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SHEAF MARKET Sheffield


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Sheaf Market Sheffield.jpg

Here's an absolutely fantastic photo of Sheaf Market in Sheffield

Can't quite make out the actual location or street but the building in the far distance looks familiar


Can anyone help locate exactly where we are stood here and what we are looking at?

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I think that is the entrance to the Rag 'n Tag at the bottom of Commercial Street at the junction with Sheaf street.

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3 hours ago, boginspro said:

I think that is the entrance to the Rag 'n Tag at the bottom of Commercial Street at the junction with Sheaf street.

If that is the entrance to the Rag n Tag I would never have been there. Think it was torn down before I was born. And even then we lived south of the city center so never went to castle or sheaf markets.

But I'm pretty freaked out as that entrance (minus the big sign saying sheaf market) regularly features in a recurring dream I have. 

Pretty much that exact entrance. Even with the ramshackle tobacco stall on the left.

 

 

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5 hours ago, neal m said:

If that is the entrance to the Rag n Tag I would never have been there. Think it was torn down before I was born. And even then we lived south of the city center so never went to castle or sheaf markets.

But I'm pretty freaked out as that entrance (minus the big sign saying sheaf market) regularly features in a recurring dream I have. 

Pretty much that exact entrance. Even with the ramshackle tobacco stall on the left.

 

 

 

 

That's great! Very scary too - wonder why it's in your dream if you never been there 

What happens in your dream?

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Definitely rag and tag, closed to put a roundabout there, you can just make out the traffic turning at the traffic lights on the right hand side, the bottom of Broad St., the Hay Market had been demolished.

Funny things dreams can they be passed on through the generations?

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One thing I recall from the Rag & Tag was a stall where there was a weighing scale which you sat in a chair to get weighed, this was a large brass affair.

 

My grandmother used to let me get weighed when I went to the market with her.

 

Great to see a colour photo of the entrance.

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Yes the Rag'n'tag market. Thanks for posting the pic. I remember a chap who sold tea sets and he would juggle with them while asking passing folks to buy them!

Ogleys pet shop was close by too.

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On 27/08/2017 at 22:31, Sheffield History said:

Sheaf Market Sheffield.jpg

Here's an absolutely fantastic photo of Sheaf Market in Sheffield

Can't quite make out the actual location or street but the building in the far distance looks familiar


Can anyone help locate exactly where we are stood here and what we are looking at?

There was a wide aisle from this gate  diagonally across to the other  entrance near tha bottom  of Dixon Lane.  The lady with  the weighing scale was about central on the town side. The juggling pot seller was next to the tool.seller whose advert is on the end building on the right.

The stall which intrigued me most was right round in the left corner, sort of back of beyond, which sold full width rolls of lino. This is about 1936/39, at which time we lived in Barber Crescent. The market  on Saturday stayed open till something like 9 p.m. and was a regular night out. We walked up to Church Street for the Walkley tram (that saved 2.1/2d - 5p in fares) and if l was lucky the fun began. A roll of lino would just fit stood on end  against the tram stairs and reach up.to top deck level. One roll seemed to be acceptable but if a family turned up with two, that was something else. I believe the expression is "heated discussion ensued" . I was about six and it made the day. On reflection.l don't think l would have fancied walking towards Walkley.late at night with a roll of lino on my shoulder.  Wonder what the reaction would be now?

The other point of the photo is the low roof structure facing the pavement which ran the whole length of the Rag and Tag and as memory serves along the Dixon Lane side  as well. There was a series of well-used lockups of varying sizes which was the home of the wholsale fruit and vegetable market. My uncle Ernest Hounslow had one about where the man in the light top is standing. His was the smallest size,something about 20ft long  by 10ft wide with an office  about 4ft. square. the whole looking decidedly well-used. His neighbour was much the same but was three times the length. After WW2   till the late 1950's l would go to see him on a Saturday, when he took delight in telling me at 9.30 that he had been there as usual since 5 o'clock  and when his lad  had shifted any remaining crates off the pavement into his stall he would be away  home. (By tram. The stop was some 50 yards away and he lived only a few minutes walk from the Intake terminus. All nicely organised)

  In its heyday at this time there would not be the nice clear pavement in the photo till afternoon.. Every dealer put much of his stock outside to catch the odd grocer.  Like my uncle they had a number  of regulars but there was always the possibility of a late cash deal. Very prominent in all l remember was a hanging scale of 112lb capacity with it's prominent lead seal with the Weights and Measures Dept. calibration date stamped on guaranteeing accuracy. This was used to demonstrate what generous measure was in the bag or net whilst haggling. Funny how the weight dropped when uncle took his hand away at the end. 

 He did have a car and went out round Lincolnshire on Sunday to buy from a number of his regular farm suppliers. Potatoes were the backbone of his business, to be delivered to the market by the farmer. I found that if he was displeased it meant he had not already sold them and woud l have to offload them into his stall, then hire a lorry, reload and have them delivered  round Sheffield. Much easier if he could meet a lorry load, hand the driver a list of customers and tell him to get on with it. No satnav in those days either

I always did think he was a bit of a lad, but after all  he was family. And now it has all gone

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On 27/08/2017 at 22:31, Sheffield History said:

Sheaf Market Sheffield.jpg

Here's an absolutely fantastic photo of Sheaf Market in Sheffield

Can't quite make out the actual location or street but the building in the far distance looks familiar


Can anyone help locate exactly where we are stood here and what we are looking at?

I think this was called the rag & tag market. The picture is taken at the bottom of Commercial St. The red building above and behind the red van is the canal basin I believe. To the right out of shot would have been the old Corn Exchange.

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My mum had a stall just inside these gates in the 1950s and 60s. We sold haberdashery and dolls clothes. The weighing scales were in the market gardeners section: this was a brick built area within the rag and tag selling plants ( always without a pot and wrapped in newspaper) . The market traders piles up their rubbish there for collection at the end of the day.

I used to be sent for 'ten weedy ones' ( Park Drive) from the kiosk just inside the gate shown. - not legal to sell them to me of course but that was the way it was! 

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Hi Jane

Your story about the cigarettes reminded me of the time after the 2nd World War late 40's early 50's.

Cigarettes were scarce and the favorite brand was not always in stock.

I would only be about 5 or 6 years old and my mother sent me to the local grocers shop at the corner of Anns road and Myrtle road

I had to ask for 10 Woodbine, Park Drive or Star cigarettes in that order. As long as the shopkeeper knew the parent, no questions

were asked about age etc.  Those days are long gone.

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