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Showing results for 'blanchards'.
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Big department store paid your money and they put it in a tube and into a chute type thingy which made the tube disappear. It came back later with your change and a reciept.Became a tropical fish shop when it closed Used to have the same set up at Banners I think.
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Percy Rutherford was my Grandfather, sorry to say he did not have a hook instead of a hand. The boots where sold with one pair of laces and he used to fit the plates and segs as required. I still have his cobbles last and some plates and segs some where. The shop at 117-119 Infirmary road was for men shoes and he did have another shop at 132 Infirmary Road which catered for ladies and children shoes that his wife used to run with help from his two daughters one being my mother. From what I can recall there was a butchers at either 134 or 136 Infirmary Road and a Fishing Tackle come racing pigeon come general hardware store at 130 Infirmary Road, there was also a bakers on the corner of Infirmary Road at 126 which baked there own bread and cakes. Blanchards Department stores was located in 114 -126 Infirmary road and Darby's garage and auto-work shop was located at 204 on the corner of Infirmary Road and Gilpin street.
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whit sunday customs in Sheffield
ukelele lady replied to pauline w's topic in Sheffield History Chat
Yes it was the only time we had new clothes, once a year. Most of us went to Banners or Blanchards with Provident cheques, in other words paying for them weekly. I remember my new pink dress from Blanchards and a new pair of red shoes from Langtons then a long march behind the band to Weston Park where most of the bands finished their journey by then my feet were full of bleeding blisters from the new shoes. But we still had fun spending our Whitsun money on ice-creams.
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There's an old picture on librarypictures that is a bombed out shop on Infirmary road that although it doesn't say it's Blanchards I'm pretty sure it is. The area now is the car park area . After it was bombed during the war it stood as a bomb site for years and we kids used to play on our own little adventure play ground. The thing I remember most was the saying " let's play on bomb Blanchards." The other part of course is still standing and still has it's name on the building on the side in Albert Terrace Road.. We all went there for our Whisun clothes [ once a year rig out ] , my sister worked there after leaving school and I remember they all had to dress in black. From picturesheffield.
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My first job was at Blanchards, in the cash office. As a 14 year old it was all a bit frightening, no health and safety then. I did the filing in the attic which was dark and spooky, was eventually promoted to the dizzy heights of putting change in the "tubes" and then to do the accounts. Lunchtimes were spent in a room with holes in the floor. Just wouldn't be allowed now.
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My wife Patricia remembers Blanchards very well in her younger days, as her Mother worked there in the men's department. Blanchards a very posh shop selling everything as John Lewis is today.Today it stands where the Pine shop is, before then it was Slater Ward's.What she remembers is the men's department, if you go into the shop now, the staircasewhich is still there, the men's department was to the right & on the ground floor, one side sold gloves hats socks, other sold trousers& jackets coats.The displays were made up of polished dark wood with glass fronts,also the cash tube system used to frighten her as she was only a very small child, the polished brass used to hiss like a snake and she always thought it would suck her in!!.The sales assistants never handled cash so to speak, they placed the receipt and cheques or cash or if posh you had an account with Blanchards into the polished torpedo which opened at each end with rubber stoppers on. Placed it into the tube off it went to a upstairs office where the clerical staff sat on high chairs with ledgers in front of them entering all the sales. While the money was being sorted, the assistant would parcel up the goods, Then with a hiss it ame back and shot out and landed into a wicker basket. The staff were very smartly dressed in black. No jewelery was to be worn except a wedding ring. All staff were called by there maiden name as my mother was Mrs Witt, she was called Miss Jackson. The head of the department was a man call Mr Hammerton. Also a Miss Dixon worked in the mens department with my Mother, she lived on Ben Lane her claim to fame was that her Brother was Reginald Dixon of Blackpool tower fame. Miss Pryor was in charge of the ladies underwear she was a corsetier a big posh speaking lady who wore bright red lip stick, with a hour glass figure. she always had the best corsetts to show off her figure.Another thing my wife remembers about Miss Pryor was when she wanted her fist bra, Miss Pryor found one for her, as she was so small they did not usually have her size in stock.( Memories ). Also she went to see her Mother she went on the Tram from Hillsbrough, getting off at St Phillips church. Which has be demolished to make way for the new Super Tram system. PATRICIA WARD nee WITT
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Circa 1969....a pair of Wranglers bought from Blanchards on Infirmary Road for, I think £3..10s... They were like hardboard for first few weeks, but I did have them for a few years.
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I remember Blanchards, near West Bar, my Dad worked for Wigfalls and for some reason he got cheques or vouchers to spend in Blanchards so we would always go there for our Whit Sunday outfits etc., this was in the 60's I guess. I remember it being a bit like Grace Brothers in Are you being served! We seemed to spend all bliimin' day there whenever we went or perhaps that's just because I was a little girl and bored! I also remember the tubes whizzing around the pipes to the cash office and when I worked at Yorkshire Building Society in the 90's we had them on our counters as we were open plan and couldn't risk having large amounts of cash in our drawers.
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I remember as a kid going to play on " bomb Blanchards." Blanchards on Infirmary Road got bombed and having been born after the war, to me it was some sort of adventure playground. Everybody called it " bomb Blanchards" as a place to go and play. The gap is still there today where people now park their cars.
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In 1963 I was working at Rotary Electrical, a company near Blanchards when me and a couple of mates used to go int Blanchards Rainbow Room Cafe at the top of the stairs. I remember having, for the first time, spam fritters sat on a plate of stewed tomatoes, great stuff...
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John Banners Department Store - Attercliffe Road
hilldweller replied to a topic in Sheffield History Chat
I don't think that Blanchards covered the entire block. The main shop selling clothes and curtains and the like was in old premises that ran from the corner of Albert Terrace Road. Then there was a bit of a bomb-site type gap followed by a post-war building that was part of Blanchards and sold furniture and household goods. I can remember an emergency dash to the latter building to buy a replacement alarm clock when my father was on mornings down the pit. The rest of the block was older shop property as of now. I can also remember being sent to a boot and shoe shop, which was further along where the Kelvin was built, to buy horse-shoe shaped irons to fasten on to the wooden soles of my fathers pit-boots. Part of his job was to slow down the pit trucks by sliding along the rails after them. This used to wear grooves through the boot irons and I had the job as a lad of replacing them . HD -
John Banners Department Store - Attercliffe Road
hilldweller replied to a topic in Sheffield History Chat
I think you are referring to Blanchards which used to be mainly based in an old building on Infirmary Road (now replaced by Windsors Shoes). If my memory serves me correctly you could use "Provident Cheques" as I think they were called there, as well as at Banners. Blanchards was quite an old fashioned place with a Lamson Vacuum System to the cashiers office from each counter. You paid the assistant who put the sales chit and your cash in a brass cylinder and place it up the spout and eventually (sometimes several minutes later) you got your change and receipt. Another place which took Provident Cheques was a very old shop called I think Laceys situated where the bottom entrance to John Lewis is today. The interior was straight out of Dickens with a number of floors reached by ancient wooden stairs and ramps. Even as a small lad I rember thinking what a wonder that it hadn't burnt down. hilldweller -
I remember Blanchards and the money thingy. They had two shops on Infirmary Road - the larger one started at the corner of Albert Terrace Road and went for about half a block towards Bedford Street. The other smaller shop was nearer to Montgomery Terrace Road. If memory serves me the smaller shop sold just electrical goods while the larger one was more the department store. I think the larger one may have grown like 'topsy' and was a series of smaller shops that were knocked through as Blanchards aquired them.
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I remember the name Blanchards, struggling to recall where it was close to West Bar, or was that Laceys? I seem to recall Blanchards did something with tokens? Free / reduced cost school uniforms perhaps?
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I started in the nursery at this school in 1944 and moved through all the classes until I left in 1956 , our family name was ..Cundy and we lived in Watkin ST. I remember Blanchards and the co.op . how old was these children as one of my family [there was 8 of us] may know them .
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If we are looking for a building that had been used as a morgue at some time, could we be talking about a temporary morgue used at the time of the Sheffield flood of 1864 ? I know that pubs and chapels were used as temporary morgues including the little chapel/sally army hall/garage opposite St. Polycarps and the original Yew Tree Inn. Perhaps someone has a copy of the Pawson & Brailsford book about the flood which goes into great detail, if I remember, about where the dead were laid for identification. There was certainly great loss of life around Owlerton including some at the living quarters of the Barracks. Now there's a thought, the Barracks had a hospital and probably a morgue. Time to get the maps out. Incidently in 1936 a Mr. Lehane, horticultural advisor was living in Hillsborough Cottage and his widow was still there in 1942. In 1936 the building next door was a branch of Blanchards, but was a drapery dept of the B & C Co-op by 1942. HD
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An advert from The Sheffield Telegraph and Independent dated 16th June 1942 showing Blanchards ladies range for the simmer of 1942. I also wish that had known about the beneficial effects of smoking Craven A's - this is the type of information that should still be made available to smokers nowadays!
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Surprised anyone remembers Cartledges....64 to 68 Upperthorpe Road......on the junction with Portland street. A lot smaller than Blanchards though.
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Didn't Blanchards also have a smaller store near Hillsboro baths?I believe mr Blanchard is resting in Wadsley church yard.
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The remains of the White buildings, that is the cladding, lie in the rear garden of a house on Singleton Road. The coffee shop was Coffee and Creme, previously Curtiss Shoes, the chinese restaurant was originally called the Bluebird - but had to change its name to Silver Dragon because one already had that name. The jewellers were Butlers and the flower shop was the Flower Bowl. On the opposite side of Walkley Lane was Credlands Paints, further up the lane was the Gents hairdressers then the Bridge Cafe. Across Holme Lane was Hemmings grocers, a milliners, then Neville Read tailors, then Carons Gowns in the old Hillsboro Inn. On the corner of Middlewood Road and Bradfield Road was Burtons the Tailors, above it was J. Thorpe, bookie. Across from that was Fred Wisons (Wilsons ?) garage and petrol stn, Harley Mann fishmonger and Timpsons Shoes and Burgess's tailors and higher up was Blanchards (a branch of the one on Infirmary Road) Thats all for now.
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I worked at Blanchards when I left school aged 15. I worked in the cash office at the top of the building,sending change down to the customers via a metal tube down a chute. The office was next to the store room and we had to go in a lift with a metal sliding door. I remember one day some young men from a cafe down the road were hanging about in the menswear dept and they sent a white mouse in a tube up the chute. I opened the tube expecting some money in it and the mouse ran out. I don't know who was more scared . Me or the poor mouse.
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Sheffield Blitz 12-13Th And 15-16Th December 1940
ukelele lady replied to Stuart0742's topic in Sheffield History Chat
During the war my mother worked at a bakery on Infirmary Road it was situated between St Philips Road and Montgomery Terrace Road. Chadwicks on the corner of Montgomery Terrace Road was number 52 so I guess the Williams bakery would have been number 50 or 48. She used to tell us of the day they, mother and the owner Mrs Williams found a bomb in the back yard of the bakery and put it into a bucket of water as they were advised to do then. It was at the time of the bombing of Blanchards on Infirmary Road. Many years later , about nine or ten years ago when they modernized the block of shops, it was stated in the Sheffield Star that the workmen had found this second world war bomb. To think it had been sat there all those years. I wonder if it was still in the bucket The large glass doors are where the gate to the back of the shops used to be.
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I always thought it was the other way round. You needed cash for Cartledges but with Blanchards you got to pay weekly by taking Provident cheques there as you did with Banners.
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We tended to be Cartledges customers, kids all thought Blanchards to be very posh. A great irony is that many kids used to kick up at being bought the much cheaper denim trousers (jeans). Now any mum who could get her child to wear terylene trousers would be a genious. interesting to see how these prices have reversed.
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John Banners Department Store - Attercliffe Road
ukelele lady replied to a topic in Sheffield History Chat
Sorry hilldweller , what I meant by whole of the block was not just Windsors shoe shop as you mentioned but the corner, Slaters included. I believe their name is in the stone work on the block down Albert Terrace Road. My sister worked there and I remember them all dressed in black. Although I was born well after the war the part that got bombed was our play ground. They used to say " ar tha playin ont bomb Blanchards? " lol
