a little stream. Concord Park, heaven for little boys.

In earlier times, barber shops all stank of burning hair. After cutting the hair they used to singe it with a lit wax taper. Never understood why they did that.