Totley in the 50s and 60s

[mikeG 16]

Went train spotting at the cutting 1957-9. Also the Fleur to see Joe Cocker. And drink Stones.

[Dreb48 35]

15 hours ago, DronnyDave said:

I'll try to keep this going for you. 

Moved to Totley around 1960, I was six, and lived on the top section of Green Oak Rd

Used to go in the Fleur and Cross Scythes in the early seventies. Once the bar at the College down Totley Hall Lane was opened we used to go there most weekends.

Can remember that the park was always full of kids playing football, especially on a Sunday afternoon.

Left the area and moved to Nether Edge 1979'ish. Had hoped to move back to Totley around 1982, but to be honest when I went back to look around it never felt the same as it once was so ended up in Dronfield.

Thanks Dave for your response.

i was 12 in 1960 so was part of that group that played football all weathers in Green Oak Rec on a Sunday afternoon.

it was a great place to grow up wasn’t it?

At top end of Green Oak Rd you’d probably have the woods at the back of your house ?

A fantastic natural playground and with little or no hidden dangers in those days you could disappear after breakfast and re-emerge at tea time and no-one blinked an eye.

Did you go to County School or Church School on Hillfoot ?

With family now back on Laverdene I’m seeing a lot more of the place and though it’s changed, like everywhere I still get that pang of nostalgia when I hit Baslow Rd

4 minutes ago, mikeG said:

Went train spotting at the cutting 1957-9. Also the Fleur to see Joe Cocker. And drink Stones.

I used to spot at the Cutting around 59 till I found girls 😉 and yeah later on had a few nights in the Fleur.

Sad sight seeing it turned into flats 

 

Edited May 16, 2021 by Dreb48

[Idsworth456 0]

I am sure I went to an orphanage there called Cherry Tree not sure i was very young.

[Dreb48 35]

1 hour ago, Idsworth456 said:

I am sure I went to an orphanage there called Cherry Tree not sure i was very young.

Yes. Cherry Tree Orphanage was on Mickley Lane . There were quite a few kids at school who lived there 

[DronnyDave 10]

On 16/05/2021 at 12:42, Dreb48 said:

Thanks Dave for your response.

i was 12 in 1960 so was part of that group that played football all weathers in Green Oak Rec on a Sunday afternoon.

it was a great place to grow up wasn’t it?

At top end of Green Oak Rd you’d probably have the woods at the back of your house ?

A fantastic natural playground and with little or no hidden dangers in those days you could disappear after breakfast and re-emerge at tea time and no-one blinked an eye.

Did you go to County School or Church School on Hillfoot ?

With family now back on Laverdene I’m seeing a lot more of the place and though it’s changed, like everywhere I still get that pang of nostalgia when I hit Baslow Rd

I used to spot at the Cutting around 59 till I found girls 😉 and yeah later on had a few nights in the Fleur.

Sad sight seeing it turned into flats 

 

I went to Totley County, my sister who was 13 in 1960 went to the Church School.

We lived halfway up the last section of Green Oak so didn't have the woods at the back. We did have the farmers field at the back until they built houses on it.

And yes you are right, out of the door straight after breakfast and didn't go home until you were hungry. We were never short of something to do or somewhere to go. Remember the park keeper used to roll out an extra strip, between the football and cricket pitches, so that we could play cricket. He also used to collect bits of kit for us to use.

[Dreb48 35]

2 hours ago, DronnyDave said:

I went to Totley County, my sister who was 13 in 1960 went to the Church School.

We lived halfway up the last section of Green Oak so didn't have the woods at the back. We did have the farmers field at the back until they built houses on it.

And yes you are right, out of the door straight after breakfast and didn't go home until you were hungry. We were never short of something to do or somewhere to go. Remember the park keeper used to roll out an extra strip, between the football and cricket pitches, so that we could play cricket. He also used to collect bits of kit for us to use.

The park keeper was Harry Bellamy and lived on the prefabs like we did. His son , Clive and I were in the same year at County School. He’s regularly contributed some great memories to this thread.

Harry kept the park immaculately and is now a complete throwback to a different time when kids had respect for authority of any kind and didn’t want a ticking off from the Parky.

I can remember when the playground was built and the thick yellow clay I went home caked in from jumping in and out of big trenches .

I remember also the  tennis courts being built on top of a huge mound of earth.

In later years we’d sit on the bank by the nets in the evenings trying to drag in a signal from Radio Luxembourg by sticking the transistor radio aerial into the netting.

I’ve spent days and days of my life in that park doing one thing or another.

My abiding memory of it is how sodden it became down at the bottom end below the cricket pitch which meant that even when it  was busy that bit was always deserted.

[Meltman 311]

I've not commented on this topic but have been watching for ever and thought it was about time I added something.  We moved to Totley in the early '60's from the Arborthorne area of Sheffield. My dad died in 1960 so there was just me and mum at home, both my sisters were a lot older than me and had married and moved away. We lived in a prefab on the lower part of the Arborthorne, Madehurst Road, and it was one of the Aluminium clad type  as opposed to the Asbestos clad type. I had passed the 11 plus to go to Abbeydale Boys Grammar School which was a 2 bus (or tram) treck across town. I was often ill and with the help of a doctor it was suggested we transfer to Totley where the air was cleaner which would do me some good so in probably 1962  ish we moved to a ….prefab...… on Aldam Road. I was not a total stranger to Totley as part of my family came from the area, more later. Me and mum lived in the prefab until they were pulled down, it was a couple of doors down from the Drury's and I remember Dennis and Ray and their dad . Our prefab was the other side of a large hedge from posh houses , maybe Main Avenue but I'm not sure. The prefab below ours, a quiet lady I think, backed onto the fields. The access to ours was up a path from the road and there was a small "service road " with a grass "island separating it from Aldam Road proper, probably where Aldam Way is now. When i got my first car , a Hillman Imp, 1966/7 ish I parked it there. As I was a latecomer to Totley I didn't know many of my generation but I'm sue I must have bumped into many names on here.  The couple in the next prefab to us was Mr. and Mrs. Alliss, aunt and uncle (I think) to Peter Alliss, the golfer and commentator and they had contact with him occasionally. I met my girlfriend, later my wife, she lived in the houses just below Dore station, and we often went in Green Oak Park and played tennis. Before car I would come home on the last bus and walk down Green Oak Avenue in the dark. When it was announced that they were pulling the prefabs down we were told that we would be moving to a place at Bradway. but could come back when the houses were built! My mum was getting on a bit (she had me late in life)  and we didn't think two upheavals would be good for her. At the same time they had just about finished the one bedroom flats on green Oak Road so we "suggested" that she had one of those. I was about to get married so went to live with my sister and brother-in-law at Coal Aston for few months and mum moved into the flat. She was near John Billings (we know his daughter Gail) and friends with Mr. and Mrs. Clayton lower down green oak in a house. back to my family in Totley. My brother-in-law Albert Carnell was born in the church house on the corner of Grove Road and grew up in Totley. his dad was a very good gardener and worked for Lord Riverdale at his house in Grindleford which meant a cycle ride to work and back. They moved to a house on Aldam  Road, number 33 I think, when they retired., one of the blocks of four. I visited there often. After WW2 Albert went to work as a chemist in Balfour's steel works (owned by Lord Riverdale)  and they kept in contact. From Alberts army days he had been a mechanic and eventually helped restore and drive Lord Riverdale in his Sheffield Simplex car which is now in Kelham Island museum. Albert and my sister Olive first lived on the Basegreen estate at Gleedless before moving to Coal Aston. There last move in the area was back to Totley to a house on the then new  Totley Grange estate. From there they both retired to the east coast of Lincolnshire. That's all for now but I'm sure there will be more.....when I think about it.

Edited May 28, 2021 by Meltman

[Dreb48 35]

Thanks Meltman

Thats a really interesting read..

I guess the posh houses you could see at the bottom of your garden would have been the bottom end of Main Ave where it meets Rowan Tree Dell.  I can certainly remember the grass island where you would have parked your car.

Clive Bellamy, I mentioned previously, lived just further down Aldam Rd .

Apart from the Drurys I can’t recollect any of the names you mention .

I had a paper round for  Wesleys that took me all round every part of  the prefab estate and was certainly doing it when you moved in .

You mention family later moving onto Totley Grange after the new housing was built. I can well remember when my previous paper round took me there when it was an old , dark and spooky old mansion surrounded by trees . Bit scary on dark winter mornings 

Incidentally the only girl I can remember living in the houses past Dore Station was called Liz Firth . Obviously there must have been others 

Hope to hear more from you.

 

[Dreb48 35]

Hi everybody 

Just revisiting the thread I started in 2011.

 

I’ve recently been reconnected with Mick Lindley who went through County School at the same time as me.

Mick lived initially at the bottom of Aldam Rd before moving to the bottom of Rowan Tree Dell.

We have a lot of shared memories of those times and though we both knew alot of the  same old  schoolmates, he also knows loads of people I didn’t know and haven’t been mentioned in this thread.

So , please , if you remember Mick or myself and are capable of putting a few words together ,will you share your memories with us ?

With each year, there are less and less of us left to do that 

[cuttsie 1,089]

On 28/05/2021 at 19:39, Meltman said:

I've not commented on this topic but have been watching for ever and thought it was about time I added something.  We moved to Totley in the early '60's from the Arborthorne area of Sheffield. My dad died in 1960 so there was just me and mum at home, both my sisters were a lot older than me and had married and moved away. We lived in a prefab on the lower part of the Arborthorne, Madehurst Road, and it was one of the Aluminium clad type  as opposed to the Asbestos clad type. I had passed the 11 plus to go to Abbeydale Boys Grammar School which was a 2 bus (or tram) treck across town. I was often ill and with the help of a doctor it was suggested we transfer to Totley where the air was cleaner which would do me some good so in probably 1962  ish we moved to a ….prefab...… on Aldam Road. I was not a total stranger to Totley as part of my family came from the area, more later. Me and mum lived in the prefab until they were pulled down, it was a couple of doors down from the Drury's and I remember Dennis and Ray and their dad . Our prefab was the other side of a large hedge from posh houses , maybe Main Avenue but I'm not sure. The prefab below ours, a quiet lady I think, backed onto the fields. The access to ours was up a path from the road and there was a small "service road " with a grass "island separating it from Aldam Road proper, probably where Aldam Way is now. When i got my first car , a Hillman Imp, 1966/7 ish I parked it there. As I was a latecomer to Totley I didn't know many of my generation but I'm sue I must have bumped into many names on here.  The couple in the next prefab to us was Mr. and Mrs. Alliss, aunt and uncle (I think) to Peter Alliss, the golfer and commentator and they had contact with him occasionally. I met my girlfriend, later my wife, she lived in the houses just below Dore station, and we often went in Green Oak Park and played tennis. Before car I would come home on the last bus and walk down Green Oak Avenue in the dark. When it was announced that they were pulling the prefabs down we were told that we would be moving to a place at Bradway. but could come back when the houses were built! My mum was getting on a bit (she had me late in life)  and we didn't think two upheavals would be good for her. At the same time they had just about finished the one bedroom flats on green Oak Road so we "suggested" that she had one of those. I was about to get married so went to live with my sister and brother-in-law at Coal Aston for few months and mum moved into the flat. She was near John Billings (we know his daughter Gail) and friends with Mr. and Mrs. Clayton lower down green oak in a house. back to my family in Totley. My brother-in-law Albert Carnell was born in the church house on the corner of Grove Road and grew up in Totley. his dad was a very good gardener and worked for Lord Riverdale at his house in Grindleford which meant a cycle ride to work and back. They moved to a house on Aldam  Road, number 33 I think, when they retired., one of the blocks of four. I visited there often. After WW2 Albert went to work as a chemist in Balfour's steel works (owned by Lord Riverdale)  and they kept in contact. From Alberts army days he had been a mechanic and eventually helped restore and drive Lord Riverdale in his Sheffield Simplex car which is now in Kelham Island museum. Albert and my sister Olive first lived on the Basegreen estate at Gleedless before moving to Coal Aston. There last move in the area was back to Totley to a house on the then new  Totley Grange estate. From there they both retired to the east coast of Lincolnshire. That's all for now but I'm sure there will be more.....when I think about it.

Its smart to see proper stories about ordinary Sheffielders lives on these pages thank you .

[Meltman 311]

15 minutes ago, cuttsie said:

Its smart to see proper stories about ordinary Sheffielders lives on these pages thank you .

Many thanks cuttsie. 

[Dreb48 35]

2 hours ago, cuttsie said:

Its smart to see proper stories about ordinary Sheffielders lives on these pages thank you .

True cuttsie 

Written very much in a similar way to your stories that we all enjoy