Parkwood springs

[mick dallamo 10]

My wife lived on Wallace Road when she was born in the mid 60s & left sometime in the 70s ... name Lack, dad worked on the railway.

 

hi peter , its great to hear from you, i often think about the good times we had up parkwood springs , you must have been living in germany for some years now , i remember you went to live in spain that was many years ago . forgot to say its dorothy, delia is fine and will be chuffed when i tell her we have got in touch x

 

Hi Dorothy, it really is great finding you again I hope that you are well,please give my love to Delia too.I have lived here in Germany now since 1979 !!! after my excursion in Spain.I think about Parkwood Springs all the time,it really was great.I was up there again with my brother John when I last came over in November of last year. Give me a mail at [email protected] if you wish and we can keep in touch. XXX Peter

Hello peter its mick dallamore please reply if you get this

[old tup 30]

Was the people who owned the sweet shop Barns . I think they had a son who was at Hillfoot with us .

There was another grocery shop across from Balms on the street corner opposite the Vinegar firm!.It had a big bacon slicer in the window,I believe the grocer sliced off one of his digits a finger or thumb!.That was the story I don,t know if it was true,you know what kids are telling tall tales for effect!.

 

---------- Post added 01-07-2015 at 10:49 ----------

 

Going towards town from the Farfield pub if my memory serves me right was a paper shop,after that on the next corner a green grocer!.Over the road another shop where we bought Highland toffee bars and real liquorice sticks that looked like twigs!.We sucked and chewed them until they where shredded,as we got older he sold us Woodbines one at a time depending how much cash we could scrape up!.Imagine what would happen to a shopkeeper doing that today!.

[retep 68]

There was another grocery shop across from Balms on the street corner opposite the Vinegar firm!.It had a big bacon slicer in the window,I believe the grocer sliced off one of his digits a finger or thumb!.That was the story I don,t know if it was true,you know what kids are telling tall tales for effect!.

 

---------- Post added 01-07-2015 at 10:49 ----------

 

Going towards town from the Farfield pub if my memory serves me right was a paper shop,after that on the next corner a green grocer!.Over the road another shop where we bought Highland toffee bars and real liquorice sticks that looked like twigs!.We sucked and chewed them until they where shredded,as we got older he sold us Woodbines one at a time depending how much cash we could scrape up!.Imagine what would happen to a shopkeeper doing that today!.

 

Hyde's was the one with the bacon slicer, and the one with buns in the window.

Drabble's would have been the paper shop, Kenworthy's greengrocer, Croft's(later Dowse) grocer, and Wilcox shopkeeper.

[cuttsie 1,091]

After leaving the area 25 years ago I today decided to come up for air and visit the Parkwood springs.

Loaded the lurchers and set of hoping to park at the top of Douglas Road and wonder around the old hunting ground as I once knew it.

The first big shock arrived as I drove up Bardwell hoping to Park at the top !!!!! an impossibility it turns out as someone has placed massive boulders across the road stopping all access to the area that was the Ski village.

 

So I turned around hoping to be able to drive up Wallace and Pickering Road only to be faced by a gigantic steel fence.

 

So no entry on what I thought were public roads ,[is it legal to just shut of roads in this way]?.

 

 

Next stop was Parkwood Road thinking that I can climb the 99 or is it a hundred steps that cross over the railway line bringing me to the very top on Mount Road.

Shock again ,the old Parkwood has vanished into a jungle that is almost impassable and to make matters even more complicated this jungle is inhabited by natives living in shacks and old caravans.

 

Any way I scrambled through this waste land that in no way represented the grassed parkland of twenty-five years ago only to find the desolate sight of the Ski village and as it happened the only place that I could let the dogs run free.

 

This new Parkwood scene got me thinking have we lost an important area where we could picnic and dog walk on a fine summers day OR! Has the fact that the area has returned to nature a positive step ,should the area [and its new natives] be left in piece to slowly bring back the wild life and fauna that was there perhaps 200 years ago.

On reflection I like that idea.

Edited July 5, 2015 by cuttsie

[muntjac 10]

After leaving the area 25 years ago I today decided to come up for air and visit the Parkwood springs.

Loaded the lurchers and set of hoping to park at the top of Douglas Road and wonder around the old hunting ground as I once knew it.

The first big shock arrived as I drove up Bardwell hoping to Park at the top !!!!! an impossibility it turns out as someone has placed massive boulders across the road stopping all access to the area that was the Ski village.

 

So I turned around hoping to be able to drive up Wallace and Pickering Road only to be faced by a gigantic steel fence.

 

So no entry on what I thought were public roads ,[is it legal to just shut of roads in this way]?.

 

 

Next stop was Parkwood Road thinking that I can climb the 99 or is it a hundred steps that cross over the railway line bringing me to the very top on Mount Road.

Shock again ,the old Parkwood has vanished into a jungle that is almost impassable and to make matters even more complicated this jungle is inhabited by natives living in shacks and old caravans.

 

Any way I scrambled through this waste land that in no way represented the grassed parkland of twenty-five years ago only to find the desolate sight of the Ski village and as it happened the only place that I could let the dogs run free.

 

This new Parkwood scene got me thinking have we lost a important area where we could picnic and dog walk on a fine summers day OR! Has the fact that the area has returned to nature a positive step ,should the area [and its new natives] be left in piece to slowly bring back the wild life and fauna that was there perhaps 200 years ago.

On reflection I like that idea.

 

Hi Cuttsie-must know you- I was a Wallace Road resident from 1949-1972 and I did a similar thing to you about 12 months ago. What I wanted to find was everything as it was in about 1960-my mates playing footie in the street-old Mrs Plumb opening her door and giving a right rollicking when the ball crashed against her wall-my old man washing his car ( one of the first in the street)-the old fella ( can't remember his name) who took about an hour to zig zag up Wallace from the Parkwood Hotel well and truly sozzled. My mates teasing Molly Moody and scrapping with Barry Walker (rest his soul).

Things do change but the memories linger on and if the area did get back to how it was 200 years ago I wonder if after another 150 years there'd be a little community of good people spring up.

[cuttsie 1,091]

Hi Cuttsie-must know you- I was a Wallace Road resident from 1949-1972 and I did a similar thing to you about 12 months ago. What I wanted to find was everything as it was in about 1960-my mates playing footie in the street-old Mrs Plumb opening her door and giving a right rollicking when the ball crashed against her wall-my old man washing his car ( one of the first in the street)-the old fella ( can't remember his name) who took about an hour to zig zag up Wallace from the Parkwood Hotel well and truly sozzled. My mates teasing Molly Moody and scrapping with Barry Walker (rest his soul).

Things do change but the memories linger on and if the area did get back to how it was 200 years ago I wonder if after another 150 years there'd be a little community of good people spring up.

I never lived on Parkwood but worked on Neepsend Lane and I adopted Parkwood as my favourite Sheffield area for many years, I used it for dog walking, boozing and manking in no particular order.

My pals Phil and Dave White as well as Retep [on the forum] lived up there and the stories they tell about the Indian Village fascinate me.

 

The fact that George Orwell also lived up there at one time makes it a special place .

 

Who ever decided to pull those smashing Victorian terraces down should be shot at the stake as a traitor to Sheffield history.

[old tup 30]

As a schoolboy I spent a lot of time in and around Parkwood Springs with pals from school who lived up there!.I always wondered why they used to call the st eep hill where the Ski Village was eventualy built" the wood",as there wasn,t a single tree anywhere to be seen!.One of my pals Dave White told me that in the depression the locals cut down all the trees for fuel,this sounds plausible to me I wonder if this is what happened or is there another explanation?.Can any forum members shed a little light on my conundrum?,Retep maybe!.

[cherry t 10]

Think i read on here about the area and the road leading up to the village, only read about it cos i used to take to them hills on my crosser lol

[retep 68]

As a schoolboy I spent a lot of time in and around Parkwood Springs with pals from school who lived up there!.I always wondered why they used to call the st eep hill where the Ski Village was eventualy built" the wood",as there wasn,t a single tree anywhere to be seen!.One of my pals Dave White told me that in the depression the locals cut down all the trees for fuel,this sounds plausible to me I wonder if this is what happened or is there another explanation?.Can any forum members shed a little light on my conundrum?,Retep maybe!.

 

 

On fire in 1864, and probably finished off in 1874 as a wood, with another fire, the remnants scrub, probably polished off in the depression.

[old tup 30]

Another area similar was "Scotsman Hill "on the top side of the railway line at Wardsend Cemetery,not a tree in sight all my younger years!.Move on to nowadays the last time I saw it there are trees growing everywhere,even on the railway cutting to the Five Arches and up Herries Road on the right hand side going up!.Nature fighting back!.

[hillsbro 32]

This 1880s map shows "Old Park Wood" a bit further north, and of course "Woodside" suggests that there was a wood there (Cook Wood, that had mostly gone by the 1870s). Not many trees left now!..I have a pamphlet of 1842 with a somewhat lyrical description of the Old Park Wood - see here.

Edited December 31, 2015 by hillsbro

[retep 68]

From "The Tour Of The Don"

"The third and last of those fine masses of wood, which so luxuriantly mantle the hills, and sweep down to the- very margin of the Don in its progress from Wortley to Sheffield, is the Old Park, comprehending, as the appellation may be allowed to do for the present purpose, the scarcely separated Cook Wood. In general aspect, this sylvan ornament of the neighbourhood of Sheffield, resembles Beeley Wood; the ground, however, which it covers is of a more undulating character, and at one point it rises to an elevation conspicuous to a great distance. The prospect of the circumjacent country, as commanded from the highest point of the wood—a point easily attainable by pursuing the path from the Lodge near the Rolling Mill—is one of the finest which it is almost possible to conceive. Shame on the indifference of the hundreds of intelligent and, it may be, prospect-loving individuals who have never given themselves the trouble to walk from Sheffield to the top of Old Park Wood, to look upon such a scene."

 

The lodge mentioned was Old Park Lodge another bit of Sheffield history gone.