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Archives and Local Studies staff had an extremely successful day at the auction of the Tim Hale Photographic Collection yesterday. Thanks to generous public donations together with support from the Graves Trust we saved over 2,000 cards for Picture Sheffield. We secured a fantastic range of subjects including street scenes, sport, hospitals, pubs, transport, temperance, industry, Sheffield greetings cards, local elections, advertising, early aviation, World War I, schools and theatres, and many more. We’ll be sorting through the photographs over the coming weeks - watch out for them on www.picturesheffield.com. We’ll also be arranging a display in the Central Library later in the year. Thanks again for all your support! Peter Evans Archives and Heritage Manager

A huge thank you to everyone who donated to our emergency appeal to raise funds to save as much of the Tim Hale Photographic Collection as we can for Picture Sheffield. The response to the appeal has been amazing, raising several thousand pounds in just a matter of days. We hope to buy at least some of the collection at the auction and make it available for everyone to see on Picture Sheffield. Thank you once again. Peter Evans Archives and Local Studies Manager

I think I've identified the mysterious railings and platform. I think that they are at the front/rear of the building to the immediate top of the garden area and directly across from the telephone call box on the bus station. If you study the 1950's map carefully there seems to be a small area that faces onto Pond Street. I'm afraid my editing capabilities aren't up to placing an arrow on a copy of the map. Sorry about the "wild goose chase" hilldweller

I think you are right there, but if that is the case I can't work out what that other landing with the railings is. I seem to remember the steps being almost opposite the 71 stand when the new bus station was built. There was a zebra crossing at one time and when you crossed it you had to go a bit to the left for the steps. The area changed so many times and so quickly it's hard to remember but is this the steps and landing on this photo' ? http://picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s15872&pos=44&action=zoom&id=18623

Hi Syrup Thank you for the news article clipping. It's very tantalising close apart from one minor detail the name in the article states G Lyon not J Lyon. However, the date and stables are spot on which leads me to believe Joseph Lyon worked at Sheffield Tramway Company. Joseph (27) married Emma(22) in 1869, the two witnesses are George (53) & Ann Lyon (55). His father is named Thomas so judging by the age gap George is probably Joseph's uncle. They come from a farming background in Lincolnshire so working together with horses makes sense. In 1883 George would have been aged 67 hence the article (oldest servant) makes it more probable that it was presented to George rather than Joseph, who was only 41 at that time. Joseph died (unknown) not long after aged just 44 and was buried at Heeley Christ Church on 2nd Jan 1887. So another connection to the article (he is now going to Heeley). I can only assume that the inscriber perhaps made an unlikely error with the initial on the trophy? I can't find a record of George & Ann having children hence the trophy must have been passed down to one of Joseph's two sons. I did find a very interesting post on this site on the STC and will make contact to see if any employee records still survive and hopefully will provide the proof that George & Joseph did work together. https://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/topic/154-sheffield-trams/ Again thanks for the clipping. John O.

Hi John I have found this article that may help your quest a little. Sheffield Daily Telegraph 12 April 1883

From a different angle.. http://www.picturesheffield.com/y01295

Here is the bridge concealed behind the trees in the above photo.

This is the approximate 'now' shot today.

Good luck with it, I look forward to seeing it, I really like then and now images, many areas of Sheffield have changed so much and so many times.

If it's not for profit and you credit Google I think you are OK but check here for the full terms. ---- https://www.google.com/permissions/geoguidelines/

It certainly has changed, even in my time, I had a look on Google Street View but couldn’t recognise much other than St. Mary's. I will be very interested to see the modern photo's. Have you seen Patrick Dickinson "Walking Through the River Porter Culverts" on YouTube, I haven't time to look at it again at the moment but he must have gone through that one.

BBC News - Postcards showing Sheffield's history to be sold at auction https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-49609097

As you were ! I've had a re-thunk and think that the landing shown is much closer to Flat Street. The relative position of the bus station doesn't make sense. I think that the stairway is located at the far end of the gardens where the advertising hoardings are located. I've found a much earlier photo which, I think the, shows the bottom part of the steps. It shows the cleared area to the north to be the site of Court 16 which I think became the garden.

I screen shot a picture I found of it ages ago. Not sure if ok to post though, as it's a google screenshot

One of the photos, extracted from the document.

I have acquitted this mystery item , made around 1906 , the Ferrule is hallmarked by the Yates brothers, not in any catalogues , any ideas ?

I recall walking up and down them many times in the fifties and they certainly had a dog - leg in them halfway down (or up). The corporation had used surplus "wavy tin" sheeting left over from Anderson Shelters, The sections that form the bits on each side of the entrance door, to make fences/walls on each side of the path, These were erected with the angled edges facing upwards presenting a sharp saw-tooth appearance to the fence top. I recall seeing a photo somewhere, probably on Picture Sheffield.

Thanks. I'll check it out. Cheers, Wazzie Worrall

Hi Syrup, Thanks for those wonderful press clippings. Is it a trade secret how you managed to access them? Cheers, Wazzie Worrall

Ivory with a silver collar

Thanks Syrup, I had not seen seen that obituary, I only had a much shorter one from the Telegraph. I'll add it to my collection. I must have spent weeks in total in the Foresters in the '70s and 80s, as it was on the West Street/Division Street pub crawl route, and at that time was a Whitbread house (my Dad was unimpresssed, Whitbreads was "throwing up ale"). The Foresters was often a meeting up place for us for journeys to other towns. Once, running late, I got to the bar and ordered a pint, only to remember when it was handed over, that we were actually meeting in the Howard Hotel, nearer the station - so a pint quickly down the throat and a sprint across Sheffield.

I am trying to solve/research the history of a trophy “Presented by the Workmen & Friends of STC to J Lyon April 10th 1883”. J Lyon would be Joseph Lyon(s) originally from Waddington in Lincolnshire. Married to Emma (nee Staples) also from Lincolnshire. The trophy has been passed down the family through generations however, the story behind what it was presented for has long been lost/forgotten. On the1881 census Joseph’s occupation is recorded as Stable Labourer. He and his family are living at 19 Mill Lane, Attercliffe Cum Darnell , Sheffield. Joseph died (unknown) just 3 years later in 1886. Working on the assumption that The STC were probably Joseph’s employer. Can anyone please share any information in identifying who/what the STC were? If there are any surviving employee records? Any information greatly appreciated John O.

According to the writing under the picture it was Harold Lambert as the Lord Mayor and picture taken in 1966. The double door at the bottom when opened revealed a very small dance hall. We used to have a trio play music for the dancing after the speeches and prize presentation.

Could it be Sheffield Tramways Company , Under the legislation at that time, local authorities were precluded from operating tramways but were empowered to construct them and lease the lines to an individual operating company. Tracks were constructed by contractors and leased to the Sheffield Tramways Company, which operated the services. The first horse tram routes, to Attercliffe and Carbrook, Brightside, Heeley, Nether Edge and Owlerton opened between 1873 and 1877 and the Corporation (City Council) took over the tramway system in July 1896 and quickly went for electrification.

Good evening Syrup, Thank you so much for posting the press cutting naming Pc Lewis - fantastic stuff! This is the sort of stuff that helps to bring these old photographs to life and remind us that these were real people living their lives in an age when life was harder than many of us will ever experience. Steve

Bus stop out side Northern General Hospital...Herries Road End

I'm sure I remember that they changed the colour of the milk checks when the price of milk increased. I'm sure I remember people having to put coppers with the checks if they were for the old value. From what I remember there were only about two choices in the fifties, full milk or that horrible sterilised stuff in the tall bottles. HD

Women wearing trousers on the tramway was not as unusual as you might think. I think they actually wore cullottes (if that's how you spell it!) which looked like a skirt but were actually made like trousers. I think (but I'm not sure) taht these came in around the time of WW2 when a lot of women were recruited by the transport department, both as 'motormen' and conductresses. The cap babdges are interesting as the chrome one which was used up until the 60s just appears to be a plated version of the previous brass one. My guess is that crews didn't polish the brass ones enough to give the correct and proper appearance, so they swapped to something that didn't need to be polished every day. This would also have matched the uniform silver buttons, some of which I have somewhere. From memory I think you'll find buttons that say Sheffield Corporation TRAMWAYS on them and also others that say Sheffield Corporation TRANSPORT, from the days when staff were not necessarily working on trams any more. The blue badge is probably a motorman's badge, which would show their company staff number. It's a pre-cursor to the plastic PSV driver and conductor badges that platform staff on buses wore in the 60s and 70s. Unlike motor vehicles, tram driving licences are issued by the company, not the DVLA. So drivers licences (and sometimes conductor licences for undertakings that bothered with them) are different from town to town and not interchangable. For example if you drove a tram in Sheffield you couldn't just go and be a tram driver in Blackpool without retraining and getting a Blackpool licence. Incidentally, it's only within the last 20 years that you need a car licence to be able to learn to drive a tram! I know lots of old tram drivers who could never drive a road vehicle. Finally, I'd just like to mention the Bell Punch ticket machines in many of the photos on Ashley's site. These were common ticket machines of the era but, unlike the competing Williamson machines, were 'handed' because of the way you pressed the lever. Few of these survive now because they were often scrapped due to them having a high silver content. Left handed versions, which would confusingly be worn resting against your right pocket and be operated with your right hand, do exist and are extremely rare. The tickets were different colours because when the machine punched a hole in the ticket, the little dot they cut out was retained inside. At the end of the day some poor soul had the job of emptying the machine and counting the confetti. If the total of the numbered tickets sold didn't match the bits from the machine then the depot inspectors knew the conductor had been on the fiddle!

Hi all I've totally revamped my Sheffield Corporation Tramways uniform/staff page. Please feel free to take a look and advise of any errors/omissions. Also, if anyone has any decent photos that would improve the page, please do let me know. http://www.tramwaybadgesandbuttons.com/page148/page152/page157/page157.html Ashley (High Peak)

I recently went to photograph the Foresters Hotel on Division Street and I couldn't believe my eyes on how it's been changed out of all recognition, I think it was open in c1893 so it's getting on for two hundred years old, just how could the council planning committee allow the drastic change of the outside of the pub, just sheer vandalism.

Theres no photo though syrup,that's the one in Swindon.