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Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/05/22 in all areas

  1. I was doing a lot of local history research in the Local Studies. It was a time when you could handle the documents more and there were less rules about. Photocopying machines were getting better each year and you could copy loads of stuff. The early computers started up too. With the Amstrad Green screen and word processing software. Meanwhile Sheffield Council was fighting with the government for every penny it had to spend. Mrs T really had it in for Sheffield.
    2 points
  2. As I recounted elsewhere on this thread, I actually worked there for several years...when it was still, quite, new..and I thought it a fabulous place....a far cry from the then common, dingy, civic offices ...often just parts of Town Halls where all that could be done, particularly at high volume times, ( ie Saturday mornings), was to ‘tip’ parties out of the door and onto the street to make way for the next marriage party. ‘ So really, this startlingly innovative, so-called ‘wedding cake’ building ...carved out of a relatively private part of Surrey Place was a dramatic breath of fresh air for the Registration Service and its staff who had to operate the place ...and more importantly, were some, only to realise it....for the public, who sooner or later paid (still pay) at least one visit in connection with affairs connected with the three critical stages of the human state, birth, marriage and death. As a one time ‘insider’ and so, for the sake of modesty /inappropriate impartiality, exclude myself in the comment ....I truly believe the Staff there, generally, delivered an excellent service.....it must be said, aided by the well thought - out facility, itself. To condemn the building and it’s grounds as merely some ‘processing plant for people’ is to unfairly, and contrarily, dismiss it ...as I’ve said previously, much more went on there than just people marrying; some business, consequent upon the bringing of new life into the World, equally if not even more, joyful than ( arguably) the main function associated with those places, some, however,.... very grave and often distressing to public and staff alike...as they say, you probably ‘had to have been there’. In my view, the ( only ) problem with civil marriage was (still is ?) the public demand/ fashion(?) to solemnise them on Saturdays ....almost inevitably leading to a ‘production line’ aspect ( wherever they took place) and as I’ve suggested, rather than exacerbating that, ‘ The Wedding cake’ was designed and thus, able to cope with volume without turning events into ‘a circus’. To be perfectly honest, if asked, those of us involved, strongly and enthusiastically, advised on weekday ceremonies as things were invariably much more relaxed, ‘ both sides of the counter with well-spaced appointments, aplenty. ( I well recall a very small but engaging ceremony held on a weekday.. arranged between a French Diplomat and his wife - to-be from The South Seas...strikingly colourful, the parties in Hawaiian shirts and flower leis....I believe that we, those of us officiating, enjoyed the event as much as the parties! Celebrities? I’m sure I’ve forgotten many more ....but as a great fan of the show, one sticks in my mind particularly when several of the cast of TVs ‘Rising Damp’ sitcom turned up in the party...the late, great, Leonard Rossiter and stately, Frances de la Tour, most memorably...certainly made that working day for me! The ROs less lighthearted work left me with some sober but sometimes absolutely fascinating stories about peoples’ lives but their details will just have to accompany me to the grave, in respect for the families concerned...not to say professional constraints. However, I’ll finish with one memory of parents who chose to name their child after the ENTIRE team of a well known football club! Ok, it was mum and dad’s choice at the time and I suppose, at least relevant in the early/ mid 70s.....but what as the years went by...the many ‘handles’ bestowed on them, surely became something of a burden to those kids? I’ve often wondered! As contributors and readers to SH will gather , I remain an unswerving fan of the smashing, thoughtfully put together building...which many Sheffield people of all ages will have memories of. Please be kind to the ‘ young girl’ who never really ‘got to lift her skirts’ before her own ‘disrespectful and untimely death’. Requiescat in Pace...
    1 point
  3. This is my favourite Fargate picture from Picture Sheffield. That's my idea of a great city centre though I expect many "modern thinking" people would disagree. https://picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?action=printdetails&keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s00257&prevUrl=
    1 point
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