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Today's Doncaster in my opinion...


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Leeds is crap.. I went up there the other weekend and got lost trying to find my way back to the ruddt Train station to get back to Sheffield! I wouldn't have minded so much if every person I asked for directions hadn't said "oh I'm sorry I don't actually live here so I can't help you", eh?! Does anyone actually LIVE in Leeds or is it just a Town where people work and all the big Businesses have their UK Head Offices?! In the end I had to phone me Dad to come all the way up to Leeds from Sheffield to fetch me :rant:

 

Let me get this right, you asked your dad to come and fetch you from Leeds because you couldn't find the train station?! :confused: Leeds has plenty of shops with plenty of Leeds people working in them, why didn't you ask someone in a shop?! Plus there are posts in the city centre that show the way to the train station!! One more question, was your dad daft enough to come and pick you up?! Tackling the one way loop when your from Leeds is bad enough without asking someone from outside of Leeds to come into the centre!

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is almost unrecognisable. Wife and I went last Saturday, and being the shopoholic she is, my wife thought she was in paradise.

Putting prejudices aside I have to say Sheffield has one serious rival for top town/city centre shopping in South Yorks. I think if you take out-of-town shopping (i.e. Meadowhall and Lakeside Village) out of the equasion there's not much to choose between the two. Sheffield is by far the prettier of the two, but then very few towns compare to Sheffield in that respect. I was also told that there's going to be a huge project starting next year to convert the south side of Doncaster town centre into a cultural and civic quarter given it even more shops and bars?

 

There's a lot of work going on in Barnsley at the moment, but even so I think there's a massive gap forming between Sheffield/Doncaster and Rotherham/Barnsley.

 

Did you actually go in to the centre of Donny or just go to Lakeside? I'm a Donny lad originally but Sheffield city centre is 20 years ahead of Donny. The cultural and civic quarter idea is just the elected mayor talking out of his posterior.

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Donny has the Minster, one of the most beautiful buildings in all of Yorkshire, dominating the view from the station.

 

 

It isn't a "proper" Minster like York, Beverley or Southwell - it's just the Parish Church given a posh name by a mayor with delusions.

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Did you actually go in to the centre of Donny or just go to Lakeside? I'm a Donny lad originally but Sheffield city centre is 20 years ahead of Donny. The cultural and civic quarter idea is just the elected mayor talking out of his posterior.

 

 

agreed. doncaster can look so ugly when agaisnt sheff.

 

but beauty is only skin deep, i still love doncaster, and besides, we got a sucessful airport now.

 

just shame some prat couldn't just call it Doncaster Internation Airport.

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Take Sheffield out of the airport name is a stupid idea (in my opinion) but unlike other areas of the country the towns near Sheffield just consistently knock it. This is strange because a prosperous Sheffield would have a knock on effect to these towns.

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Ah, Doncaster....

In the late 70's I used to do some volunteer work with the BTCV who were based on Copley Road. Further along the road, there was a butcher's who used to do roast beef sarnies, The beef was cut from a joint of topside, using a knife - great thick slabs of well-done beef with crisp edges, stuffed into a buttered (no marg!) flatcake the size of a teaplate. They were about 45p and I once bought two, but couldn't eat them both, they were that big. It'll be a corner shop run by Pakistanis now.

We used to go to a great pub called the Miner's Arms in town too. Is that still there? Sold real ale, which was a rarity in 1977. :thumbsup:

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Leeds is crap.. I went up there the other weekend and got lost trying to find my way back to the ruddt Train station to get back to Sheffield! I wouldn't have minded so much if every person I asked for directions hadn't said "oh I'm sorry I don't actually live here so I can't help you", eh?! Does anyone actually LIVE in Leeds or is it just a Town where people work and all the big Businesses have their UK Head Offices?! In the end I had to phone me Dad to come all the way up to Leeds from Sheffield to fetch me :rant:

 

It's not rocket science luv. No harder than finding Sheff station if you're not familiar with the place. I'm from Leeds. Leeds is a nice town. Similar to Sheff in some ways, although a bit prettier (for the time being).;)

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^^The Leed's I've seen definately isn't Prettier than Sheffield, but then again, I only went from the uni to the Morrisons, in the process passing the 60's buildings of Leeds Met, and a Dual Carriageway underpass (and the morrisons building is a big concrete monster). I'm sure once you get past these it's much nicer.

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Did you actually go in to the centre of Donny or just go to Lakeside? I'm a Donny lad originally but Sheffield city centre is 20 years ahead of Donny. The cultural and civic quarter idea is just the elected mayor talking out of his posterior.

 

You really think Sheffield is 20 years ahead of Doncaster. Are you sure you're not living 20 years in the past. From what I saw Doncaster is very much the modern town. I really have to agree about some of the buildings looking ugly, but you get that in most towns and cities. With regards to the cultural and civic quarter, I made enquires today and was put through to a Doncaster Blue Building. I was told categorically the development is to take place. Added to this there's also a huge Waterfront development taking place, although I'm not too sure where this is.

 

I am Sheffield born and bred, but I do feel like I have an infinity with Doncaster. In the late 60's - and 70's I used to go to Doncaster with my mum once a month on a Saturday. There used to be a coach firm in Sheffield who ran weekly trips to Doncaster market. Anyhow, I used to love pigging myself out on cockles etc in the fish market, Cornish pasties in the meat market. Browsing the toy stalls etc. I always saw Doncaster in a positive light. But then I took my own kids in the 1990s. I told them about the fish market etc beforehand, but when I got there I had never seen a place deteriorate as much in my life. The place was truly awful. It was dirty, unwelcoming, and lots of shops were closed. What I saw the other day in Doncaster was another huge transformation, this time for the better. There are top quality shops in the Frenchgate Centre, which I believe is two thirds the size of Meadowhall...that's no mean size for a town centre. The market was busy again, and there is a huge Primark there. I'm glad Doncaster has pulled its finger out.

I was chatting to an elderly guy in one of the market pubs about Doncaster, and he didn't seemed to be surprised by its change. What he did say was that its an enigma why Doncaster is not a thriving city, and contributed this to past visionless, corrupt, and complacent leaders of the town. Doncaster should have benefited from excellent road, rail, and waterways, but it never did. One of the biggest attractions in York is the National Railway Museum. In Newmarket, it's the National Horse Racing Museum, and in Wakefield it's the National Coal Mining Museum. Doncaster could have, and should have laid claim to all of these. Arguably the greatest locomotives were built at Doncaster. The first classic horse race was ran at Doncaster.

Sheffield is a great city, and it's a great city because in the past its had energy, confidence, and foresight. If Sheffield had the benefits of what Doncaster has had Sheffield would be way ahead of Leeds in 2006. Doncaster has been a lazy man happy to plod on and watch the world progress. I think only now its realised what it has missed out on and trying to catch up. It's way behind Sheffield in commerce and education, but I do think Sheffield has at last got a worthy partner to promote the region of South Yorkshire. For the past 15 years Sheffield has tried to compete against the likes of Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire on its own. Hopefully within the next 10 years South Yorkshire can readdress the balance.

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