maidinsheff

Great pictures Manxdeedah - makes me wish I'd had a camera with me

Hi as a young lass I worked in a cutlery works - I think they were called Cuthbert and Sons - just off Arundel Gate. I used to put plastic handles onto cheap knives. The blades were fixed onto a flat circular surface which rotated and the end of the blades - the tang - was then heated until it was red hot by being passed over gas jets - when the blades came out of the flame we had to slide the plastic handle on so that it melted and 'glued' itself to the metal. Health and Safety would have a fit if they could travel back in time and see the conditions people, even kids of 15 like me, were expected to work in. We also worked piece time so you only got paid for what you produced and the checkers were swines for finding fault with your work so you were always disappointed when pay day came round.

Marti Caine? I know she came from Sheffield although I don't know which area she hailed from.

Wow - that's more like I remember. The picture I bought was just a copy of a photograph that someone had taken from their back garden and there were huge lleylandii in the way. I also seem to remember a strange sky a little while after the nacreous event - with huge black clouds forming in long ridges and furrows but it may just be my imagination.

This is probably a bit late looking at the dates on the posts but I knew the sister of A Gubbins. I used to deliver her newspaper when I was a kid. She lived on Grassthorpe Road and her house was demolished by a gas explosion. Fortunately, she had gone out to the shops when it happened. I think that a bungalow was built on the same site. I can't remember which number it was but it was a lovely old building that was painted green (I think). She was a lovely lady.

Sean Bean anybody? Or dunt he count?

I remember the gales. My mum kept us off school we were living on Seagrave Cres then and someones garage door had come hurtling down the road and there were slates flying around. It was a really sad day for me because I insisted on taking my box kite out (can you believe it) and of couse it was snaffled up and whisked away from me the moment I let go of it. I had plenty of kites after that but never one as good as that box kit. I often wonder where it ended up!

Yep I can see a chunky face too - looks like Hollywood's version of Frankenstein's Monster. I only remember the HITR when it was in a state of neglect and can recall the stench of urine and the litter as well as the filthy state of the fish tanks. It is a pity Simon Thurley was only in his nappies at that time and not Chief Executive for English Heritage or he may have been inclined to slap a Grade II listing on it like he has the Hyde Park Flats and then the Council would have had to come up with the goods and sort it out. What a unique and futuristic feature it could have been. Oh well, c'est le vie!

Hi Yes I do remember the nacreous clouds. I was travelling home on the bus to Worksop when they started to appear. It was beautiful and a bit scary. Everyone, including the bus driver was craning their necks to look up at them. I do have a photograph somewhere - I bought it from an Art shop which used to be at the bottom of Cambridge Street. It didn't do the clouds justice but I bought it because it was a piece of history that I could share with my kids who didn't get to see the clouds.