Old Fairgrounds and Circuses

[Buster 10]

I was born near the bottom of Craven Road in Darnall. Some of my earliest memories are walking around the fairground as they were setting it up. It used to be an annual event on the spare ground right at the bottom of the road.

My mum told me about some gypsy woman who used our front room once for her fortune telling. I can still smell the deisel fumes from the generators used to power dodgems etc. That was before I started school (Whitby Road Infants)

[Hopman 46]

Billy Smart's Circus came to Sheffield (Devonshire Green, I think) early November 1961.

[prioryx 10]

It was treat to go to the Midland station goods yard and watch the animals being unloaded then parading through town to the circus site.

[Timbuck 10]

A great Fairground in Concord park 1945 to 1950 I remember as a Kid on the site where the Sports centre Now stands..Then it moved to Winkobank Tip.

[danradclife0 10]

oh yes i love fairs endcliffe was i local milhouses used to have a massive fair the bonfire fairs spread around in every park in the city speaking of which endcliffe is next week firth park this week then its eckington and theres a full scale scale for high green on 4th and 5th of july.

[neoteric 10]

I remember going to see the circus lions and tigers in their cages sometime around 1950; I was only 5 at the time and don't think we could afford to go to the circus.

I also remember going to the Star Gala which was on the Farm Grounds - this fair covered a really big area, I think the Star Gala then moved to Ecclesfield Park but I'm not sure of the year.

I also remember the smaller fair at Ecclesfield on the spare ground just behind the chippy. I really loved going to fairs when I was a teenager - my favourite was the Waltzer - lots of girls, lots of music. The favourite was to spot a girl you liked and jump into the same car - after a few spins around you could become quite friendly:)

[CorkerSWFC 10]

A circus came to Oakes park at Norton the only reason I remember it was because I woke up one morning looked out of my bedroom window into a courtyard. Nothing odd so far apart from the elephants stood drinking out of the horse trough.

 

Yes i remember that aswell.

[danradclife0 10]

yes it was firth park ecclesfield and endcliffe then millhouses park that was the fair run

[simonj 10]

oh yes i love fairs endcliffe was i local milhouses used to have a massive fair the bonfire fairs spread around in every park in the city speaking of which endcliffe is next week firth park this week then its eckington and theres a full scale scale for high green on 4th and 5th of july.

 

 

Come again

[steve1953 10]

when i was a youngster my grandparents lived on stovin road and i used to go to the fair that came on the waste ground on coleridge road at darnall

[Nigel Womersle 10]

I remember going to see the circus lions and tigers in their cages sometime around 1950; I was only 5 at the time and don't think we could afford to go to the circus.

I also remember going to the Star Gala which was on the Farm Grounds - this fair covered a really big area, I think the Star Gala then moved to Ecclesfield Park but I'm not sure of the year.

I also remember the smaller fair at Ecclesfield on the spare ground just behind the chippy. I really loved going to fairs when I was a teenager - my favourite was the Waltzer - lots of girls, lots of music. The favourite was to spot a girl you liked and jump into the same car - after a few spins around you could become quite friendly:)

 

The Star Gala moved to Mill Road at Ecclesfield in 1961 or 1962. It was Ling's Feast and as we only lived spitting distance from it, I thought it was fantastic. I can still remember the music and the firework displays. The smaller one in High Street was on The Ball Inn field (as you say - behind the chippy) This was North's Feast and came to Ecclesfieled twice a year for over fifty years. Only when the field became the Ball car park, did the visits stop. The girl who operated The Waltzer was called Alexandra, and all the lads thought she was the bees knees. Happy Days

[Falls 10]

I can just remember a fair in the the old Smithfield Market Area on Blonk Street (between the Victoria Station Approach and the River Don) This must have been 1939 or 1940 at the latest. I don't remember a fair on that site again and it eventually became a stockyard for Osborne's or Balfour's.

 

Again, as a small kid, I also went to a fair on Staniforth Road. It was on a piece of waste land next to LNER railway tracks, opposite the end of Broad Oaks and Fearneough Street. The site eventually became the yard for British Road Services. It may still be a transport yard but I haven't been on that section of Staniforth Road in over 30 years.

 

I believe the first circus to come to Sheffield after WW II was Bertram Mills. In 1947 or 1948. They wanted to pitch the big top in Hillsborough Park but the Gruppenfuehrer at the Town Hall, in one of their now famous bouts of "Fuzzy Logic", insisted they go instead to the Pheasant Inn Ground at Carbrook. The animals were loaded and unloaded in the LMS Wicker Good Yard (The gate opposite TW Ward's old offices) This event was the subject of another Forum thread last year.

 

Regards