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Old broomhall flats

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Originally posted by gezmac

I used to live on Monmouth gardens across from viners, I also went to school with the hills & the Kempton's & the polish woman lived around the corner from the hills opposite the adventure playground, remember when that was first built, the monorail was cool but they removed it cause someone died on it I heard. I never went to Springfield school, don't remember the nursery but used to go to the chipy for scraps!

 

i think i remember the polish woman your on about if its the same one iim thinking she used to use the phone box across from the school i lived on the flats from july 82 -august 84 i was then rehoused to page hall:suspect: :suspect: :suspect:

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Hate to sound thick, but where were the old flats? I've only lived in Broomhall 18 months, so am too new to remember them, but I can't picture where they might have been. Were they on the town side of the dual carriageway? I've always wondered what used to be there before they built the modern estates.

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Only time I ever seen the polish woman was when she came out of her flat to shout cause kids used to always torment her which was bad but you know what kids are like. The flats are where the new estates are now, not to far from Devonshire green. I lived on there 1974 untill they were knocked down which i think might have been about 1984.

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I guessed they must be there, thanks a lot for the info. I'm really interested in the history of Broomhall, but it's difficult to find out much! It's changed so much, with the flats built in the 60s, then replaced with the new houses; but then, you also have the old houses like the one I live in. If anyone has any info, I'd love to hear some history, especially from before the dual carriageway was built, if possible! :)

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Originally posted by gezmac

Only time I ever seen the polish woman was when she came out of her flat to shout cause kids used to always torment her which was bad but you know what kids are like. The flats are where the new estates are now, not to far from Devonshire green. I lived on there 1974 untill they were knocked down which i think might have been about 1984.

 

It was a little later than 1984, Gez, when the flats were razed to the ground.

 

It was more 1986/7. The flats were still occupied in 1985, although they were increasingly unpopular by then: I knowit had to be about 85, because my mother did not pass away until nearly the end of 84, and my father was courting a woman who lived on there just over a twelve-month after that.

 

Most tenants had been moved out by about the end of '86, and I seem to recall they stood empty for a while, before they were demolished.

 

Because the flats were the "lightweight" prefabricated panel construction, the same building method as the Ronan Point Flats, in London (the ones which went up in a gas explosion) It was decreed that the flats should be "all-electric", to avert the danger posed by a high-pressure gas supply, which would be needed.

 

Mr PT was a tenant on the Broomhall flats, until about 1984, and he well recalls getting an electricity bill for the astounding amount of £400 for a SUMMER (!!!!) quarter.

 

the construction was cheap-and-nasty:- that was the "long-and-the-short " of it, and the under-floor heating system was poor, and uneconomical to run, at best. the metal window frames were ill-fitting and draughty, cancelling out what little heat the under-floor system could push out.

 

I don't think that there are many who lived on the development who weren't glad in some way to be shot of the flats. (i don't know what the flats were like for community spirit, etc.)

 

About the only thing that the flats had going for them, I think, was their proximity to town, being just a few hundred yards from the bottom of The Moor.

 

PT

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Elyndys,

 

when the Picture Sheffield site is back working properly again ( http://www.picturesheffield.com ) which I fevently hope won't be too long, you can search for that area on there.

 

There are lots of pics on there of just about every area of Sheffield, including Broomhall.

 

PT

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Yeah it was a right dump come to think of it & when I was getting a little older while living there I was glad to move. It's always good to remember where you came from though & the spirit was fantastic if you were from there if not you stood out like a sore thumb. There were bits of concrete falling of the building so the materials that were used must have been useless. I've lived all over Sheffield well in about 15 different areas & broomhall is the only place I haven't any photos of apart from the one outside the domino, suppose it will have to do. :mad:

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The materials used in the Broomhall Flats were not so much substandard, as innapropriate for the UK climate, really.

 

That, coupled with the inevitable corner-cutting when the flats were being constructed was the cause of them being in such poor condition.

 

The material used was reinforced concrete precast blocks/slabs, which were bolted together.

 

Now, because of our damp climate, the metal reinforcing bars contained within the concrete became rusted, and expanded within the concrete, causing a phenomenon called "spalling". This is where the concrete fractures, and breaks away from the main block, exposing the metal rods. You can see an example of this, very plainly on the sills and ledges of the Park Hill Flats. The PHF are also reinforced concrete construction, and the same spalling has happened there. The construction method used was probably more suited to a dry, warm mediterranean climate.

 

Another contributing factor (as I have mentioned) was the sloppy construction. the slabs of concrete were supposed to be anchored together, securely, by a large number of bolts. Unfortunately, as happened during the construction of London's Ronan Point flats. the number of bolts-per-slab were skimped on.

 

Where there should have been 12 bolts, or more, per slab, there might only have been four, or six bolts, bearing the entire weight of these slabs. this is one of the reasons why Ronan Point collapsed, like playing cards, when the gas explosion happened there, back in the 1960s.

 

PT

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Wow,

so when i come to build a house or block of flats i can count on you to help?

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yea, the polish woman lived under the bit near the phone box on the corner. (smokey joe ...??)anyone remember im?

according to my grandad, the flats were bulldozed september '86 (i think thats not correct..??)

and it took about 2yrs to bring the lot down completely.

then there was the wooden ramp behind the shops, and the playgroound behind the nursery, oh and them big rocks in the middle near wellington and egerton. and an old bloke who only had 1 hand and drove a blue minx., oh yeas , and the flowers lived there too, remember them??

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Yeah i remember them too, what high school did you go to?

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this is my 4 th post, so i need a fifth to send a reply!!!

can u tell me about the flowers, i kinda new them a little!!

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