How many Expats would move back to Sheffield

Yes, sadly, as it closed some years ago. I joined the club on my 18th birthday, and went regularly with my dad and brother Roy for 20+ years (Roy even got thrown out, one night in c. 1973, but that's another story...) Along with many old-style clubs etc. the Dial House failed to move with the times and it gradually went downhill. Takings suffered, the old adage "use it or lose it" applied, and the club closed. Then a property developer wanted to turn it into flats - and was refused planning permission. In March 2006 most of it burned down overnight (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=93874). As I write this, the old (listed) part of the building stands forlorn, while its 1802 sundial seems to be trying to ignore the developments behind the building, for it's now a building site. So it looks as if planning permission for flats may have been approved.

In the 1950s, the annual "Dial House Children's Outing" was something that local kids looked forward to, and at school we would speculate as to whether it would be Cleethorpes, Skegness or Bridlington. How times change...

P.S. - I knew I had a photo somewhere; taken about three weeks ago: http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u219/twigmore/DialHouse-1.jpg

[quote=hillsbro;3641184

you also described it as paradise. And I wouldn't call people names.

hillsbro, according to the dictionary, Paradise means a place of extreme happiness or beauty, also another word for heaven, the Greek word for it is paradeisos, meaning garden, where did I go wrong ?

I didn't call you names, you said you were a banker, loosen up, I think you put the Horse before the Jockey, that would be a good name for a pub,lol.

Are you anywhere near Torksey ?

higuys i moved to Scarborough last year i would not knock Sheffield thers a lot of building goiing on in town i lived in the so called rough areas of the city pitsmoor shiregreen and brought up in grimesthorpe skippy just up the road from your missis and if you think sheffields bad what about them poor buggers that live in LEEDS from one dedor to another

Are you anywhere near Torksey ?

No (see post #90, just shortened for clarity) - but I go fishing there. Caught a four-pound bream the other week...

higuys i moved to Scarborough last year i would not knock Sheffield thers a lot of building goiing on in town i lived in the so called rough areas of the city pitsmoor shiregreen and brought up in grimesthorpe skippy just up the road from your missis.

 

Gday Dazza, I'm quite proud of having made in Sheffield stamped on me, but it's not the same place I knew anymore, I spent my life before marriage at Stannington, Crookes & the Shirecliffe, moving to Grimey only after marriage, although I didn't really like the environment, the people were unbelievable & had hearts of gold.

Coming here was an ambition from my early childhood, thankfully everything worked out for us more than we could ever dream, but it took several years for me to get the homesickness bug out of my system, I underestimated how hard it would be to be away from family,friends & familiar places & faces, a trip back after 20 years away sorted that problem out.

hillsbro, a good friend of mine lives there, a place called The Elms, I remember the clubs going on fishing trips to that area years ago, I went once & fished in a place called the little 40 foot, goodness knows where it was ?

I went once & fished in a place called the little 40 foot, goodness knows where it was ?

It's between Boston and Swineshead Bridge. Decent stretch of water - some good-sized roach and tench. The stuffed pike that used to be in Garnett's barber shop in Hillsborough (1950s) was caught there.

I know The Elms - good place to retire to. Angler's paradise....

What good would there be in coming back? I think in this situation your responses speak more about your current situation than they do about the attraction of Sheffield as a place to live.

Quite right. It all depends on what you want from a place to live. As a newcomer to the forum and a former expat I enjoyed reading this thread, but the whole point of moving around the world is to try to be happy somewhere - wherever it might be.

I spent four years in Australia - and was never happy during the last three years. There's nothing wrong with Australia - the problem was with factors independent of this, which I could do little about. So I voted with my feet and came back to Sheffield in 1985 - and I've never had a desire to leave. There are worse places to live.

I'm a Sheffield lass left now living in Bedfordshire I'd move back if it was like it was in the 70s but unfortunately darnall ain't what it used to be

What a great thread and a great subject. Reading through them all it appears that the majority would come back if the option was there. I might but I would prefer a small village, say with 15 miles of the city, and easy access to Derbyshire.

Most of us raised there were lucky, a good education and good neighbourly people skills passed on by parents who had known really hard times. The infrastructure was tough, the old row houses, cold in winter, no inside toilet sometimes no bath.

We had youth clubs, football grounds, dance halls, churches, and WC Clubs/Pubs we could visit, rather than watch TV (didn't have a TV until I was 16). Its a different lifestyle today that may not be improved over what we had

I lived in Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton(in Canada), Germany and Mongolia, all cold and lots of snow. Did n't bother me then. My concerns would be the health care system and the police control of crime, esp. drug users. Everyone who thinks they could return would have to know, 40-50 years later, things would be quite different.

It was Thomas Wolfe the American writer who said "You can't go home again". I was not from Sheffield but moved there when my father came out of the RAF in the sixties. RAF camps were always in the countryside and moving to Sheffield was a shock and not having a local accent made things worse! All that aside, I owe Sheffield a lot. Great times of the sixties and seventies, my education, I learnt the arts of Steelmaking and melting processes which has taken me all over the world. I still have family in Sheffield and visit them as often as I can, but sadly I would not return to live there. Happy memories are just that, contrasting what Sheffield used to be with what it has now become is quite frightening.

They didn’t emigrate/move in order to pack it in and return, albeit my wife and her best pal returned from Toronto after living and working there for four years. We live on edge of the Peak Park, and other than being about as far from the coast as possible, I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, I just need my regular beach fix.