Things that you just don't see now!

[peterw 10]

GREYBEARD. You’re quite right. The trams were all glazed in before the war started. Actually, I’m very fortunate in that my memory takes me back to days before I was able to walk. I think it might have something to do with the fact that we didn’t have television, and althouGh radio had been invented wo didn’t have it because we were too poor. Other things caught my attention, and when my late mother was alive I was able to tell her exactly what our living room looked like when I was just beginning to climb to my feet but still unable to walk? I think I’m quite lucky in that respect. And the fact that we walked almost everywhere also gave me the opportunity to remember what I’d seen; things like those lovely scale model ships that used to grace Thomas W. Ward’s large windows, and the old fire station with its Dennis fire appliances with solid tyres, and rows of brass and silver helmets that the firemen used to wear on parade. God, I could go on for ever. I even remember the old Albert Hall in Barker’s Pool before it was destroyed by fire! The fire station was only a stone’s throw away, but they couldn’t save it!

[pitsmoorboy 17]

Tin bath's on the wall, dogs chasing cars and motor bikes, naughty schoolboys getting the cane, Toasting forks (some memories there, happy hours spent on the rug in front of the coal fire burning the toast) jumping on the backs of lorries crawling up "Champs Hill" (Brunswick Rd.) Going to the "Colly" (Colliseum cinema) with 3d and comming home with change. Going to the scrap yard on Upper Allen St. with £1.10s, and building a push bike.

[Falls 10]

Talking about trams and buses, I'm sure you remember their nice cream colour with the horizontal blue stripes. Well, can you remember when some of them were "Green"?

 

Sometime in the 1950s, a bright-spark in the Town Hall decided that painting them cream cost too much money and green was cheaper. A dozen or so trams were painted in various shades of green to gauge public reaction.

 

They got public reaction all right. I can't quote you the exact words because they are rude.

 

One other recollection was the time Sheffield Transport borrowed a bus from Blackpool and tested it on several routes. These were double deck with the stairs and doors in the middle. I rode to school on it one day when it was on the Shiregreen route.

 

These buses were a little higher than the regular Sheffield buses and this caused a problem. One of its first runs on the old Inner Circular route, it became stuck under the railway bridge at Rutland Road. They had to let out some of the air from the tyres to get it free.

[peterw 10]

I remember the green buses too Falls. It was public reaction that got them changed back again — and kept off advertisements! I’ve a little story to tell about the Blackpool bus on the Shiregreen route. When the last bus left at 10pm I used to wait for it — can’t remember the name of the street junction — until it slowed down, then I’d jump on the back. But Blackpool’s bus didn’t have a back platform to jump on and I landed flat on my face and had to walk home!

[chuffinel 10]

I remember a few busses being painted a crappy dark green colour for a while (late 50s or early 60s perhaps ?) Like the colour of puke from Linda Blair as seen in the "Exorcist" Didn't seem to last too long though. Green painted busses, that is.

[Greybeard 10]

Coming home from school on Mondays in the winter and washing drying everywhere - fires in both rooms with a loaded clothes horse in front of them and always cold meat, bubble and squeak with pickles for tea

 

Staying with trams I remember all the empty trams lined up on Wolseley road and Shoreham street on Saturday afternoons when United were at home ready for the final whistle

 

And does anyone remember steam-driven lorries ? - I think they were brewer's drays. I used to see one quite often while waiting for the bus to school on Queens road - 1950/51 it would have been.

[saxon51 10]

Kids waiting patiently - up to half an hour - for a car to come along and run over that dog turd they'd just thrown onto the road. Yes, that was me.

[docmel 10]

 

And does anyone remember steam-driven lorries ? - I think they were brewer's drays. I used to see one quite often while waiting for the bus to school on Queens road - 1950/51 it would have been.

 

My grandad was a driver for Ind Coopes the brewers and he had a steam lorry.

 

I remember one day eh told me the lorry went out of control at the bottom of Rutland Rd and he had to run the thing into a wall under the railway brdge.

 

It was not long after that they stopped the steam wagons as there was in influx of ex military lorries flooding the commercial market and haulagiers etc baough those as they were more convinient, cheaper and safer.

[flyer 10]

Maybe Im wrong but Greybeard sounds like bit of a young'un,, a mere slip of a lad,Iwas born Doncaster 1934 moved 1yr later to Sheffield.I can still remember the trip.

[pitsmoorboy 17]

Comming home from school with nit's, scrounging or nickin an old pram so we could build a trolley, Getting the poker red hot to bore a hole for the steering (didn't have an electric drill in those days) Playing marbles on the bomb sites. Going down to the Wembley play ground on Oborne St. (think thats how you spell it). The flying plank, never see that these days.

[shoeshine 10]

Rolling Wooden Hoops down the road, making it turn with sticks. The kid with a used car tyre, rolling it with his hand... he was the "king" of the street.

Whips and Tops....."Window Breakers" were employed at great risk to neighbour's houses.

Ice Cream Vendors with a "Cool Box" at the front of a tricycle.

Large heaps of coal on the road/pavement in front the Miner's houses.

Privet hedging everywhere.

A policemen on his beat, seemingly everywhere, with kids posting a lookout for him whilst playing on the street.

A very long trip by bus/tram from Rotherham to Sheffield to Victoria Hall for my first piano exam (1949ish) and the bomb damaged buildings everwhere.

The 1947 Winter, riding with a load of older kids on a Curved Anderson Shelter Top down a steep slope in deep snow.

Hiding in Privet Hedges in the dark, and jumping out at passers-by whilst wearing a frightening Rubber Mask on Halloween.

School Christmas Parties, taking food prepared by Mum, A large Jelly in the best glass dish ("Don't forget to to bring the Dish home!).. Butterfly Cakes and a large Jam Sponge Cake (" Make sure you only eat the food I've made" ..from Mum).

The Old Rotherham Baths on Main Street, Changing Cubicles all around the Pool for School Swimming Lessons.....The cockroaches in there, the smell of overkill from the Chlorine), the water horribly warm.

As someone mentioned earlier, purple painted kids with impetigo.

One child with a leatherette aviator helmet, oh how I envied him!

Home knitted Balaclava Helmets and scarves.

"Toad of Toad Hall" at the Regent Theatre, Rotherham one Christmas (1950ish)...each child leaving with a Present.

Going to see my cousin, I think at Victoria Hall, Sheffield, when she was entered into the Sheffield Star's Gloops Queen Contest, and her disappointment at not getting through the particular stage of selection.

I could go on and on.......a really brilliant Topic....thanks for the memories it has brought back.

By the way I am a wartime baby, 64 years old now.

[Pipine 10]

This is a brilliant thread! It's so great to hear what Sheffield used to be like.

 

I often wish I had a time machine so I could go back to spend a day in Sheffield in each of the decades I've missed (only arrived here in 1995!) back to the turn of the century.

 

I'd love to see what meersbrook was like when my house was built (1898 ) to see who first lived in it and what the area looked like when it was new. I bet everywhere was relatively quiet in those days... less cars around.

 

I'd be really interested to go back to see how people coped during the war. Although it was obviously a really awful time for everyone, people seemed to pull together so much which must have been great.. we don't really have that much community spirit anymore.