The great Sheffield down Town pub run 1960-80ish

[katerina 10]

What a great and funny thread. Didn't go to any of the pubs much but remember them. Keep it coming. Happy days.

[samssong 10]

Walkley Working Mans club Providence Road Walkley .

 

It rolls of the tongue like an old friend dun't it.

 

I moved to Walkley in 1965 settling in Hoole Street ,the nearest pubs were the Royal on Walkley Street run by Jack and Nancy Eyre , the Freedom on South Road run By big Allan ?? and the Rose House also on South Road run by Jack and Mavis ?.

More on these pubs later .

 

So I joined the Walkley club within about two days of moving to the area and what a club it was (is?)

As in other areas the club always had good turns at the weekend and I remember standing room only when Bobby Knutt or the The Turnstile were booked on a week end.

 

Knutty as he is affectionately known in Sheffield was a master at the one liner and any one who dared to leave their seat and walk across his vision while he was on stage was in for the put down such as " tha could have gone to bog five minutes since and saved us all the bleeedin smell"and so on.

 

The Turn stile where a group that had appeared on a T.V programme going the rounds at that time (maybe new faces ) and I believe they actually won it but could be wrong on that.

 

The lead singer of the Turnstile was a lass called Anita and up to this day she is still the finest live act singer I have ever seen .

 

Another act was Bitter Suite a group who did Queen numbers and dressed even more flamboyantly than the originals.

 

Jimmy James and the Vagabonds also appeared after being on Top of the Pops, a night I remember as we sat at the same table with the group who's lead guitarist Chris Garfield lived next door to us with his wife Jane .

 

The Walkley club at that time had a very motley crew as committee men with a lot of nudge nudge wink wink deals going on in around the club.

One prominent committee man who I had worked with at various times whispered in my ear one Friday and asked me if I wanted to win the bingo , I asked "how can I do that " and is reply was on the lines of "as soon as tha only needs two or three numbers shout house and I will check thi card and put in two or three numbers that have already gone "

Bingo thas won , I told him to pith off and from that day on never played another game of Bingo any where .

 

Apart from that the Walkley was a good club with a village type gathering and as far as I know is still going strong although many of the members from that time will now be playing bingo in another land.

[Padders 2,833]

walkley club 1963. the first establishment in sheffield to have a stripper perform..

of course i was there, packed out it was, sunday dinner... on she came and slowly began to strip i could"nt believe my eyes, remember this was 60odd years ago..when she had removed the last garment, she had to stand still till the curtains closed. best sunday dinner i ever had i can tell you.

[samssong 10]

walkley club 1963. the first establishment in sheffield to have a stripper perform..

of course i was there, packed out it was, sunday dinner... on she came and slowly began to strip i could"nt believe my eyes, remember this was 60odd years ago..when she had removed the last garment, she had to stand still till the curtains closed. best sunday dinner i ever had i can tell you.

 

Two years before I moved there Padders .

Some members I remember Jim and Keith Rose, Sam Ruddiforth , Tosh Wild, Jack Damms, Hathersage Tom. Mick Colley, Taggy, Barry and Carl Hutchinson, Gilbert Hartley , Tony Brookfield, Bernard Frith, Ken Sawyer, and a cast of thousands although I can't say who was on the front row:hihi:

[old tup 30]

I used to frequent the Walkley Club at the same time as Padders ,Sunday dinners the favourite of course!.Jack Danks I knew as well as Barry and Carl Hutchinson,Carl was a good friend,he worked with Allan "Robin" Crapper property dodging, at the time we met Sunday dinners in the Bath Hotel Burgoyne Road before nipping over to see the stripper!.Sadly both are no more Robin died suddenly in his sleep in Tenerife,Carl from cancer which he told none of us about so that was a shock!.Carl used to knock off Georgina from the Hurricanes,my present wife and I were good friends with them,some of their arguments were epic!.One bank holiday at Blackpool Georgina nearly got run down by a tram on the front dashing across the road to swipe Carl with her handbag in the middle of a bust up,never a dull moment with those two!.She gave up a good career move to be with him,she had some contract on the continent but broke it to be with him,they still split up later down the line,she had a terrific voice sad really!.

[Padders 2,833]

yasser arafat, adolph hitler. gaddafi, saddam hussein, mussolini, tony blair. and wait for it.......THE COMMITTEE MAN........

 

every members dream and ambition was to get elected on to the committee, this gave you untold power and privilege, you wore a little badge on your lapel, this informed any stranger visiting the club that you were a committee man, and not to be messed with.

 

should you have a confrontation with a committee man, you did so at your peril, if you consumed a bit to much firewater, and told a committee man to bugger of, you were immediately put on a charge and summoned to the next committee meeting..

 

when you attended the meeting you were ordered to explain your actions.. you would then be interrogated by different committee men. bit like the spanish inquisition...

 

you then had to do the customary grovelling and apologising, you were then dismissed to await your fate, which usually meant you being barred for 1 2 3 or 6 months, depending on how good your grovelling was.

if the crime was serious like talking during the tombola, you could get sine die, which meant you were barred indefinetly.

 

no you certainly did"nt cross a committee man in those days, not if you valued your club book.

[samssong 10]

I used to frequent the Walkley Club at the same time as Padders ,Sunday dinners the favourite of course!.Jack Danks I knew as well as Barry and Carl Hutchinson,Carl was a good friend,he worked with Allan "Robin" Crapper property dodging, at the time we met Sunday dinners in the Bath Hotel Burgoyne Road before nipping over to see the stripper!.Sadly both are no more Robin died suddenly in his sleep in Tenerife,Carl from cancer which he told none of us about so that was a shock!.Carl used to knock off Georgina from the Hurricanes,my present wife and I were good friends with them,some of their arguments were epic!.One bank holiday at Blackpool Georgina nearly got run down by a tram on the front dashing across the road to swipe Carl with her handbag in the middle of a bust up,never a dull moment with those two!.She gave up a good career move to be with him,she had some contract on the continent but broke it to be with him,they still split up later down the line,she had a terrific voice sad really!.

I know (knew) all that mob tup , as you say Georgina was a magnificent singer.

 

---------- Post added 18-12-2016 at 15:07 ----------

 

yasser arafat, adolph hitler. gaddafi, saddam hussein, mussolini, tony blair. and wait for it.......THE COMMITTEE MAN........

 

every members dream and ambition was to get elected on to the committee, this gave you untold power and privilege, you wore a little badge on your lapel, this informed any stranger visiting the club that you were a committee man, and not to be messed with.

 

should you have a confrontation with a committee man, you did so at your peril, if you consumed a bit to much firewater, and told a committee man to bugger of, you were immediately put on a charge and summoned to the next committee meeting..

 

when you attended the meeting you were ordered to explain your actions.. you would then be interrogated by different committee men. bit like the spanish inquisition...

 

you then had to do the customary grovelling and apologising, you were then dismissed to await your fate, which usually meant you being barred for 1 2 3 or 6 months, depending on how good your grovelling was.

if the crime was serious like talking during the tombola, you could get sine die, which meant you were barred indefinetly.

 

no you certainly did"nt cross a committee man in those days, not if you valued your club book.

The finest announcement I have ever heard from the gob of a committee man occurred in the Midhill club one Saturday night .

 

"If the person who has left **** on the gents toilet seat dunt go and clean it off now the bingo will not start".

Its still there:hihi:

Edited December 18, 2016 by samssong

[TORONTONY 10]

yasser arafat, adolph hitler. gaddafi, saddam hussein, mussolini, tony blair. and wait for it.......THE COMMITTEE MAN........

 

every members dream and ambition was to get elected on to the committee, this gave you untold power and privilege, you wore a little badge on your lapel, this informed any stranger visiting the club that you were a committee man, and not to be messed with.

 

should you have a confrontation with a committee man, you did so at your peril, if you consumed a bit to much firewater, and told a committee man to bugger of, you were immediately put on a charge and summoned to the next committee meeting..

 

when you attended the meeting you were ordered to explain your actions.. you would then be interrogated by different committee men. bit like the spanish inquisition...

 

you then had to do the customary grovelling and apologising, you were then dismissed to await your fate, which usually meant you being barred for 1 2 3 or 6 months, depending on how good your grovelling was.[/b]

if the crime was serious like talking during the tombola,

[

no you certainly didn't cross a committee man in those days, not if you valued your club book.

 

Lol at the tombola line:D

[stpetre 12]

yasser arafat, adolph hitler. gaddafi, saddam hussein, mussolini, tony blair. and wait for it.......THE COMMITTEE MAN........

 

every members dream and ambition was to get elected on to the committee, this gave you untold power and privilege, you wore a little badge on your lapel, this informed any stranger visiting the club that you were a committee man, and not to be messed with.

 

should you have a confrontation with a committee man, you did so at your peril, if you consumed a bit to much firewater, and told a committee man to bugger of, you were immediately put on a charge and summoned to the next committee meeting..

 

when you attended the meeting you were ordered to explain your actions.. you would then be interrogated by different committee men. bit like the spanish inquisition...

 

you then had to do the customary grovelling and apologising, you were then dismissed to await your fate, which usually meant you being barred for 1 2 3 or 6 months, depending on how good your grovelling was.[/b] if the crime was serious like talking during the tombola,

 

Lol at the tombola line:D

 

Yes Mr. T. I recall in the '60s that a lot of WMC's retitled that game of chance to 'Tombola', leaving the term 'Bingo' to places like converted picture houses. What was your local WMC (or,if any favourite club ?).

[fuddyduddy4 11]

Yes most of clubs concert secretaries were hard working and honest but you got the odd scammer who disgraced the title.The scam goes like this:- The artistes are on a fee of £28 the concert secretary comes in the dressing room at the end of the night to pay the act he presents a receipt book to sign for a fee of £45 saying if we sign there's an extra £5 for us so we are presented with £33.That means the secretary can pocket £12 for himself.This happened to us more than once

[LLAN 10]

Working Mens Clubs. Not street cred for teenagers in the sixties, any rooad might have bumpt into our old fella.

 

Though i did go to the next best thing with my Farther in Law. His favourite pub was The Earl Of Arundel on Queens Road.

We`d go down on a Saturday Night for a sing along, the entertainment provided by an organist and drummer and any one who wanted to sing.

Some folk took it very serious, one old chap would turn up dressed in Al Jolson gear, two women did Andrew Sisters songs, The organist would give them the big build up. "For your entertainment tonight" by bus direct from the Woodseats Palace, we have the "Arston Sisters" the fat Arston and the thin Arston.(don`t think they`d get away with that today) a towd lad in a stetson did High Noon!

Singers who didn`t come up to scratch "would be played out" the organist would speed up the music.

Oh well back to the future with a can of Stones and feet up in front of the telly.

[TORONTONY 10]

 

Yes Mr. T. I recall in the '60s that a lot of WMC's retitled that game of chance to 'Tombola', leaving the term 'Bingo' to places like converted picture houses. What was your local WMC (or,if any favourite club ?).

 

I wasn't laughing at the term tombola but at the fact of how Padders described the seriousness of talking during a game. It was close to home as I got tossed out of Brinsworth WMC for persistently making fun of the numbers caller and giggling, of course I was blotto at the time and just moved on to my local pub. I was never a member of a club, but occasionally got signed in by a member.

My in laws used Woodseats and Smithywood and we would occasionally go out with them. I was never a fan anyway, preferred pubs.