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Bridge Street Bus Station


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Guest horlicks

we all remember the hut in Bridge Streetwith the vending machine in one section and the inspector and staff in the other section.when Bridge closed my friend Mr Basil Curbishley asked if he could buy the hut He was givenpermissionto take the hut down but it had to be removed in same day.He and I took it to pieces and borrowed a truck of Group 4 and took it to his house where it was erected in his garden what a job it was certainly well made and heavy

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Guest Chapeltowner

I remember well the old bus station on Bridge Street.I used to catch the 80 to High Green,if i missed that it would be a 91 or 98 to Greengate Lane and short walk to The Fosters.

If i was visiting my Gran i could catch the 79 to Colley Crescent,or walk to Pond Street and catch one of the buses that ran down Barnsley Road and walk up from the end of Colley Road.

Does anybody have any photos of the service 80 in Bridge Street please???,i noticed plenty of pics from the location,but non show the old 80 bus.

It would really make my day if somebody had a link for me.

Cheers,Craig.

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Guest Chapeltowner

when I lived off wordsworth ave in the very early eighties, one of the buses that used to go along Wordsworth avenue was the 79, which I used to catch from Bridge Street. so it may very well have been that route number you used.

Could it be the 49? it ran up Wordworth as far as Chauser,but was then extended as far as Monteney Road.My Grandad used it and always jumped off the back door as it went round the corner,saved him walking the extra 30 yards.lol

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I remembered something about the old Bridge Street bus station in the late 1950's that might give you a smile. One day after work, I was going with a friend to his house at Grenoside for tea. At that time, the Grenoside buses had a funny schedule. There was one bus at something like 5:40 pm and the the next bus was 6:15 pm. Obviously, everybody made for the earlier bus as nobody wanted to be hanging around Bridge Street for half an hour. Of course there was always the last minute Charlies who came rushing down Snig Hill. Sometimes they were so later that the bus had already left the terminus, made the turn that brought it up to the Snig Hill/West Bar junction and was waiting for the policeman on point duty (no traffic lights then ) to wave him through. All the buses then were rear loaders so it was easy to hop-on, even when it was sitting in the middle of the road. My friend and I had made the early bus and were sitting on the back seat upstairs talking to the other passengers. On a bus like the Grenoside route, everybody knew everbody else and apparently the regular evening topic was always the same. Which of these habitual later comers was going to cut it so fine that the bus was about to pull out on to West Bar. On that particular night, the bus was already out of the station, had made the turn and was waiting for the policeman to wave us out on to West Bar. It was then that one of the other exclaimed: "God !! look at him run". Down Snig Hill came this lad in his late teens moving like the wind. I have never seen any body move that fast other than on a running track. He made it on the back platform with a crash and was running so fast, his momentum carried him right up stairs. It was a that precise moment the police man waved us on, our driver let out the clutch and the bus lurched forward. Our young friend was now totally off balance and to save himself, he made a grab for what he thought was one of the vertical steel tubes that all buses had. But what he grabbed wasn't a regular tube. It was a billiard cue in a case belonging to the man sitting in the row infront of us. The kid snatched the cue case out of th man's hand and still being completely off balance, ended up running down the top deck before tripping and sticking the end of the cue case thorought a window that just happened to be open. Needless to say, the bus was in uproar and first the conductor and then the driver came up to find out what all the noise was about. Then the policeman arrived to find out why the bus had stopped and was blocking the road. They all had a good laugh and the good news was the cue was not damaged. Regards

I did something similar one night when running for a bus on Holme Lane, Hillsborough. I was on my way to night school and came flying out of a side road to see the bus pulling away from the stop just around the corner. I made a dive for the rear loader platform and grabbed the rail that ran up the outside of the stairs.

At this point the driver stood on the brakes and the attache case in my left hand continued down towards the saloon at the speed the bus had just been doing.

Not wanting to let go of the heavy case or the handrail my arms were nearly pulled out of their sockets until with a loud bang the pop rivets securing the hand rail brackets came out and the handrail was left flapping, secured only at the top.

I scurried upstairs and fully expected to have my name and address taken but the conductress merely shook her head at me.

I did however have to cringe as the handrail went bang bang all the way to town.

I don't run for buses anymore, I can't get my walking sticks to go fast enough.

HD

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It was a few yards shorter for me to intercept the bus going up Birley Spa Lane between stops, rather than going right round the shops to the bus stop.

This was an easy job every morning, as the fully loaded bus would be going quite slowly. I did it regularly. Waited at home 'till the last second, dashed across the field, and intercepted the bus somewhere between stops.

The inevitable happened one day when they put an Atlantian on. I can still see the smirks of the people waiting at the bus stop just up the road.

Half-houred at work because of it as well.

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Guest withitowl

I happen to know what happend to the hut when it came to the end of it's working days. An Inspector with a H.G.V license and a certain cash van driver dismantled it. It was removed from the site by the 'Group 4' van that stacked in Leadmill Bus Garage. This was done on a Sunday morning and the powers that be at the time knew about it.

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Another bus related story I remember concerns another trip to night school when I was sat upstairs at the front of the bus. We began following a Sheffield Public Works Department waggon towing a large compressor trailer.

Presently a stream of sparks began to issue from under the compressor. As the lorry went around the corner I could see that the parking stay under the tow-bar had been left in contact with the ground. It didn't have a jockey wheel (or if it had it had already fallen off), The sparks were coming from the friction of the stay on the road surface.

The sparks began to get worse and the stay could be seen to be glowing red hot and was making a black stripe down the road.

The bus driver began to sound his horn and flash his lights but the only response from the lorry driver was a two finger salute out of his window.

After a while the lorry had to stop at some lights and when he tried to set off again there was a loud bang and bits of the tow bar shot across the road.

It seems that the white hot stay had sunk deeply into the road and anchored the trailer firmly to the ground.

I could hear the bus driver laughing from my seat upstairs.

HD

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In the late 50`s I live in one of the two houses next to the two shops at the end of Bridge Street There was a bombed site opposite. I remember my mom having to tell the bus drivers that parked out side our house because we lost all our light. Years later I drove busses from the garage that was behind West Bar. We mainly did the cross city run. I even remember the first Atlanteen that I drove from Hillsborough.

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Do you remember if the "bomb site" is where the Civil Defence did their training. I went on a course there in (probably) the mid 60's and all I can remember is going into their HQ somewhere at the end of Bridge Street and the simulated disaster areas were out the back. It was a small area of partially collapsed buildings, rubble, a bit of roadway etc.

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We should never forget what an important role the Civil Defence volunteers played in the dark days of the cold war. That prefab building in Bridge Street was where all of them....and just about every Sheffield bobby of the time..did their training with individual dosimeters and other radiation detectors. The threat of a nuclear war was very real and I recall one police sergeant who was taking one of the regular Tuesday afternoon lectures saying that if the awful day ever dawned he would bake his family a cake of all the pills he could find rather than have them face the horror of The A Bomb. Humble little Bridge Street was quite an important feature in the Sheffield of the late Fifties and early Sixties. But really "Civil Defence" was a sick joke. If it had ever happened none of us would have stood a chance of survival.

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Some of you may enjoy this.

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Who remembers Bridge St then?

One former driver said he hated going into to Bridge St with jumbos as they didnt have power steering.

I worked routes with Jumbos but did not find the ones without power steering to be too bad, they had a nice big steering wheel. I remember one with power steering that was so light you could just spin the wheel with one finger. The heaviest steering I remember was a Fleetline on the Prince of Wales circular with a full standing load, coming out of The Square I needed to stand up to pull it round. I do remember the first time I conducted on a Jumbo, when I went upstairs the back end looked a long way away.

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Yes i remember many a time waiting in the wind and rain with my mother for 47 or 48 bus to turn up to take us back home to Shiregreen.

The preferred bus was the 48 as we lived a stones throw away, just off Sicey Avenue, but in desperation we could jump on the 47 but would have to walk from Bellhouse road!!

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Yes i remember many a time waiting in the wind and rain with my mother for 47 or 48 bus to turn up to take us back home to Shiregreen.

The preferred bus was the 48 as we lived a stones throw away, just off Sicey Avenue, but in desperation we could jump on the 47 but would have to walk from Bellhouse road!!

Must have lived close to me, we would get off at Rollistone Road

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Yes, very close indeed!

I grew up on Nesfield way, just off Rollestone Road! :)

I was just round the corner on Fairthorn Road, our garden backed onto the ones on Nesfield. I knew a lot of people who lived on there

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Guest Malcolm Bruce Smith

You have to be joking, it was just big enough to house a desk-cum-table and a rack with the timetables. A telephone and in a separate partition round the back, a coffee machine. As one of the inspectors using it I hated it as I was surrounded by cig smoke so bad it could be cut with a knife. Of course it wouldn't be allowed today.

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Here is a July 1970 view  of the Bus Terminus to remind you of how busy it could be plus a Fletcher's Bread Van.

2014-06-07_9a.jpg

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On 19/11/2008 at 17:25, Gramps said:

 

 

 

Nice to see pics of buses in the old livery and especially the old back loader. Often used to wonder what went on in the inspectors hut - did they have a kitchen in there ;-)

In the 50s I think they parked a single decker there as a tea Room for the staff. Gray's motor bike showroom was just below it at that time.

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On 15/09/2009 at 08:17, vox said:

 

 

For a short while in the 60's I had occasion to go to Grenoside Village.

I don't remember the bus number but I think I got it at Bridge Street.

It was a 79 to Chapeltown or a 91 to Ecclesfield. Both went via Grenoside.

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i remember the smell of the brewery at bridge st bus station. the 47 and 48 were they the 150 and 151 before that or am i mistaken.

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Yes, the brewery smell was lovely. As a kid I always liked jumping off the back of the bus before it stopped - very exciting. You could do this on the AECs that used to run to Bridge Street from Grenoside in the 50s.

Another interesting feature of the journey was passing Hillsborough and all the tool and steel works on Penistone Road: Osborn's, Andrews Toledo and Presto. One of the first Toyota dealers in Sheffield was on a bomb site near West Bar.

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i remember if we missed the last whistle for the 47 or 48 bus we would run along the road passed the rolling mills and catch the bus at the bottom of corporation street. if we missed it there ( depending on shoes worn ) we would walk up to greasy vera's and grab a taxi. happy days.

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On 06/03/2017 at 19:32, mammybear said:

i remember the smell of the brewery at bridge st bus station. the 47 and 48 were they the 150 and 151 before that or am i mistaken.

You are right. Before being renumbered in 1973 or 1974 (can't remember exactly when) the 47 and 48 were numbered  150 and 151.

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I remember the buses to Shiregreen being the 150 which ran up Bellhouse Rd from Firth Park, round the estate and then down Sicey Avenue to Firth Park and the 151 which went around the estate in the opposite direction. They met in the heartlands of the estate at a place with a clock where they either rushed off if they were late or waited till they were scheduled to leave. Many a poor passenger would see one waiting but as he/she reached the backloader they would hear the bell ringing and it was off!

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