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Thorp Road, Highfield


Guest Leipzig

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Guest plain talker

Ahhh, *le sigh*, I can see the floodlights of beautiful downtown Bramall Lane there in the background.

Did you know that the first ever floodlit game of football happened at Bramall Lane? (october 14 1878, btw!)

The houses look so sad, all bricked up, and empty, awaiting demolition (especially the ones in the picture looking toward london road )

Those must have been taken in the early to mid seventies, IIRC, because the Bramall Lane side of London Road (Thorp Road, Randall St, Woodhead Road etc) were demolished just before the houses across at the bottom of Sharrow Lane, and that area on Sitwell/ Sheringham and Mount Pleasant roads - they were demolished in phases, 1978/9/80

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Guest Leipzig

Further to my original posting - if you look carefully at the map of Thorp Road which shows the house numbering, you will notice that house numbers 42, 44, and 55 in particular are a strange shape. There seems to be a straight line which runs from Woodhead Road, across Thorp Road and continues through to Harwood Street.

Only the following house numbers appear on the 1871 Census for Thorp Road: 1, 11, 13, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 67, No Number, No Number. This leads me to believe that the road was built about this time. Also if you refer to the Older map of the area (around 1849) before the roads were built, the straight line was obviously the boundary to the fields ajoining Highfield Gardens.

Was there a dispute about the sale of the land at that time which resulted in the disjointed way Thorp Road seems to have been built?

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Guest plain talker

that's an interesting theory, Leipzig. thanks for those maps, I was excited to find my old home on the map, on the other side of the district.

I love looking at the old maps, they're fascinating to see.

I was intrigued to see that there was only Mount Pleasant House (MPH) shown in that section of Stwell Road, as I thought that Highfield School, which was situated behind the first set of houses on Vincent road, between MPH and Vincent road was built at the same time as Sharrow lane School (SLS), yet it is not shown on the map dated nearly 20 yrs after SLS was built.

Highfield school would be approximately (just to the left of) where the wording "Girls charity School" below MPH appears on the 1903 map.

WRT the presumed dispute, over land at thorpe... on South View Road, as you go along, particularly on the evens-numbered side, there are houses of a fairly uniform size, and uniform design, interspersed with houses that are narrower, and, as you approach the higher numbers, houses that are broader.

this may be to do with two or three things:-

one, the landowner(s) may have sold off the plots, piecemeal, and perhaps bought three plots, but built two houses on the land instead of three, making them larger. (I understand Club Garden Road was built on land that was initially a group of allotments {club gardens})

two:- there may well have been a dispute, or

three:- simply that the landowner was holding out for the best price?

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Guest plain talker

oops, pressed send when I had more to add.

slightly off topic, I know, but I am also fascinated to see the area where the Leverton Gardens tower blocks are now, is marked on the map as being "LIVERTON" St.

I looked on the map at my old house, on Mount Pleasant road, and noticed some errors:- the washhouse in the top yard is not shown, where ours was, and the outside loo-block isn't shown in either yard, but is shown in the others.

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Guest Leipzig

oops, pressed send when I had more to add.

slightly off topic, I know, but I am also fascinated to see the area where the Leverton Gardens tower blocks are now, is marked on the map as being "LIVERTON" St.

I looked on the map at my old house, on Mount Pleasant road, and noticed some errors:- the washhouse in the top yard is not shown, where ours was, and the outside loo-block isn't shown in either yard, but is shown in the others.

You are correct about the errors Plain Talker - 'Directory of WRY 1908 Vol 4' shows LEVERTON Street, 88 London Road, entered under: List of the Smaller Streets, Lanes, &c. in Sheffield.

On a more interesting topic of toilets, the map of Thorp Road which shows the house numering (dated around 1950) shows the layout of the outside toilets quite accurately. The 1903 map shows just an arbitary representation of them. As a child, on a dark night setting out across the back yard to find the outside toilet, was a real hazard without the correct map. However the floodlights at Bramall Lane were a God send.

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Guest plain talker

I know what you mean about the arctic-expeditions to go "across the yard" to the loo. It was terrifying for me as a nine year old, carrying the Hurricane-lantern to light my way.

and the spiders... *shudder*. Oh, god! The spiders!! I am an arachnophobe, and I'd have to check, and double-check that there were no spiders in there before I could use it.

The bloomin' things would lie in wait, till I was in there, and then they'd come out... *scream* great, huge, hairy-legged black monsters... ugh!

We kept a paraffin heater in the outside loo, to stop the cistern and pipes from freezing up.

It was somewhat effective, but by the cringe! It didn't stop those bitter draughts from blowing under the privy door! Ooh, I'm coming over all cold, at the memory! lol.

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Guest Leipzig

I know what you mean about the arctic-expeditions to go "across the yard" to the loo. It was terrifying for me as a nine year old, carrying the Hurricane-lantern to light my way.

and the spiders... *shudder*. Oh, god! The spiders!! I am an arachnophobe, and I'd have to check, and double-check that there were no spiders in there before I could use it.

The bloomin' things would lie in wait, till I was in there, and then they'd come out... *scream* great, huge, hairy-legged black monsters... ugh!

We kept a paraffin heater in the outside loo, to stop the cistern and pipes from freezing up.

It was somewhat effective, but by the cringe! It didn't stop those bitter draughts from blowing under the privy door! Ooh, I'm coming over all cold, at the memory! lol .

Recorded for posterity - a picture of the actual toilets in the back yard of 35 and 37 Thorpe Road, and as you can see, we had a resident spider too!

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