Base Green history?

[hazel 11]

When I first went to live at Intake, Base Green was I'm sure just fields of corn, think this would have been 49/50

A little later when they just made the roads I used to ride my bike there on empty roads with no houses built then.

We used to walk that way to Ridgeway and Ford, catching the bus back.

hazel

[Karukai 10]

Thanks everyone! All really interesting stuff, keep it coming

[DUFFEMS 56]

That's right, it was just fields. There was an existing farm on Thornbridge Road, Birley and everything around it was fields.

 

As children we used to walk with our families through Birley onto White Lane, through the fileds via stiles and on to Ridgeway and Ford calling at pubs along the way. We would go all the way down to The Bridge pub in Ford then start the return journey when it was dusk.

With the exception of a couple of farm houses and the Phoenix pub on the road down to Ridgeway it was just open fields.

[DUFFEMS 56]

Sorry, I said White Lane when it should be Birley Lane, we knew it as White Lane as kids..

We once had a spooky encounter on this lane down to Ridgeway, we heard what appeared to be a woman's wailing voice but, there was no-one around. The men in our family group thought that they'd had too much to drink.

Years later, my husband and young son were driving down Birley Lane when a woman appeared to walk right out in front of them and then disappear into the hedgerow, they stopped, got out and looked all around but, found nothing. They looked like a pair of ghosts when they came in! Incidentally, I'd never mentioned to my husband about my own spooky event as a child prior to this, and neither of us believe in this ghosts normally.

Anyway, that's nothing to do with your initial question about Base Green, just memory recall!

[Karukai 10]

Very interesting though - I'm pretty keen on that kind of thing. And it's always fun to have a spooky story to tell about somewhere!

[son returned 10]

My family moved from the Parson Cross to Basegreen in 1952 we had one of the first houses to be built in Jaunty Crescent. The estate was erected in response to the governments promise to give good homes to our returning war heroes. As mentioned in other replies the estate was in the countryside there was a cornfield behind our house and beyond that two quarries, this is where Quarry Vale got it's name. The shops on Jaunty Way were constructed about 3 years after the estate and the Centre Spot about 5 years after. The pub was at that time in Derbyshire so had different licensing hours than Sheffield, open until 10:00 pm in Sheffield and 10:30 in Derbyshire. I went to Frecheville school from the infants to the senior. It was alway a good place to live and as mentioned before it is very close to the countryside. The estate still looks very nice but I don't know if it is still a good place to live. I have recently returned to this area having lived in the south for a lot of years and we looked to buy a house on the Basegreen but at the time there were none up for sale. But I think you could do a lot worse than living at Bsegreen.

[DUFFEMS 56]

son returned,

I agree, you obviously lived through the same time period as myself and it was a good life living out in the fields. I didn't know about how Quarry Vale got its' name, that's interesting.

I didn't live at Base Green but, we walked all around that area as a family, it was the Sunday afternoon, Bank holiday pastime, no wonder I've got such short legs!

[hazel 11]

Duffam ,

Can you remember,

There was a small pond in the middle of a field that led from White Lane. We used to fish there for sticklebacks as children-- we had a jamjam with a string handle for the catch.

It must have been round about where the supertrams runs today before it gets to the Old Harrow.

The Old Harrow was managed by an Ella fitzgerald, Sara Vaughn, Lois Armstrong and Frank Sinartra Fan and he played their records I have memories of evenings spent at the pub then walking back through Base Green on balmy nights with night scented stock perfume filling the air from someones garden.

hazel

[DUFFEMS 56]

Yes, I recall the pond but, we were always told to stay away from it! As kids we once walked down Birley Lane into the fields to play, we were visiting relatives who lived at Birley, there was quite a few of us, we started out at the pond but, as kids do we drifted further down the field. I can't recall all the events but, some of us had strayed over the stile into the field further towards Ridgeway and there was a chap sketching in the field and a couple of the kids followed him as he said he had a tree house. I felt uncomfortable so I ran back to my relatives and told the adults who charged down the fields, my uncle jumped the stiles like a racehorse and I remember following him and collecting all the money which had fallen out of his pockets as he jumped. The outcome was that this chap had most of the estate after him with the help of several policemen, he was taken to the farmhouse and then to the police station. I remember seeing a sea of people all crowded round the farm house wanting to get at him. After that, we were very restricted as to how far we went into those fields. I suspect it was all so innocent, the chap probably was just drawing but, in those days it was so rare for children to be approached by strangers.

[lazyherbert 10]

That's right, it was just fields. There was an existing farm on Thornbridge Road, Birley and everything around it was fields.

 

As children we used to walk with our families through Birley onto White Lane, through the fileds via stiles and on to Ridgeway and Ford calling at pubs along the way. We would go all the way down to The Bridge pub in Ford then start the return journey when it was dusk.

With the exception of a couple of farm houses and the Phoenix pub on the road down to Ridgeway it was just open fields.

 

I still do that walk,very often.Sometimes coming back by way of Robins Brook.

[DUFFEMS 56]

You're certainly not living up to your name of lazyherbert then as it's a good walk!

[alex3659 11]

didnt the beatles appear at the azena [ now somerfields ] dont know wether that counts as basegreen . i think the azena was name after zena fidler ?????????????