Firth Browns Sports & Social Club, Roe Lane.. 1960 's

[francypants 446]

I remember going to Roe Lane on Saturday nights and it was a fabulous place, enjoyed by young and old alike.

[gregconn 10]

I agree with you, I worked at Firth Brown's straight from school at the age of 16 and remember often a crowd of us from the Research Lab on Princess St. going up to Roe Lane after work, we were playing either inter departmental football or cricket. I seem to remember that the grounds and all facilities were superb......Gregconn

[fleetwood 10]

Are they the grounds that they called Atlas & Norfolk?

[gregconn 10]

I must admit we always refered to it as Roe Lane, but "Atlas & Norfolk" did certainly have a referance to Firth Brown's and the sports field could have been refered to as that.

[lazyec 10]

Gregconn - I worked at the same research labs around 1963 - I was in the small furnace area where we made experimental ingots.

An old guy called Mac was in charge.

 

I played football for Firth Browns from 16 yrs. old and, yes, it was referred to as "Atlas and Norfolk".

The facilities were the best in Sheffield at the time.

[gregconn 10]

Hi Lazyec, I worked in the Pyro Lab, from 1959 to 1964, some of the names I can remember are:

Mr Wright, manager, Eric Scorah, assistant manager, Gordon Hansen - Foreman, George stevenson, Nick DiNitto, John Butler, Daryl Booker, Dan Race, Gordon Matthews.

Any of these names ring bells?

[francypants 446]

Can't remember what year it was ( sometime during the 60's ) I went with my uncle (Clarrie Whittaker who used to work at Firth Browns ) to a couple of football matches. He was the man who used to run onto the pitch with his little brown wooden box containing smelling salts, water, sponges, bandages etc. if a player got hurt. He's still alive and kicking but not as fast nowadays as he's 86 years old now. Anybody out there remember him ??

My fondest recollections of Roe Lane though are of the Saturday nights spent with family, relations and friends at the social club. It always had a different atmosphere to the usual working men's clubs. They didn't have turns on, the emphasis was on dancing. There was a large dance floor and bar and resident organist and drummer for old type dancing and taped pop music. There was also a games room with dart board etc. and a full sized billiard / snooker table.There was always a queue for the one armed bandit ( there was only

one ! maybe something to do with gambling rules at that time ? ) There was something for every one and a good time was had by all.