Wadsleyite

I can't add a link as the data is on a CD. Anyone can visit http://www.192.com (they produced the CDs) but it's basically a pay-to-view site.

One of my earliest recollections (aged about 4) was being given the job of cutting the newspaper into squares. We had "The Star" but upper-crust people used the "Sheffield Telegraph". This was on Low Road (Woodland View) and we shared an outside loo with our next-door neighbour Ivy. She and my mum took turns to clean it (it was always spotless - as neither wanted the other to think that standards were slipping). The house ("one down, one up and one further up") was demolished in 1964, but we had moved to Dykes Hall Road in 1952 - and so acquired our own, private outside loo (talk about posh...). That house was demolished in 1982 - as I always say, the house where I was born was demolished in the sixties, the house where I grew up was demolished in the eighties, but I'm keeping one jump ahead of the bulldozers. I've still got the Tilley lamp - I tried to flog it on eBay but it didn't sell. Maybe people don't have outside loos nowadays...

I looked up the likely spellings on the 2004 electoral roll (available on the UK-Info Disk) and found only one in Sheffield - Ms Melanie Allsopp at 30,West House, Norton Lees Road, Sheffield, S8 9BZ. Could be the right one.

The UK-Info Disk (based on the 2004 electoral roll) Mod. Note Hi, please don't post other people's addresses, phone numbers and other personal info on the open forum. You are free to pm the info if you like. Thanks.

They used to give us the cod liver oil separately, as well - it was awful, but they gave us a spoonful of concentrated orange juice first to make it taste better. But you can still get the Malt & Cod Liver Oil concoction - see http://althealth.co.uk/products/details.php?id=4408 Shall we all meet up and have a Malt & Cod Liver Oil party?

Bert (Robert Nigel) Towers was a great teacher. He took me for history in the first year – it wasn’t widely known that he had a history degree as well as geography. I can hardly remember a lesson when he didn’t find an excuse to switch on his beloved epidiascope. He died ten years ago, aged 83. See http://nlc.oldedwardians.org.uk/staff/RNTowers.html. I saw Baker in c. 1972 when he came into the bank where I worked; it must have been shortly after this that he got a new job at a school in West Yorkshire. I heard that he later ended up in prison after being convicted of embezzling school funds. Jackson wasn't all that bad, but a bit strict. I think he's still going strong and lives near Endcliffe Park. We must have had all the best dinner ladies at Malin Bridge and King Ted's...

Indeed, I started at King Teds in 1959. I've heard tell of Billy Effron but I think he had left (he retired in 1956 according to http://nlc.oldedwardians.org.uk). Fat Nat (Nathaniel Langford Clapton, 1903-67) ruled the school with a rod of iron. I was also glad to leave but I liked some of the masters, notably Edgar Vernon (Chemistry) and Walter Birkinshaw (Maths). Good school...

What happened was that I overheard one of the dinner ladies saying that it was Ada's birthday. I wished her Many Happy Returns and she was delighted. From then on I couldn't do anything wrong and she always fed me well. I wasn't daft. Abbeydale is still a good school, to judge from the smart, generally well-behaved kids I see when partaking of my usual pub lunch at the Millhouses (outside in summer). The food's good there, as well...

Well, if you went to Abbeydale I reckon it was YOU who was posh! There was I at a back-street Junior (Malin Bridge). But I did go on to King Edward's, though I felt like a fish out of water. And the food was worse, though my dinner-lady friend Ada always gave me a bit more rice pudding...

I thought the cheese pie was OK, but I didn't like tomatoes, so I gave my pal my slice of tomato and he gave me his cheese pie. I reckon I got the better half of the bargain. He didn't like mushrooms or rice pudding, either, so no wonder I put weight on, what with the egg (and even ham) sandwiches, with thick sliced bread from the Don bakery.

Bloomin' heck - I'd almost forgotten the stuff. It was malt extract, and apparently it was full of healthy carbohydrates and other nutrients, but it tasted awful. They gave it to my mum at the welfare clinic in Hillsborough Park (the library building). They also provided orange juice to make the malt extract (and the even worse, though vitamin-rich cod liver oil) more palatable. We had egg sandwiches as well, so we must have been posh. On special occasions we even had HAM sandwiches. My mum (God bless her, she died last September at 87) had her priorities right. We were well fed and clothed, and on all the old photos we look well-scrubbed.

Phones use a separate D.C. supply and don't rely on the A.C. substations.

In case it's of any help, I looked up Antony/Anthony Darlow in the 2004 electoral roll (on the "UK-Info Disk"). There is only one person of this name listed for Sheffield - Antony Darlow, whose address is given as the Norton House Country Club, Norton Lane, Sheffield, S8 8HD. As your Tony Darlow was a club steward, he might have moved to Norton.

Walter took advantage of the sunny weather today to visit Wadsley as usual - and here's a photo! http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u219/twigmore/Walter2June2007.jpg

It's so good to know that Walter is happy in his "new" home. It must be easier for him to toddle along to Hillsborough, but he still gets up the hill once or twice a week and I hope that we'll be seeing him in Wadsley for many years to come. Now I know that he's a regular in the Freemasons Arms I'll be able to find him when I get back from South Africa in July with a supply of Hamlet cigars!

Yes - Walter lives on Limbrick Road nowadays (handy for the Freemason's Arms...) and he's still going strong at 82, bless him. We still see him regularly in Wadsley despite his move down the hill, and he always has a birthday party in a local pub - this year it was the Wadsley Jack. His birthday is 22 April (but as soon as Christmas is over he'll tell you that it will soon be his birthday...) Everyone knows Walter and local folk are kind to him. He comes for his tea on Sundays at a house near me, and as I do a lot of travelling I keep him supplied with duty-free cigars (he likes Hamlet). I remember him from 1950s football matches when he and his pal would stand in Leppings Lane selling little home-made dolls in blue and white strip.

Yes - KLM's Amsterdam service was the first, in February 1998. Three flights a day were operated, and these provided an excellent link with a major international hub. Sadly, the service only operated for about 18 months.

I quite agree - Sheffield Airport was a Godsend (albeit a short-lived one) to business travellers or anyone else who wanted to go to Amsterdam/Brussels or who could connect there. Apart from being local, you could get off a bus or taxi and be 50 yards from the plane, instead of struggling through the scrum at Manchester, Heathrow etc. See post #316 above.

I remember this - and also what was painted on the fence in big white letters during the first Gulf War (stretching the full length of the site) - HIGH TECH. WAR KILLS AND MAIMS BUT MILITARY/MEDIA SHOW US VIDEO GAMES. Food for thought...

Yes, the "Edgar Allen Physical Treatment Centre" was on the east side of Gell Street, almost opposite the row of Georgian terraced houses. The physiotherapists there did a fine job with my sacro-iliac joint in 1972 ... The centre closed in about 1981; a block of flats stands on the site.

Yes - the motor boat went twice round the lake for 6d; it was called (predictably) "Queen Elizabeth II" - I wonder what happened to it. It must have disappeared at about the same time as the rowing boats. They were still there in 1968 when I worked nearby at the University.

The above link shows a "Fry's Five Boys" label from the early 1900s which was before my time (honest it was..). I'm sure the one I remember from the 1950s was red and white, but with the same theme.

Desperation, pacification expectation, acclamation, realization - it's Fry's! See http://www.sterlingtimes.org/september00.htm

You can still get "Barratt's Sherbert Fountains" - see http://www.sugarboy.co.uk/acatalog/Sherbet_Fountain.html

Does anyone remember the free coach trips to the seaside that 1950s kids could benefit from? They were often organised by pubs and clubs, and my brother and I went on two annual day trips, usually to Skegness, Cleethorpes or Scarborough. In the mid-1950s they were the nearest thing to a holiday that we ever got. One trip was run by the Dial House Working Men’s Club (Hillsborough) and was a big affair, with a dozen or more coaches. We would have a lovely day, with a free lunch included - it was in Woolworth’s upstairs room (big, noisy, bare wooden tables but the fish & chips were delicious). The other outing was from the Holly Bush Inn at Woodland View, Rivelin. This was more "select", usually only one coach, and this time lunch would be at Lyons Corner Café etc., with linen tablecloths and spotlessly-apronned waitresses. A couple of adult volunteers would keep order in each coach, and give out sweets on the outward and return journeys. There was a stop for drinks and loos halfway (Caenby Corner if it was Cleethorpes) and we were even given spending money. I remember on one Holly Bush trip we were all given 4/6 (that’s 22½p for people who don’t remember real money) which was more than I ever got at one time (except perhaps during the Christmas carolling season). It would pay for half a dozen rides on the dodgems, rifle range etc. as well as the obligatory toffee apple and candy floss. We were all told the time and place to be for the return trip, but just to make sure we all had to wear a label with our name and details of the coach departure.