Benbow

Hi Yesugei Yes I do remember when it was a M&S, not very clearly though. My dancing years didn't start until well after I left school in 1955, I was just trying to think when it became a dance hall. The Sheffield and Eccleshall Coop hq was not fat away at the bottom of the Moor where my mother used to collect her divvi - I still remember the coop number 34095! As a child I used to be fascinated by the change system in there which was a system of air tubes, the assistant popped your money and the bill into a round tube, put it into a hole in the tube whereupon it disappeared with a bang and a rush of air. A little while later it reappeared with your change. Magic eh! Brian

Hi echo beach I also had a few lessons at Constance Grants but I think that Alfred Goulds was my favourite, it was a bit more intimate. I had forgotten that entrance was a bob at the Azena! 5p........won't buy much now! As far as I can remember the Azena had a balcony and you could buy a cup of tea or a bottle of pop - no alcohol then. Good behaviour and strict tempo ballroom dancing where you had the pleasure of holding the girl close most of the time and chances were that you wore a suit and tie! I lived on Lister crescent which was only a short walk from the Azena which was a bit further down White Lane than Fiddler's Field (remember the fairs and the Gloops days?) Brian Cooper

Hi and thanks to you all. Memories are like gold nuggets, hard to find but priceless when they appear! I think that the woolworths stores (old and new) on different sites were throwing me a little but now it has all slotted together like a jig saw. I still have a blank regarding the inside of the market hall though:confused: Brian

I wonder what the Electra Palace became (if it changed) between 1911 and the early fifties? Anybody know? Brian

Thanks Willybite for that comprehensive description but I still can't recall the Norfolk Market Hall, probably because I was seldom taken in there. As I mentioned, I can remember Mace's mainly, I think, because we used to keep chickens after the war as meat (white or red) was very scarce and occasionally I went with my parents to fetch the "fowl food" on a Saturday. The various animal feeds were kept in large hessian sacks ranged around the cellar basement floor and the feed was removed using metal scoops and put in brown paper bags which were fragile and would easily burst open scattering food all over the place. My wife tells me that they had a large round fish tank in the middle of the shop. We were one of the few families who had chicken for birthdays and Christmas but only because they were home grown. On the opposite side of the market hall was Dixon Lane which I seem to remember had many barrow stalls but my memory is dim here. This was just around the corner from the rag market (as we called the rag & tag). Brian

The Cinema House at Barkers Pool opposite the Gaumont has been mentioned. On Saturdays you invariably had to queue and when you finally got in you had to sit at the very front where your neck had to be almost at a right angle back as the screen was almost vertically above. The idea was that you then had to keep an eye open for a seat becoming vacant further back. I now have a dvd projector on which I can show films in the comfort of my own home - 55 years later makes a big difference!! Incidentally, at most cinemas then with a continuous programme, how often did we queue for hours and then get in just in time to see the final minutes of the main film and then have to sit through it all again to see the full story. I lived at Gleadless then and often caught a bus into town to see one of the latest films. I remember seeing first cinemascope film in the city (I think), The Robe at The Palace, Union St. It was probably one of the worst cinemas to choose for cinemascope as it was an old cinema and you had to be careful where you sat in the stalls as there were pillars holding the gallery up blocking the view. Still, who cared! I also remember queuing in the pouring rain in a huge queue outside the Hippodrome to see, I think it was Doris Day in Calamity Jane but it could have been John Wayne in The High and the Mighty. I was soaked to the skin but it was worth it. Great to be young eh! Brian

Yep, the News theatre. I was a teenager in the early fifties and occasionally went there. They used to show, besides the news, shorts like The Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, cartoons etc. No feature films and short continuous programmes. Brian

Yes, Joan it was Alfred Golds. I have fond memories of that.......... Brian

I don't recall the Attercliffe Dance halls but I do remember the Locarno at the bottom of the moor, a regular haunt of mine in the fifties. Does anyone remember the Azena at Gleadless? I lived on Lister Crescent, a short walk from there, and I was a regular there on Saturdays in the late 50's. Also The Embassy Ballroom at Intake - I had a few last wattz's there as well. Anyone go to Constance Grants dance classes and there was a popular dance "studio" at the bottom of the Peace Gardens, can't remember the name. Slow, smoochy foxtrots were a favourite of mine - close and friendly.......... Brian

I just can't remember what was previously on the site where the Woolworth building stands - I think that it was a market hall of some sort? I was born in 1939 and I spent a lot of time in that area in the 40's and 50's, Rag & Tag, Dixon lane, Mace's etc but the Woolworths area is a complete blank. Anyone jog my memory? Brian

Hi Solujon The White connection was on my mother's mother's side Ada Gregory nee White and Ada's mums name was Sarah White (husband John, I think). Ada, my grandma, died in 1984 at the age of 96. I think that at some tine in her younger days she was a barmaid in that area (Upwell St etc). I don't recognise either of the names which you mention. The only two relatives I knew as a young child were Auntie Annie and Uncle Albert (no surname). One final clue is that some of the White/Gregory relations emigrated to north America during the early 1900's. Thanks for the info. Brian (Benbow)

Anyone remember Parkin and Bacon in the fifties? I was the litho apprentice there from 1955 to 1961. My two favourite girls were Ruth (Wright) and Maureen (Rose), "feeders" and "taker offers" and "washer uppers", (these are printing terms!). It would be nice to know if they are still around after all these years. I think that the firm is still there and if it is I bet it has changed a lot in 50 years or so? Brian Cooper

Anyone remember my mother Hilda Gregory, her parents were Abraham and Ada (nee White) Gregory and she had a younger brother, Harold. She married Tommy Cooper in 1937 and moved to a new house at (then) Gleadless Townend. She lived in Upwell St (I think) behind the gasometer and opposite the church (St Thomas's?). Sometime before WW2 the family moved to The Oval, Firth Park. I will post better details when I have them to hand, and if anyone is interested. Brian Cooper

I was born in Lister Crescent, just off White Lane and the "Balloon Barage" as we called it was about half an hours walk up the hill towards Graves Park. I am just old enough to remember the balloons in ww2 and as a youngster after the war I was into 9.5mm cine (an old kodak camera from Sheffield Photo Co) which I used to film the air displays there (they couldn't land!) sometimes. I went to a little "private" school called "Gleadless High School" run By Mrs Reynolds, anyone remember this or her, I think that her daughter was called Margaret.? Lister Crescent was then just outside the Yorkshire boundary (it was the stream at the bottom of our garden). I now live in Brittany. Happy days, Brian Cooper

No. I got the web name from Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island"!He had an Admiral Benbow in it. My real name is Brian Cooper.

Incidentally, St Thomas's was turned into a circus training area by Anneka Rice in her tv show "Challenge Anneka". This was a show which helped charities etc by changing buildings or areas into something which they wanted to help a group or communities. I don't know what the church is like now, but when I visited it a few years ago it was looking pretty derilict and overgrown. Shame.

Thanks for your help. My parents, Thomas Mark Cooper and Hilda Gregory (as she was then) married in 1937 and bought a new house at Gleadless Town End (as it was then) - a big step for a working class couple but a good move as the war came along two years later. They both spent most of their early years up to getting married in the Grimesthorpe area, my mother was born and lived in Upwell Street with her brother, Harold and her parents, Abraham and Ada Gregory. Sometime pre-1939 they were given a council house on The Oval (Firthpark). My father, Thomas Mark Cooper, is a bit of a mystery. I know the family lived in this area and I have a feeling that they were a church family as he was a choirboy hence my thoughts that they could have attended St Thomas's or, as you point out, St Margarets. Apologies for boring you with these names but they may ring a bell with someone somewhere and I could gain a little more knowledge of my ancestors. Incidentally, I live in Brittany now but visit the UK a couple of times a year (children and grandchildren there). Thanks again for your help.

I am looking for anything on James William Cooper and his wife Martha Ann. They both lived in the Brightside area until 1941 when they both died in that year. They were my paternal grandparents and they may have attended St Thomas's church.

Hi Crooksey The Shire brook ran between Lister Crescent (I was born in number 37 in 1939) and Seagrave Crescent, I spent many happy hours as a young boy exploring the dyke (as we called it then), upstream and downstream much to the annoyance of some inhabitants of Seagrave and Lister Crescent (if they found us there!). The brook did divide Yorkshire from Derbyshire and living in Lister Cres, I was born in Derbyshire which meant that I had to go to school in Derbyshire although almost all our activities took place in Sheffield. I spent some enjoyable evenings at the Rex cinema (I must have been one of the snobs as I preferred it to the manor). I think that someone earlier mentioned the gods in the Rex and being a snob I have to point out that the Rex had stalls and a circle which in those days cost threepence more, 1/6 stalls 1/9 circle (I only ever sat in the stalls). The Rex was luxury whereas the Manor wasn't quite the same and it had a billiard hall attached. As I recall the Manor had three levels, upper circle where if you were courting and sat at the back the screen was the size of a 9" TV, but hey, who cared! The middle circle, the most expensive where you took the girls to impress them and the Flea Pit, which as far as I can remember was a black hole way down below. I never went down there and I don't know anyone who did so it may have been a figment of my imagination. The Manor prices were a bit cheaper than the Rex. I remember the council estate being built at the bottom of Lister Crescent (it always had been a cul-de-sac) and it became huge. I was grateful though as it became a source of income for me as I delivered papers on the estate for Plumbs the newsagents for many years. I also had a Saturday morning job delivering meat for the co-op butchers at Gleadless Townend, I think that the butchers name was Gregory. The paper round and the butchers job each paid me 5 bob a week. Happy days,