Does anyone know the history of the Bole Hills?

[John Peace 10]

Just read this thread.

 

I lived no more than 100 yards from the bottom end of the Bolehills and spent most of my childhood playing there. The bottom entrance had four metal posts that my 3 wheeler would just squeeze through. The Quarry was there all right and I spent many hours climbing both the front and back sides. There was a wall on top which had collapsed so you could climb all the way over the top.

 

There was a gennel running up the bottom side of the Bolehills, along the back of the Blood Transfusion place and came out on Crookes just below Bradley Street.

 

The tennis courts and bowling greens bring back memories and there was a huge drafts board in the ground where you played with peices you got from the hut. You moved them with poles which had hooks on the end. We used to club together to buy a bag of sugar from Pop Meesons, then go pinch Rhubarb from the gardens and sit round dipping it into the sugar. (Talk about Belly ache the next day)

 

Oh the bottom tennis court was red clay and you could get real scruffy playing in there.

 

I can also testify to the fact that hanky panky DID occur behing Old Man's Hut.

 

Did anyone else see the UFO over the Bolehills somewhere in the mid 60's ?

[petopan 10]

It is really interesting to learn from the folk tales about the Bole Hills and I am now wondering if I should try and find the time to do some historical research from the public records on the history. It does seem to have a fascination and hold some wonderful memories for many people. As I walk up there now, I contemplate if the present generation of young folk will look back in twenty or so years with similar memories.

 

I find the societal changes also very interesting and I now compare how we would share our first smoking experiences as a gang, with a packet of John Player Number 6 or if desperate some Park Drives probably liberated from our fathers. Comparing this to some of the present generation who toot on the Ganja and even Chase the Dragon up there, I wonder how such influences will affect their memories of such a lovely place in the years to come.

 

The other aspect of the Bole Hills which I find inspiring, is the social connection if offer to folk. In these days of fear, societal introversion, decreased community chat on the streets, I have noticed that most people will still stop for a chat or acknowledge each other with a nod or even say hello to each other when on the Bole Hills. I could say it brings out the best in people but here is more to it. Having a dog walking with you up there seems to bring out the synchronicity in folk and I rather suspect that the phenomena of green space just liberates the human psyche and re-adjust's our inbuilt humanity toward communal sharing. Either that or those Aliens did something magical up there in the 60's

[Switchblade 10]

Our School Burgoyne Road used the Bolehills for weekly sports and and the annual summer sports day.

One of our teachers told us the that 'John Ruskin' the author of the book 'King Of The Golden River' used to sit up there and write.

[John Peace 10]

I believe the Bolehills was the dumping grounds for the City's Middins

[Bownie 10]

Many of our hours were spent or wasted on the Bolehills, the ships bow, the old mans hut, the draughts board, the bowling and not to frget the climbing rocks.

We used to make touch burners from the red clay and also from the clay from the clay field on Lydgate Lane. Bownie

[Bownie 10]

As a new conscript, I have read 5 pages of Bolehills/ Crookes comments with great interest. I sit and babble about this with my friends and old haunts in and around Crookes.

I have many faded and clear memories. I was born and grew up at Ashford Terrace and our Landlord was Mr Sanderson of the The Populars, Cross Lane, (front of the old quarry and I think once a rope makers site). I will try to add to this forum from time to time as I remember with any positivity. Bownie

[loxleyviewer 11]

No, there was definitely a quarry on the Bole Hills, and also a rubbish tip.

 

the quarry as i remember was at the bottom of the big hill next to bolehill school.

[loxleyviewer 11]

Wells was renowned for the rip-off. Ernie Oldham was the bike shop.

I can't be as precise as I would like with the cinema. Newent Lane split what was to become two supermarkets, one of those was the cinema but even though I attended matinees I can't say which of the shops it was!

 

The Co-Op moved from one to the other to take up an alcohol licence. The relinquished store became "Sound As A Pound", a cheap jack's. That has become a property management concern.

 

the cinema eas to the right of a small alley whitch ran into newant lane,the cinema first became fine fare,dont know what it is now though.

[loxleyviewer 11]

Being brought up on Stannington View Road, I remember the Bole Hills very well. However, we did not go there that often as there were lots more interesting things to do, the "old gardens" near the top, the cemetry wood, the first farm, the second farm ( now Den Bank Cres etc. ), Acres of allotments with narrow paths winding through, donkey wood, Jackie bank and the whole of the Rivelin valley. We did sometimes go there to play ball games, as there were a few fairly level areas.

 

Here goes with the memories. No one has mentioned the "Old Mans hut", which was just above the "ship" rock. It was used for playing cards, dominoes etc., and was fiercely guarded you dare not go near it. I remember many loud arguements taking place there.

 

I remember the quarry, very large and deep. It was used as a land fill site to level it off and the area landscaped around 1950 ( I think ). I well remember the playground being opened, 50/51, spent all day there going round on the roundabouts and when I went to bed that night my head was still spinning round.

 

I was told, in the 60's, by an old chap called Mr. Saynor, that the Bole Hills had for many years been used to dump "night soil" from the middens. I think this may well be true. If you look from the Tinker Lane end, this is not a natural landscape, it looks as though it has been used as A tip. It would account for the fact that it was never built on and the presence of large areas of black ashy soil that used to be there - at the side of Cocked Hat Cottages for instance - it's a fair bit greener than it used to be.

 

in the winter we used to dare eatch other to climb onto the old mans hut and put a grass sod on the chimney.then watch the old farts come out shouting .

[Tooeg 10]

The path down the Bole hills from the top of moorside avenue, had a rockface on the right as you walked down. I think as well as the quarry which was behind that rock face, there must have been an even larger quarry to the left of the path, land which was tipped on years ago with steelworks slag, which made up the top two levels of the park.

I wonder if the school was built in an old quarry, as there was a quarry either side of it.

As a kid I lived in a terrace of houses opposite the end of the quarry path. The houses were built around the turn of the century, as was the school.

My great grandad had lived in the house in about 1905, he was a quarryman. So putting 2 and 2 together, I assume the houses were built to house the quarry workers.

The quarry was one of Andrews quarries, I think the last of which was the quarry opposite the Bell Hagg pub on Manchester Rd. now the garden centre.

[loxleyviewer 11]

one of my old pals from loxley view,paul scott,his father worked at the bell hagg quarry,i think they also had a quarry at stannington,overlooking rivelin.

[OLD No.12 10]

do you know what the years he worked at hagg hill and what happend to it when it close