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Anyone from Gleadless?

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The view from our maisonette was from the tip, (which was well-Screened with trees) across the wood, and the back field (with the "Bean") with Newfield school and the golf course. It looked pretty darn rural to a three/ four year old's eyes.

 

(and psssst:- When my grandparents moved onto Gaunt Close in 1957 ish, when they were newly built, the land between Gaunt Close and the lees hall (?) wood where the maisonettes were built, on Gaunt Rd was a farmer's field. My dad watched the farmer harvest the crop from it, just before going into the army, in the September, of 57, and when he came out of the army in 1959/60, the maisonettes had ben constructed.)

 

The feel of the Valley, back then was certainly not "urban", even if it was not entirely rural.

 

PT's correct. I lived in Heeley/Meersbrook and we used to walk up to the farm where the GP's surgery is now built (top of Gleadless Road) until the late 50's, it was all fields and like another world to us. In the late 50's they started to build the Gleadless Valley estate so it was all closed off from that point.

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I've got some very good maps of the "old" Gleadless Vallley. Blackstock Road was only a hunded-or-so yardslong. It started at the water tower, and barely made it past Constable Road School.

 

When my father and Grandparents moved in in 57,there were no shops,(Gaunt and Newfield Green shops had not been built, and a Van would come on to the estate a mobile Shop... then before the Gaunt shops were built, there as a little hut that served for a shop for a time.)

 

My father game off fawcett Street, which was almost city centre, he was used to having everything, pubs, cinemas, shops, and transport all on the doorstep. It was something of a "Culture Shock" to him to be livig in the back of beyond. Even the transport only came as far a the Water Tower, back then, so if you lived lower down, on the Gaunt amd Ironside section, of the Valley, you had a fair old hike to get home.

 

Even if the flat-rooved properties that proliferated across the valley were not entirely suitable for our British climate, the valley was a lovely place to live, very picturesque. the design was in keeping with, and sympathetic to the ancient woodlands that were there. It was beautiful all year roud. Glorious in summer, stark in winter, verdant in spring, and the colours in Autumn were fabulous. The views from our top floor maisonette were amazing.

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Gleadless Valley Community Forum produces a quarterly magazine which is delivered to all Gleadless Valley residents and other businesses, partners, etc in surrounding areas. If you would like to get involved in with the magazine and perhaps write a regular column in the magazine, then please do contact us on 0114 239 4466. Your stories and knowledge of the past may be of interest to the community of now. There may be other ways also to use your knowledge, may be with local groups.

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Would John's mobile shop be the same one that ended up being parked most of the day in the pull-in between the Wyvern and Far Lees pubs ?

The guy who owned that one used to live at the top of Hurlfield Hill and the darned thing used to struggle to get up there.

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Would John's mobile shop be the same one that ended up being parked most of the day in the pull-in between the Wyvern and Far Lees pubs ?

The guy who owned that one used to live at the top of Hurlfield Hill and the darned thing used to struggle to get up there.

 

No the one I mean lived a beighton

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i have just been offered a house on blackstock drive can anyone tell me what its like on there

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It's probably the best part of Gleadless to live in My Parents have lived there since 1959 (I spent most of my Childhood there) and have never had any problems with Neighbours apart from a few petty rows over the years ,most of the houses are Privately owned now on Blackstock Drive so there is a sense of community spirit & pride I would recommend it to anybody ..

i have just been offered a house on blackstock drive can anyone tell me what its like on there

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The Residents of Blackstock Drive prefer to refer to it as "Hemsworth" sounds a bit posher then Gleadless which it is a part of !! lol:)

It's probably the best part of Gleadless to live in My Parents have lived there since 1959 (I spent most of my Childhood there) and have never had any problems with Neighbours apart from a few petty rows over the years ,most of the houses are Privately owned now on Blackstock Drive so there is a sense of community spirit & pride I would recommend it to anybody ..

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Yeah he used to sell us Single Fags & a match when we were kid's lol :)

Do'es any one remember Johns mobile shop a converted single decker bus that used to go all around Gleadless on Sun mornings in 60s

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I Remember the lot of you right set of nutters !! our Pat used to knockabout with Edwina and our Theresa used to knockabout with Sylvia & Julie was a Tom Boy "The Dowling's"

julie jubb is my older sister, dont u remember sylvia and edwina then?

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back to topic of anyone from gleadless.....its such a pity that some of the folk who live there now, dont even put curtains up (blankets they use) or wash their front doors down or the like, remember when was young, all the neighbours used to be out at the weekends, washing the windows and doors and front paths. remember wanting to be the one who washed the front path. also remember getting 10p for sweets if we picked up the rubbish of the grass. simpler days back then.

 

playing rounders and hide and seek. all the kids together having a good time. the laughing all the time till your belly ached so much. seems a million years ago. we were so very lucky back then. we were even able to walk up to herdings park thro the woods. without adults, even play in the woods down by the stream with out adults to supervise.

 

summer was brilliant, always hot and always out playing. nowadays on gleadless valley, sun out, kids out in filthy clothes, parents out getting drunk on cheap cans from co-op and music so loud yoiu can hear it at Meersbrook! now not saying all like that, lot of the people on gleadless and i mean a lot, are the most decent folk you can come across. its just the few bad apples that are ruining it. but still happy days way back when. happy days that were the best we ever had.

Edited by sares67

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I lived on Raeburn Road in the early 1960s. I used to catch the bus opposite Norton aerodrome and remember one morning during the great gale of 1962 a bloke running for the bus. He could not stop and carried on across the road and finished up crashing into the fence.

Have some very fond memories of the area.

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