Totley in the 50s and 60s

[Dreb48 35]

Hi Bellers. You're the only person to reply that fits in with the criteria for the thread I started ages ago!

Of course I remember us being in the same class at TCS. I remember you living down on Aldam whilst we lived on Green Oak Ave.

Can remember your dad clear as day. A proper 'parky' with a proper uniform. I did mention him on another thread about Heatherfield flats.

We didn't leave our prefab till 1965/6 which was just after I left school. I have a fund of stories about prefab life that I often bore friends with.

It was a great place to live then and it's quite heartbreaking to see how it's changed.

Please post any other interesting stuff you can think of and maybe some other new members might be tempted to join this thread

 

---------- Post added 09-03-2013 at 14:58 ----------

 

Hi again Bellers. Just some more stuff after reading your post again.

Had no idea about the rehousing problem you suffered. I don't even remember anybody moving out while we lived there. I can recall the best options being offered were Frazer or Batemoor.

Can't picture your mum, though I know I would have known her, especially working at the shops you name. Don't remember you having a sister either.

Where did you go after Totley County? Somethings saying Abbeydale Grammar but obviously I may be wrong.

Didn't Janet Fletcher live near you? I remember all the J4 boys thinking she was nice.

I think I've got a form picture of Pop Roberts class with the names on the back but I've no idea where. Am sure you started at the same time as me in Miss Grandage's class.

It all seems a lifetime ago. Which,of course, it is

[Bellers 10]

Hi again Dreb. I also have the form picture from Totley County with the names on the back. I put it on Friends Reunited along with all the names - and then it lost them all! I've just been looking for it again, but it must have gone down a black hole.

Yes I went on to Abbeydale Boys' Grammar as you rightly recall, and also started in Miss Grandage's class. I was never in Miss White's class as I missed nearly a year due to illness. Didn't you go to King Ted's?

I remember Janet Fletcher but can't remember where she lived. I've been trying to remember the names of other people who lived in the prefabs nearby. John Laughton and his sisters Barbara and Pat. Susan and Jennifer Kibble, Brian Johnson (went to King Ted's), Ian Morris and his younger sister Kay. Michael Oliver lived across the road.

My sister (and her twin brother) are almost 9 years younger than I which is probably why you don't remember them.

We were extremely lucky in that our prefab backed onto the fields and woods - what a fantastic place to spend ones childhood!

 

---------- Post added 09-03-2013 at 16:19 ----------

 

Hi Dreb. I found the photograph of J4 in 1959 with the names on the back. It is currently posted on Friends Reunited. Starting top row left to right:

 

'Pop' Roberts, Roger Morgan, Margaret Brook, Elizabeth Barnard, Elizabeth Bradbury, Janet Tew (lived in the prefabs), Julia Powell, Marilyn Brown, John Adams, Adrian Holden

 

John Davies, Paul Cox, David Cockayne, Stephen Wragg, Peter Kippax, Helen Kirkby, Dorothy Bearcroft, Marian Handley, Elaine Russell, Vivien Ely, Ann Singleton

 

Moira Maguire, Janet Fletcher, Sally Williams, Jennifer Crookes (prefab), Susan Proudlock, Maureen Dover, Phillip Widdowson, Peter Prowse, Adrian Spring (Ping), John Angus

 

David Diggins, Clive Bellamy, John Morrison, Nicholas Gibb, Paul Hibberd, David Lilleyman, Peter Warburton, Michael Lindley

 

Where are they now?

 

I also have a photograph of Miss Grandage's class - 1953. I can't remember names from that long ago and don't remember most of the faces either!

[Dreb48 35]

Hi Bellers. Just remembered it was Janet Crookes who I thought lived near you not Janet Fletcher.

Strangely enough they're the two photos I'm sure I've got and I think I've got one of Miss Willoughbys class.

Ping contributed to this thread a while ago and of course everyone talking of Totley in that period mentions his mums shop.

I did indeed go to King Teds. I went with Pete Warburton who was my best mate for all my subsequent school life.

Brian Johnsons dad, Reg, was a good friend to my family and was invaluable to me when he died suddenly in 69

I'd forgotten that Michael Oliver lived across from you. I can see the faces of virtually all of the names you list from J4 in my mind.

We seemed to spend most summers in the woods behind your house and most winters round the aqueduct at the end of Totley Brook collecting wood for bonfires. Happy carefree days.

[Bellers 10]

Hi Dreb. I don't remember a Janet Crookes, but Jennifer Crookes lived next door to me after Ian Morris and family moved away. She only came to Cowsheds in J4 and she is one of the very few people I've been in touch with since we left. She has a younger sister Judith and the family moved to Preston after living on Laverdene for a while.

[Dreb48 35]

Hi Clive. That's it , Jennifer Crookes. I've started doing what my grandma did. Right first name, wrong surname or vice versa. Old age eh?

I remember she came in the last year at TCS. Had a friend called Cookie who was really keen on her. He was a bit older though

[Bellers 10]

She went out with 'Puddle' for a long time - real name Malcolm Lake - who was guitarist with The Sinners (previously The Saint and The Sinners). He was really keen on Blues music - you know the really basic raw stuff. Didn't Cookie live in one of the prefabs that faced onto Baslow Road near the Main Avenue bus stop - or am I thinking of someone else? As you say, memory is fallible and gets worse by the day. But I can remember some of this better than I remember yesterday!

[Dreb48 35]

Cookie lived in the bungalows on Baslow Rd before the Main Ave bus stop. His family had stalls in the market and were quite well off. Don't think they were happy with him hanging out with prefab boys. There was still that stigma in those days. He was a bit of a pretty boy and though alot of the guys didn't like him the girls certainly did. He also had a bass guitar that he'd lend me occasionally. I still have the vision of me walking up to Dore on a hot Summers day with it slung over my shoulder thinking I was so cool

[ping 11]

Dreb & Bellers

 

Janet Fletcher lived on Dobcroft Rd., had a crush on her at one time but it was quite a trek from Totley.

I used to hang around with Cookie quite a bit; we spent a couple of weeks on the Broads with Brian Hitchcock, Dougie (forget his other name) and Stuart Hobson - you'll know him Bellers, from Abbeydale.

 

Just to set the record straight, my Gran owned the shop on Totley Rise.

[Dreb48 35]

Hi Ping. Nice to know you're still around.

Sorry about the shop thing. I do remember now it was your gran's.

Did Cookie go to Abbeydale as well?

[ping 11]

Yes, he went to Abbeydale in the year above us. He spent some time in the Navy after school and eventually ended up buying himself out.

 

Remembered Dougie's name now - Cookson.

[Bellers 10]

Hi Dreb. I clearly remember Brian Johnson's dad Reg. After Brian's mum died (she must have been very young) Reg went to live with her sister - Brain always called her aunt Gwen. I presume they married. I have an abiding memory of Reg being very fond of bread and dripping. I don't think we knew about saturated fats in those days

 

---------- Post added 10-03-2013 at 12:10 ----------

 

Prefab memories: It could be very cold in winter in the days before anyone had central heating. The central hall had a roof vent which whistled like mad when it was windy. Each of the two bedrooms had a wall vent. One winter it was snowing a blizzard and the wind was howling. I went into my parents bedroom and there was a small pile of snow on the eiderdown that had blown in through the vent!

 

---------- Post added 10-03-2013 at 12:12 ----------

 

Totley County School J4 class 1959. This link takes you to a photograph on Friends Reunited

http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/j4-1959/Memory/12a7e255-f33e-4fb9-bfa3-064c5736aed1

[Dreb48 35]

Hi Bellers. Yes, Reg and Gwen were married. They lived on Main Ave and Reg was sub postmaster at Firth Park. He'd also been at Abbey Lane a few years before we moved there in 66.

Oddly enough I took over Brian's paper round at Westleys delivering round the prefabs.

Thanks for the link to Friends Reunited. All those fresh faced kids with their lives ahead of them.

Unfortunately I found the staff photo and saw Miss Clarebrugh. OMG as they say.

Felt sick just seeing her face again