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Drainspotting!


Calvin72

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It's been mentioned on here before somewhere that George Harvey and Co. and Charlton Ironworks are one and the same. This one looks like it dates from the early years of the 20th century.

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I just wondered today:

Back in my childhood, (1950's) these were called "Fever Grates" by all us kids

Would that be because playing near them, one may catch fever, or was it because they were associated with the sanitary reforms brought about after the Cholera Epidemic.(ie sort of "anti-fever grates") - Not a question that can be answered definitively I suppose.

I go along with the catching fever theory.

In the 1950's we enjoyed some very warm summers with little rain to flush the grates out. The stagnant water in the grates used to smell rank or perhaps the traps dried out completely allowing sewer smells to escape.

We were certainly told by our mothers not to play near them, which was a problem because the best places to gather molten tar on a lollypop stick was often around the grates.

Why we would want to collect nasty big globs of tar on a stick now escapes me.

I know that walking back in with tar on your clothes caused a certain amount of consternation.

Tar on fingers could be removed by application of margarine or butter if you were posh.

We may not have had Playstations but every hour of the day was dedicated to such useful pursuits.

HD

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Just received BBC Radio Sheffield's " I can't believe what I'm hearing " news story of 2014! I managed to get in a quick mention of this site.

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2 more, both at property on Western Road.

S Taylor, Builder, Crookes, Sheffield

Alco, Sheffield. Made in England

Relatively modern I would think

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Maker's names are interesting in that there seems to have been a mania for them around c.1890-1910 as people have shown on here when I have asked about photos I have taken. More modern ones are fewer I think, but they all tell a tale, and that is the point of course!

By the way, a free ad for SH here in The Star on December 27th :)

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/sheffield-drainspotter-releases-grate-history-book-1-7021935

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Don't know if you have this one but there is what looks like a Local Board cover, very worn, on the junction of Neepend Lane/Bardwell Road/Boyland Street.

After a couple of trips where the cover was covered by a car <_<, Andy and I checked this one out today. It does appear to be a 'Local Board', it has very faded lettering which cannot be made out, but has eight slats and is in the mid-nineteenth century style. I think it is an addition to the collection of Sheffield Local Board examples (which is still in single figures).

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I think it's been removed, re-cycled, and dated from the time it was installed (or re-installed). Also the lettering seems to be in a different style to anything else I have seen, so who knows for sure? Not me! And we'll never know either :)

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A bit vague on some of the locations. I took a few while I was working and forgot exactly where some of them are but they're all around Walkley.

Different design - South Road

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Came across this small drain cover today on Paradise St.

Parker J. & Sons, drain pipe, &c. makers, 14 Campo Lane. 1879 directory.

Parker J. & Sons, drain pipe manufacturers & mortar mills & building materials merchants,

2 & 39 Langsett road ; 43-51 Silver Street head & Corporation street. 1901.

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Parker J. & Sons, drain pipe, &c. makers, 14 Campo Lane. 1879 directory.

Parker J. & Sons, drain pipe manufacturers & mortar mills & building materials merchants,

2 & 39 Langsett road ; 43-51 Silver Street head & Corporation street. 1901.

1905

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I have no idea what that is. It doesn't look like it can be lifted up and appears to be set into concrete, so I'm wondering if it's some kind of boundry marker? Could the pattern cast into it be the logo for the old company which used to occupy the works perhaps? Just a guess though.

I thought perhaps a fire insurance company plaque - but they were generally mounted on the wall, and it doesn't match any plaque designs that I've seen.

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I have no idea what that is. It doesn't look like it can be lifted up and appears to be set into concrete, so I'm wondering if it's some kind of boundry marker? Could the pattern cast into it be the logo for the old company which used to occupy the works perhaps? Just a guess though.

On looking at the picture, it looks like a screw head, I know there were cellars in the property so could it be some kind of release mechanism. The company didn't have a logo as they took in outwork.

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On looking at the picture, it looks like a screw head, I know there were cellars in the property so could it be some kind of release mechanism. The company didn't have a logo as they took in outwork.

There are more than one of these covers at the rear of shops on Abbeydale Road.

Link to Flash Earth

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