Hillsborough Shops Of The Past

[nosy nellie 10]

Thank you Hillsbro,I remember the alleyway now you have explained I think I just about remember the wall.

The Tarzan field was behind Manns fish shop,the kids from Rudyard Road used to play down there and walk under the bridge onto the wier when the river was low.

[beechnut 10]

I remember the field behind Mann's, but didn't know it had a name. We also used to play there and walk under the bridge when the water level was low. At the other side of the bridge there was a flight of steps leading up the side of the weir. Sometimes we would go there in our lunch break from Malin Bridge School - at 1 o'clock the "hooter" would sound somewhere nearby (where was it?) which told us we had 20 minutes to get back to school. But in the school holidays, in dry weather you could paddle all the way to Malin Bridge, with or without your wellies..

[nosy nellie 10]

I remember the field behind Mann's, but didn't know it had a name. We also used to play there and walk under the bridge when the water level was low. At the other side of the bridge there was a flight of steps leading up the side of the weir. Sometimes we would go there in our lunch break from Malin Bridge School - at 1 o'clock the "hooter" would sound somewhere nearby (where was it?) which told us we had 20 minutes to get back to school. But in the school holidays, in dry weather you could paddle all the way to Malin Bridge, with or without your wellies..

 

Yes we did the same I went to Morley Street School and we sometimes we went down there at dinner time,But I also lived down Rudyard road so that was also our playground and we could also play down what we used to call the Dyke further down Rudyard Road and over the wall.

The hooter was BurdallsGravy Salt.

[hillsbro 32]

I also remember the 1 o'clock hooter, and wondered where it came from.

 

I've had another look in my "archives" and have found an early 1900s photo of Middlewood Road, taken near the bottom of Dykes Hall Road:

 

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u219/twigmore/MiddlewodRoad.jpg

 

The beer-off on the corner of Dykes Hall Road can just be seen at the far left, then the row of houses (later shops) and the large "Bleak House" on the corner of Minto Road, just behind the horse and cart. The houses on the right must have been demolished long, long ago as they were replaced by the old Brightside & Carbrook Co-Op, which was itself demolished in the 1960s to make way for the "new" Co-Op.

[nosy nellie 10]

I have never seen this one before Hillbro.

Really interesting,the houses look so nice to say they must have been demolished.

[sweetdexter 10]

Would the 1 0'clock hooter have been Burdhalls? (not sure of the spelling)

I remember the second floor hoist at the Don Bakery .

It used to take the sacks of flour off the lorries

[hillsbro 32]

Yes - "nosy nellie" confirmed that the hooter was at Burdalls factory in the old Barracks - I often wondered about that! Someone on the forum used to make gravy salt at Burdalls - the recipe was a sack of coarse salt, a sack of fine salt and half a gallon of caramel, well mixed! One of Burdalls' chemists, Roy Jenkinson, is still going strong at 80 and has a stamp & postcard stall in the Castle Market.

 

I also remember the hoist at the back of the Don bakery with its brown-painted wooden casing. The lorries had to reverse down the narrow Bradfield Place. In post #48 I mentioned the door in the wall, which gave access to the Old Blue Ball. The door had a sign on it indicating that it would be locked every year on Good Friday - and once I had a walk down there and, sure enough, the door was locked. I think this was a legal move to prevent it becoming a right of way. The location of the Don Bakery is now lost inside the shopping arcade.

[nosy nellie 10]

Yes I also worked at Burdalls,I have watched them mix the gravy salt.During the time I was there I worked in nearly every department this was in the sixties it was one of the best jobs I had.

It was like working in the Dickensian era.

[Allen 38]

I have vague memories of the 1 0'Clock hooter from childhood.

Does anyone know what year it stopped?

 

The name of that fruit and veg shop on Bradfield Road just below the (now gone) church is still bugging me. I used to clean the owners car on a Saturday morning for spending money.

 

On the other side of Bradfield Road (opposite the church) was a "Fina" petrol station, and further down towards Owlerton was a Newsagents. I delivered papers for them after school around the Rudyard Road area. I think the then owner was called Chapman.

 

I also went to Morley Street School.

[hillsbro 32]

... The name of that fruit and veg shop on Bradfield Road just below the (now gone) church is still bugging me. I used to clean the owners car on a Saturday morning for spending money.

 

On the other side of Bradfield Road (opposite the church) was a "Fina" petrol station, and further down towards Owlerton was a Newsagents. I delivered papers for them after school around the Rudyard Road area. I think the then owner was called Chapman.

 

The 1973 directory gives the newsagents as Cheethams - I remember this very nice couple; they had purchased Ravenhill's shop at 76 Middlewood Road when Ernest Ravenhill died in 1959, and they moved to 137/139 Bradfield Road in the 1960s. No 76 Middlewood Road became Bingham's glass shop; Mrs Ravenhill died only last year, aged 98. The "Fina" petrol station is shown as "Bradfield Road Service Station", with the proprietor Leslie Saxon.

 

I might get to the Local Studies Library this week - if so I'll see if I can find the fruit & veg shop in 1950s/60s directories.

[mossdog 10]

Anybody remember the old Radio/TV shop on the corner of Haydn st and Holme lane? an old fella called Jim used to run it,(looked like jed Clampitt from beverly hillbillies) nice old guy, the shop was a real blast from the past,mainly selling valves and spares for old pre war Radios etc.

[hillsbro 32]

Yes - this was Jim Gordon. He was an old friend of my father's - in the 1920s and 1930s they both used to repair radios in their spare time, and Jim decided to go into business. As you say he was a nice, friendly old chap and he knew a lot about valve radios. He actually lived at Bradwell, and he must have done well as I remember in the 1950s he had a huge Armstrong-Siddeley car that he parked on Taplin Road. He kept the shop going long after it was profitable, just to keep himself occupied. You would enter the shop by the door on the corner, and make your way carefully between piles of old cabinet radios to the dark, dismal interior where Jim would appear in his old striped overall, white hair and moustache. But he could be relied on for radio repairs and general advice. Jim died aged 80 in November 1976 - I remember seeing a lorry outside the shop, laden down with the old Murphy, Pye and Peto Scott radios which I imagine were going to be dumped. They might have been worth a fortune nowadays...