Port Mahon revisited

[t j martin 10]

well, Port Mahon became the site of the Free Masons in Sheffield, my mum was the steward from 1960, and my brother was born there. My mum would clean the temple, and run the bar.... our house was in Watery Street, attached to Port Mahon, my bedroom overlooked the Chapel, and I was always scared to look out the window!!

[herbiegrass 10]

I lived there in the 60s and I believe the street name was officially Netherthorpe Place but our mothers always sent us too the shops on

" Puat Meeon."

The Meadow Dairy, Gebbards, Taylors, Brian's Bakery etc etc.

 

Bentleys, Hills, Baldwins, Dians,Hopkinsons, Barbers,,,etc:hihi:

[abroadhead 10]

I have an old letter in my collection with a PORT MAHON postmark of 1856. Here's an edited version of an article I wrote for the Sheffield Philatelic Society:

 

The name Portmahon (also found as Port Mahon or Port-Mahon) does not appear on modern maps of Sheffield, and few people are familiar with it as a locality. The name applied to a small area in the Netherthorpe district, behind the old Royal Infirmary near St Philip’s Road, and it can be found on older Sheffield street maps. There was a Baptist chapel known as Portmahon Chapel, built in 1839, which stood near the present Medico-Legal Centre in Watery Street, and which was demolished in the 1960s. The name "Watery Street" refers to the stream (once spanned by the long-gone Portmahon Bridge) which came down the valley from Crookes, but which since the early 1800s has run through an underground culvert before emptying into the River Don.

Originally, Portmahon was the name of a short street which ran in a westward curve from the junction of St Philip's Road and Upperthorpe Road. According to the late S. Roy Davey in his book "Crossin' O'er", it evidently acquired its unusual name in the 18th century, when on two occasions the British fleet captured Mahón, the largest town on the island of Menorca. The street was evidently first laid out during a wave of patriotism that swept the country after one of these events. Portmahon was later extended south-westwards, but the extension had the name Watery Lane. This can be seen on an undated (probably early 1890s) "Kelly’s Directory Map of Sheffield" that I have. Some time in the 1890s the name Watery Lane began to apply to the whole street, and so the name Portmahon disappeared as a street name, but it was still used for the adjacent district. The whole area was redeveloped in the 1960s, when Watery Lane disappeared completely, its site now being part of a recreation ground. It is interesting to note what was told me by an old friend, whose grandmother lived in the Netherthorpe area. She always pronounced the place-name "PortmaHON", with the emphasis on the last syllable. This agrees with the Spanish pronunciation of "Mahón", unlike, for example, the Irish surname "MAHon". A post office was opened at Portmahon in 1852, but this closed some time between 1943 and 1946, and only Sheffield’s older inhabitants will remember the district being known as Portmahon. However, the name did survive until the late 1990s on a pillar box at the junction of St Philip's Road and Watery Street. In accordance with current Royal Mail practice, the name of the locality is no longer stated on the collection time plate on this box, though it may perhaps still be found in Post Office records.

 

I haven't been back recently to look at the pillar box - some boxes now show the locality again.

 

I'm interested in the bit about the watercourse under Watery Street. Any more information on this? I've traced it route on old maps, but most don't go back far enough or aren't detailed enough.

 

The Crookes Valley Reservoirs impounded local spring water. Presumably this still flows, even though the Old Great Dam (Crookes Park) is the only one remaining now. They were also fed by the Redmires Conduit, which appears to now discharge at least in part to the Carsick Brook at Carsick Hall, though it apparently seemed to once flow all the way from Redmires Reservoirs on the outskirts right into the Crookes Valley. There is a culverted stream/spring inflow visible on the western corner of the Old Great Dam - flowing even during dry periods indicates it is at least partly spring-fed.

 

What has become of the watercourse that once flowed down through the Ponderosa Park? I have all the maps and drainage records that show no culverted stream here now. Beyond Ponderosa Park, through Watery Lane, it is very difficult to trace.

 

What now lies under ground in this valley is a combined sewer (sewage + rainwater --> sewage works). The stream appears to have been converted into the combined sewer, and the remaining route through Watery Street and beyond filled in. Is this a watercourse flowing to the River Don, or has it been captured into the combined sewer system?

 

[truman 10]

another mystry ... New York.. in Rotherham:help:

 

It's built where Guest and Chrimes used to be.. they made the fire hydrants that are/were used in New York...also the area used to be called New York, after a pub there..

 

http://www.rotherhamunofficial.co.uk/villages/masbrougharea/newyork.html

[hillsbro 33]

I'm interested in the bit about the watercourse under Watery Street. Any more information on this? I've traced it route on old maps, but most don't go back far enough or aren't detailed enough.

Hi - I only learned about this from Roy Davey's book "Crossin' Oer" which mentioned Portmahon Bridge. I don't have the book but there might perhaps be more details in it. The book is available at the Local Studies Library (Surrey Street) or via ABE Books or Amazon.

 

 

another mystry ... New York.. in Rotherham

There's also a New York in Lincolnshire.

[abroadhead 10]

Hi - I only learned about this from Roy Davey's book "Crossin' Oer" which mentioned Portmahon Bridge. I don't have the book but there might perhaps be more details in it. The book is available at the Local Studies Library (Surrey Street) or via ABE Books or Amazon.

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Thanks for that. Details do seem limited, as for many of Sheffield's lost streams and springs. For interest, a map of them here: http://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2013/04/the-lost-rivers-streams-and-brooks-jarvis-cocker-of-sheffield/

[willybite 10]

Thanks for that. Details do seem limited, as for many of Sheffield's lost streams and springs. For interest, a map of them here: http://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2013/04/the-lost-rivers-streams-and-brooks-jarvis-cocker-of-sheffield/

 

hiya, my dad when he was young lived down bellefield lane and went to st stephens school and his way to say the name was "pooert me on" I remember the urinal in the middle of the road there, it was a gents only like the ones in france.

[rossyrooney 12]

hiya, my dad when he was young lived down bellefield lane and went to st stephens school and his way to say the name was "pooert me on" I remember the urinal in the middle of the road there, it was a gents only like the ones in france.

 

Outside the Rapid brake company if memory serves, my Grandma lived at Neepsend in the 50s and did most of her shopping at what she called "put me on".

I also remember her frequenting "Cheap Jacks" on the shops behind the Infirmary, a veritable emporium where everything household was purchased.

[susie1 10]

hiya, my dad when he was young lived down bellefield lane and went to st stephens school and his way to say the name was "pooert me on" I remember the urinal in the middle of the road there, it was a gents only like the ones in france.

 

I agree with the above post's version of how local people pronounced Port Mahon. When I was very young in the early 50s, we used to go to visit relatives living on "Pooert Meeon".

[herbiegrass 10]

Outside the Rapid brake company if memory serves, my Grandma lived at Neepsend in the 50s and did most of her shopping at what she called "put me on".

I also remember her frequenting "Cheap Jacks" on the shops behind the Infirmary, a veritable emporium where everything household was purchased.

 

The urinal was further down, more nearer meadow street.