The great Sheffield down Town pub run 1960-80ish

[gomgeg 10]

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

The joke in one club I went in in the late 60s was

'The second prize in tonight's raffle is 100 quid, the first prize is a week on the committee'.

But I'm sure you're right, the great majority were hard working and honest.

[Padders 2,850]

west street wobble was a good one as well, samsongs already took us on that one. Another challenge was the ,down cliff one..... basically you started at the greyhound, at the top of weedon street, the challenge being to head towards the wicker, and have half a pint in every pub.....i dont know how many pubs there was along that stretch of road, maybe 20ish, anybody know. i sometimes wonder how we kept in touch them days, there was always a crowd of lads on a friday night, no mobiles, and very few of us, if any, had a telephone... never did complete that challenge, 6pints was my limit. even then i"ve fallen through a few privit hedges on my way home.

[samssong 10]

Another club that I have been a member of is the Carlton club on Gleadless Road.

This club stands bang opposite the Heeley and Sheffield house and is an unremarkable building that has had the original old house added to by extensions to the concert room over the years.

Of all the clubs I have been a member of it is the least interesting although it has a faithful membership ,most of whom have used it for years.

 

To me it brings back memories of a time before the Gleadless Valley was built when as kids the woods and fields that surrounded it was our play ground .

These woods also incorporated a bomb crater left for us kids to sledge down courtesy of the Luftwaffe who decided to miss the Carlton and Heeley and Sheffield house and instead provide us kids in the late forty's and fifty's with many winters spent sledging down its slope.

 

A couple of the members I remember , Harry Saxton an old time bricklayer who's seat in the concert room was sacrament on a Saturday and Sunday night if Harry and his Mrs Joan weren't sat in em then World war three had started or his latest dog had just lost him the weeks wages at Owlerton .

 

Another was Roy Williams who emigrated to the Carlton when the Park and Arbourthorne closed its doors for yet another episode of going broke, either that or his belovered Magnet bitter was no longer on sale at the Park and Arbour .

Roy was a six foot six inch tall hod carrier who's early drinking days were spent in Fanny's 0n the corner of Suffolk Road and Leadmill Road and again Magnet was supped as though it was going out of fashion .

 

SORRY!!!! nearly committed a cardinal sin It was Dodgers not Fanny' , Fanny's is just around the corner and still standing (well it was the last time I looked).

Edited December 22, 2016 by samssong

[biker 10]

Another club that I have been a member of is the Carlton club on Gleadless Road.

This club stands bang opposite the Heeley and Sheffield house and is an unremarkable building that has had the original old house added to by extensions to the concert room over the years.

Of all the clubs I have been a member of it is the least interesting although it has a faithful membership ,most of whom have used it for years.

 

To me it brings back memories of a time before the Gleadless Valley was built when as kids the woods and fields that surrounded it was our play ground .

These woods also incorporated a bomb crater left for us kids to sledge down courtesy of the Luftwaffe who decided to miss the Carlton and Heeley and Sheffield house and instead provide us kids in the late forty's and fifty's with many winters spent sledging down its slope.

 

A couple of the members I remember , Harry Saxton an old time bricklayer who's seat in the concert room was sacrament on a Saturday and Sunday night if Harry and his Mrs Joan weren't sat in em then World war three had started or his latest dog had just lost him the weeks wages at Owlerton .

 

Another was Roy Williams who emigrated to the Carlton when the Park and Arbourthorne closed its doors for yet another episode of going broke, either that or his belovered Magnet bitter was no longer on sale at the Park and Arbour .

Roy was a six foot six inch tall hod carrier who's early drinking days were spent in Fanny's 0n the corner of Suffolk Road and Leadmill Road and again Magnet was supped as though it was going out of fashion .

 

SORRY!!!! nearly committed a cardinal sin It was Dodgers not Fanny' , Fanny's is just around the corner and still standing (well it was the last time I looked).

Was that the bomb crater near the farm down Gleadless Road opposite the quarry?

[stpetre 12]

west street wobble was a good one as well, samsongs already took us on that one. Another challenge was the ,down cliff one..... basically you started at the greyhound, at the top of weedon street, the challenge being to head towards the wicker, and have half a pint in every pub.....i dont know how many pubs there was along that stretch of road, maybe 20ish, anybody know. i sometimes wonder how we kept in touch them days, there was always a crowd of lads on a friday night, no mobiles, and very few of us, if any, had a telephone... never did complete that challenge, 6pints was my limit. even then i"ve fallen through a few privit hedges on my way home.

 

Padders, sorry if I appear pedantic but the pub at the end of Weedon Street at the tram sheds was the 'Commerical' (Ward's). Somewhere across the street was another pub at Lock House Lane (?) then the crawl began! I think the 'Greyhound' was next to Attercliffe baths. However an Attercliffe pub crawl even as far as Staniforth Road, must have been the most extensive in Sheffield. 'Hillsbro' once came up with a list of them from the 'Wicker Brewery' ('Hole in the Wall', Saville Street) to Weedon Street.

Edited December 22, 2016 by stpetre
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[samssong 10]

Was that the bomb crater near the farm down Gleadless Road opposite the quarry?

We walked through Myrtle Springs dragging sledges with home made runners pinched from Firth Browns or Brown Baileys by dads or older brothers.

 

We alighted the Springs at the Toll House dodging the owd lass who collected the apenny's to open the chain and let you through with your horse and cart or motor lorry.

 

We then crossed Gleadless Road and down a path into the woods , the crater was around a hundred yards down to the left of the path .

 

I think maisonettes stand on the spot now or near enough any way.

[biker 10]

We walked through Myrtle Springs dragging sledges with home made runners pinched from Firth Browns or Brown Baileys by dads or older brothers.

 

We alighted the Springs at the Toll House dodging the owd lass who collected the apenny's to open the chain and let you through with your horse and cart or motor lorry.

 

We then crossed Gleadless Road and down a path into the woods , the crater was around a hundred yards down to the left of the path .

 

I think maisonettes stand on the spot now or near enough any way.

 

That's the one that I remember.I also worked at Brown Bayleys from 1963 to 1970.Do you have any pictures?

[samssong 10]

So if we take the 95 bus from Town we arrive in Walkley .

To be a boozing expert in this suburb during the 60's through to the 80's was like finding heaven on South Road .

With out doubt the best pub was the Rose House run by a bloke called Bernard Frith and his gorgeous wife Pam .

 

Bernard was a song and dance man who was an expert player of the Tommy Talker .

He would hand out these musical instruments to all and sundry on any given night ,(most nights where packed out) Bernard would then start up with songs such as Hang out the washing on the sieg free line or my old mans a dustman and so on , the whole pub would join on their Tommy Talkers often marching from room to room and some times even across to the Freedom on the other side of South Road.

 

Bernard was always up to mischief while landlord at the Rose and he would think nowt about grabbing a customer by the tie and swiftly cutting it off just below the knot .

This some times got him threatened with a smack in the gob but it made no difference to Bernard who just pinned his latest capture up on a board behind the bar.

 

Another trick he did involved the old lasses who called in the Rose after Saturday shopping on South Road .

As the girls were gabbing away or at the lav Bernard decided to put a few maggots obtained from the pet shop across the road into their shopping bags bags that where full of grocery's and meat obtained from the South Road butcher Duggi .

 

The wrapped meat got the most maggots and the scene out side the butchers on that Saturday tea time had to witnessed to be believed .

 

Bernard was the main suspect as only those lasses that had been in the pub had the maggots in their bags. Duggi got the munk on and supped in the Freedom after that.

 

One very stormy night ,the rain was coming down in buckets and as usual the pub was packed when in walked a bloke in full diving gear ,wet suite ,snorkel , helmet , flippers the lot .

He walked up to the bar and ordered a pint of Stoneses through his misted up helmet while stating in a very tinny sounding way that it was a bit rough ont Bole Hills .

 

The pub went quite as he sat down int corner before removing his snorkel , it was Bernard at his best and he was reason why the pub got so packed every night .

 

After Bernard Jack and Mavis took over the pub and Jack was the very opposite to Bernard being a stickler for drinking up and closing time .

The Rose still did well as it had some real characters inc Ernest the Furnace (a great socialist and gentleman). Hathersage Tom( who originated from that village ) he rode a Yamaha and was to be seen a round Walkley riding that bike in all weathers with just a flat cap and goggles for protection .

 

Big Gilbert Hartley was another customer who was the strongest man I have ever met ,I remember one summer day when me and Tosh Wild (the Rose House fart lighter) was trying to lift a replacement engine into a Mini van engine bay , "Ger out of way " said Gilbert as he took the engine of us and lowered into place without breaking sweat .

 

The Freedom for another day.

Edited December 29, 2016 by samssong

[Slinny 278]

Hi my pubs in town were the Adelphi sycamore street red lion  holy street  west street hotel Norfolk arms nick name dodges that is where I learned to dress in a good suits l could be writing all night saying names who went in them I was a hod carrier and mostly I went in to see other building trade lads around the early 60s the only place you could a meal at night were lin hongs the gambit Hudson Chinese Norfolk street the rickshaw Chinese and you could sit down Mary jentles Howard street ship ship  and zing var the moor also you could get  fish and chips in the old nelson just of the moor. The three pubs had waiters at the week ends that I have put, but not dodges I could never wait to put on a good suit and go in those pubs  still see some of the lads who knocked about town   Great days 

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[mikeG 16]

I  often used the Museum as it was handy for the bus stop over the road. Numbers 54, 55 or 51 (as they were then). Haven't been in since 1962. Believe it looks a bit different now.