Hillsborough Shops Of The Past

[gal-tray 10]

thanks hillsbro you know your stuff , its got me thinking now about other shops i used to visit and what hillsborough was like back then many thanks..

[sweetdexter 10]

I used to get my eyes tested and glasses from Greaves.

This would be in the 50s /60s.

I always thought she was Miss Greaves

Does anyone remember a little place,I think it was on Taplin Rd that sold meat pies.

The memory is vague but I think there were tables to 'Eat in'.

Doused with relish which I am sure was called "Yorkshire Relish"

Whether it was Hendersons I do not remember

[hillsbro 28]

Does anyone remember a little place,I think it was on Taplin Rd that sold meat pies.

The memory is vague but I think there were tables to 'Eat in'.

Doused with relish which I am sure was called "Yorkshire Relish"

Whether it was Hendersons I do not remember

 

Yes, the little café on the corner of Haden Street - it was the front room of an end-of-terrace house which had four or five small tables. Pie & peas cost 1s3d in about 1961. The relish definitely tasted like Hendersons (I have a feeling that the Hendersons label used to include the words "Yorkshire relish"). The house, and a couple of adjacent ones were demolished some years ago and there's a little garden there now.

 

Not 100% sure about Miss/Mrs Greaves as I never went there but my mother always referred to "Mrs Greaves" as the best local optician.

[Nodens 10]

That was Mrs Greaves at No 88 - the large, oak-framed barometer isn't there now; it was quite a Hillsborough "landmark"!

 

It was a part of Hillsborough and always held great childhood memories, it must have been there for many, many, years.

 

I remember that barometer from the early 50s. The family would walk into Hillsborough from Cuthbert Bank Rd every Saturday night to go to the "flicks", usually the Kinema.

 

We'd always check that barometer as we usually went fishing on the Sunday and wanted to see what the weather was going to be like.

 

Wonder if it was auctioned off - I'd like to have put in a bid?

[hillsbro 28]

I remember that barometer from the early 50s. ... Wonder if it was auctioned off - I'd like to have put in a bid?

 

Well, it's still an opticians, now part of Rayners. They might have the barometer stowed away in the attic etc. Or maybe it's still on view inside the shop. Come to think of it, I could do with some new glasses...

 

Regarding window displays, does anyone remember the two smiling porcelain pigs (one male, one female) that Kelsey's pork butchers had in the window, one at either side? I seem to remember that "Mrs Pig" must have come to grief as for a long time her opposite number pined alone in the corner.... Old Mr Kelsey retired and his nephew took over the business but it never did well under new management and eventually closed.

 

Another window display (and now I'm going back to the 1950s) was in Homeworkers Supplies' window. This was run by old Mrs Simons, who I think lived at the back. In the window was a model of a boy, catapult in hand, and a broken vase. The caption was "Mum - where's the Durofix?".

[beechnut 10]

My goodness - I remember that "naughty boy" and his catapult! It was almost the only thing in Mrs Simons' window - even in the 1950s it was a very old-fashioned shop. It must have been between Taplin Road and Roselle Street, somewhere around No 29. Mrs Simons (who did indeed live at the back of the shop) was a small, elderly Jewish lady - I think widowed - and I can see her now with her grey hair tied back in a bun, and her tiny reading glasses. I remember buying small items of hardware there (such as a little lock for my desk at Malin bridge school). Mrs Simons loved children and always had a kind word for my sister, brother and me. I imagine that she kept the shop going just to keep herself occupied, as it couldn't have provided much of an income. Mrs Simons must have closed the shop in the early 1960s. My mum would send me there to buy lengths of hessian for when we were pegging rugs. Memories….

[hillsbro 28]

Yes - Mrs Simons was a dear old soul who was well into her 70s when she gave up the shop. She died in 1968, aged 86.

 

A well-known shop that I was surprised to see had disappeared by 1973 was Howard's Dairy. It was about halfway between the Co-Op and the park, and must have been replaced by Hoole's D-I-Y shop. In summer, Howards used to have a hatch through which they sold ice cream to people passing by on the way to the park etc.

 

Thomas's radio & TV etc. shop was also quite well-known. At one time they also sold toys, train sets etc. Monty Thomas (who owned most of the property between Barclays Bank and Proctor Place) was in his 90s when he died a few years ago. And of course there was Wigfalls at the corner of Proctor Place - this large firm seemed to just disappear.

 

I remember in about 1971, Tesh's drapers celebrated 50 years in Hillsborough, with free champagne for customers, but it must have been the dying throes of the business as, even then, independent drapers were fast disappearing.

 

The 1925 directory mentions Hillsborough National School. Demolished in the 1930s, this stood where Woolworths was built in 1959. Nowadays it would have been a listed building with its Dutch gables, bell tower etc. See here.

Edited December 31, 2015 by hillsbro

[nosy nellie 10]

On Hillsborough corner was Public Benefit shoe shop,opposite on the other corner wasTtimpsons shoe shop,and next door to Timpsons was Maypole grocers shop I think.

On the other corner was Burtons men shop with a dance hall above it where the snooker hall is now.next door was Priestleys bakers and confectioners

[nosy nellie 10]

Does anyone remember Randy,s chip shop?top of Rudyard Road.

Also the other shops on Rudyard Road.

Baxters fruit shop

Masseys,

Bockings.

Wombwells

[hillsbro 28]

On Hillsborough corner was Public Benefit shoe shop,opposite on the other corner wasTimpsons shoe shop.

 

Yes - I remember both of these. Timpsons was still there in 1973 but by that time the Public Benefit shop had become Curtis's shoe shop. This was in the large white building that was demolished in 1993 to make way for the tramlines. At one time the building included Photoco and a flower shop, and (in the 1950s) the Douro Wine Stores. On the first floor was the Silver Dragon restaurant which opened as early as 1961 - I think it was only the third Chinese restaurant in Sheffield, after the Rickshaw and Zing Vaa.

[nosy nellie 10]

Thats right I had forgotten about photoco,and there was a jewellers on there.

Was there once a snooker hall where the Silver Dragon was?

[hillsbro 28]

Yes - the snooker hall was there before the Silver Dragon. The jewellers was Butlers, and there was also a fireplace shop there. On the opposite corner of Wadsley Lane was Charles Credland's paint shop, then Johnsons D-I-Y. There was another snooker hall on Catch Bar Lane, next to the old Park Cinema.