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Outer Ring Road - 1948


mike142sl

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The ganger was the man in charge of the gang of men. I think it comes from the Railway/Canal construction days. The men who did the work being navies, but they worked in teams, run by a ganger. There would be lots of teams and each would have a ganger. The Forman of the site would tell the gangers what he wanted doing and the ganger would tell his team. A good ganger would get a loyal team of men and be well respected. Generally there was competition between the teams and therefore the gangers on who did the best job and who got it done quickest. Some firms employed a bouns scheme on how quick the work was done. I couldn't say if the council used one at that time, but they did many years later. Teams and gangers are still used in the construction industry, they even made TV shows out of it! Such as The Boys From The Black Stuff.

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The ganger was the man in charge of the gang of men. I think it comes from the Railway/Canal construction days. The men who did the work being navies, but they worked in teams, run by a ganger. There would be lots of teams and each would have a ganger. The Forman of the site would tell the gangers what he wanted doing and the ganger would tell his team. A good ganger would get a loyal team of men and be well respected. Generally there was competition between the teams and therefore the gangers on who did the best job and who got it done quickest. Some firms employed a bouns scheme on how quick the work was done. I couldn't say if the council used one at that time, but they did many years later. Teams and gangers are still used in the construction industry, they even made TV shows out of it! Such as The Boys From The Black Stuff.

Thanks for the info.

These days its not so much construction of new roads but lack of maintainence to existing roads.

I know times are tough (like they were in the 20's and 30's) and money is tight but most of Sheffields roads appear to be full of potholes or have had very quick cheap and easy bits of patching up done. They are in a very poor state of repair.

Perhaps a return to putting together gangs of unemployed labourers to find them work and setting them on with a ganger to bring our roads back up to standard wouldn't be a bad idea.

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I don't want to start another hare running, but the state of the roads is a direct result of the World Student Games. The Council were convinced they only had to hang on until a Labour government was elected who'd bail them out, so they stripped budgets throughout the council to make the payments, Only services deemed essential such as education and social services were protected, so our parks, roads etc were left to deteriorate. Unfortunately it was years before Labour got in again, and turned out to be unsympathetic, so no cash.

But the new program of work on the roads and street lighting is due to start soon. Unfortunately the result has been neglect as the old service is run down and the new privatised system comes in. We recently had a couple of street lights out. We reported it but it was a couple of months before it was repaired. The men who came to do it were very apologetic, but said the delay was because there was only one truck with a cherry picker available for the whole city. All the others were out of service and wouldn't be repaired pending the take-over.

On the other hand the Council have been very active at patching potholes recently. Unfortunately new ones have been appearing so quickly I thing they're gaining on them.

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Perhaps a return to putting together gangs of unemployed labourers to find them work and setting them on with a ganger to bring our roads back up to standard wouldn't be a bad idea.

In theory thats a good idea, it worked in the 1920's/30's but I can't see that happening now, somehow.

I think this is not the topic or site for this discussion :rolleyes:

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On the other hand the Council have been very active at patching potholes recently. Unfortunately new ones have been appearing so quickly I thing they're gaining on them.

The patching done is very superficial and not intended to last any length of time, with the result that they then have to patch up the patching up and so the problem escalates.

What is needed is a complete resurfacing of the roads rather than just patching a few holes.

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In theory thats a good idea, it worked in the 1920's/30's but I can't see that happening now, somehow.

I think this is not the topic or site for this discussion :rolleyes:

I'd do it!

It's got ot be better than teaching lol

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Thanks for posting this subject, I have found it absolutely fascinating. I must have spent two hours plotting flags on google earth to try to understand the path of the road. I especially liked to follow all the extra thick grass verges along Hallamshire road. I used to know someone who lived up there and it never crossed my mind that is how the layout occured.

It was interesting to plot the path between meadowhead roundabout and abbey lane as well.

I have wondered about how the outer ring road would have continued from there for years. And it seems to me that the grass verges along greenhill avenue and bocking lane may indicate the same thing, that the intention was for the road to be widened into a ring road.

Even with this in mind, google earth tells me that the dual carriage way at Hallamshire road would be around 63 feet across from kerb to kerb. wheras Bochum parkway is around 73 feet. These roads through built up areas can't have been designed to be as large and as fast as the current modern dual carriageways we see today.

Alongside this issue, Greenhill parkway has an unusual alignment. It seems to be biased toward the north like they only built half the carriageway. The alignments to the roundabouts and the grass space at the south side of the road shows that the intention was obvious to design it to be a dual carriageway. Maybe even once they may have driven a dual carriageway right through bradway because Baslow road swings around a chicane to almost meet the alignment of greenhill parkway perfectly.

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Guest plain talker

Don't know if I've posted this before, but many moons ago I did a degree with the OU, and one module included some work on town planning. The lecturer was head of the department at the then Poly, and according to him, when Sheffield wanted to build an estate of flats,( in the 60's?) they had two plans to choose from, and almost on the toss of a coin they decided on Gleadless Valley and not the Porter Valley. The rest is history...

The "Valley" was begun in the mid fifties, Bayleaf. My family (Gran, Grandpa , my dad and two uncles) were moved on there in 57, when Gaunt Close was newly built. They were moved as part of the Netherthorpe slum clearances. the build started at the top of Blackstock road/ Norton avenue over Herdings, and constable road, and moved its way down the valley and then up to Newfield Green. the Sands Close side of the valley was built last IIRC in about 64/66. I believe it was built just after lowedges, as there are similarities in design of some of the properties (The Maisonettes on Gresley road , particularly, are identical to the ones on the Mawfa and Blackstock drive side of the valley.)

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Map of Herdings requested any year Gleadless/Norton kind of way?

Do you want a map of the Herdings or an aerial view of it?

Many of the terraced blocks of houses on the Herdings are built perpendicular to the road rather than parallel to it!

Difficult to spot on a map, easy to see in an aerial view.

Try using both in Google maps first and you will see what I mean.

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I'd just like to confirm where it is (for my satisfaction) - any map or aerial view will do - so long as it's got a circle drawn on it so I know where it is. The least amount of effort as possible, no great detail requested - a big blob on a map would do.

Thank you.

Do you want a map of the Herdings or an aerial view of it?

Many of the terraced blocks of houses on the Herdings are built perpendicular to the road rather than parallel to it!

Difficult to spot on a map, easy to see in an aerial view.

Try using both in Google maps first and you will see what I mean.

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Many thanks, in my mind it was the other side of the skids pans - a bit further up the hill - we live and learn. I know Blackstock Road (worked there briefly in very early 1980's) and Gleadless Townend )Auntie livesat Charnock; used to live at the top of the hill from Townend - 1960's) but I didn't know where Herdings was - not can I say I've ever had reason to go there.

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The "Valley" was begun in the mid fifties, Bayleaf. My family (Gran, Grandpa , my dad and two uncles) were moved on there in 57, when Gaunt Close was newly built. They were moved as part of the Netherthorpe slum clearances. the build started at the top of Blackstock road/ Norton avenue over Herdings, and constable road, and moved its way down the valley and then up to Newfield Green. the Sands Close side of the valley was built last IIRC in about 64/66. I believe it was built just after lowedges, as there are similarities in design of some of the properties (The Maisonettes on Gresley road , particularly, are identical to the ones on the Mawfa and Blackstock drive side of the valley.)

Thanks PT, that pins it down.

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Many of the terraced blocks of houses on the Herdings are built perpendicular to the road rather than parallel to it!

I once read that this was a typical layout of a derbyshire village and why the old cottages and terraced houses on derbyshire lane at Norton are also arranged like this.

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Many thanks, in my mind it was the other side of the skids pans - a bit further up the hill - we live and learn. I know Blackstock Road (worked there briefly in very early 1980's) and Gleadless Townend )Auntie livesat Charnock; used to live at the top of the hill from Townend - 1960's) but I didn't know where Herdings was - not can I say I've ever had reason to go there.

If you know the surrounding area like Gleadless Townend, Blackstock and Charnock then those 2 tower blocks on the hill (previously 3 tower blocks before 1995) which are a distictive landmark for miles around accurately mark out the Herdings area.

Unless you know someone who lives there you probably would have no reason to go there, it is a suburban housing estate.

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I once read that this was a typical layout of a derbyshire village and why the old cottages and terraced houses on derbyshire lane at Norton are also arranged like this.

This is true, it is an old style layout.

It was good in the days before good roads and mass car ownership, but now it just means that there is an extreme shortage of residents parking space as 5 houses are all trying to use the same 10 yards of road at the end of their block to park on.

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