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A postcard of Forge Dam


Arif

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Having been born here and spent most of my life in our fair City, I have to confess to only having visited Whitley Woods and Forge Dam on a couple of occasions. I must rectify this!

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just found this post I remember fishing here in the late 50s,early 60s my pal Kenny Luckman and me would catch the 88 bus on Ecclesall rd and we would tap our 2pence on the bus stop and say Bus Bus hurry up. happy days  

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I remember those "Tub Boats" with the flat prow. In the late 50's it was the place the teenagers who attended my school collected. One of my friends was into fishing and got me fishing in Forge Dam. The man who took the money for the boat hire also took the money we had to pay to fish there. I never seemed to catch anything in fishing and therefore gave up.

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Does anybody remember the little cafe before you went up to the dam, as a kid I remember buying ice creams there, and also playing the penny slot machines outside the cafe, they were the vertical bagatelle type. This would have been the late 50s early 60s.

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Here's a couple of pics from my collection - not noticed them in the two threads, apologies if I've duplicated posting them - top one is dated 1914, the other is going to be late 30's onwards(?) or maybe post war from the typography on the card:

1449377595_ForgeDam1914.JPG.c2d536be54cabf77b6e05443881ecaea.JPG528350888_FulwoodFromForgeDam.JPG.e0a8f924d7e07d01ddef185721142908.JPG

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On 28/06/2019 at 11:17, stevedb10 said:

Does anybody remember the little cafe before you went up to the dam, as a kid I remember buying ice creams there, and also playing the penny slot machines outside the cafe, they were the vertical bagatelle type. This would have been the late 50s early 60s.

Hi Steve, my guess is you haven't been up to Forge Dam since a child. Yes, the Cafe is still there. It now has a canopy over the seating area outside, the trees opposite have been cleared, providing an open grassed area for tables and chairs in nice weather. The slot machines were removed a while ago, as the bank side was having work done on it. Nick Dunn who runs the Cafe now, is the Grandson of Charles and Jean Chapman, who ran it a while back for around 30yrs, and Nick is very proud to have been able to aquire the chance a few years ago, to come back and run the Cafe, following in his Grandad's footsteps.

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On 29/06/2019 at 11:46, unrecordings said:

Here's a couple of pics from my collection - not noticed them in the two threads, apologies if I've duplicated posting them - top one is dated 1914, the other is going to be late 30's onwards(?) or maybe post war from the typography on the card:

1449377595_ForgeDam1914.JPG.c2d536be54cabf77b6e05443881ecaea.JPG528350888_FulwoodFromForgeDam.JPG.e0a8f924d7e07d01ddef185721142908.JPG

Hi Unrecordings, lovely photos of the Forge, Picture Sheffield has some great ones in their collection. Growing up opposite, it was the playground of my friends and I, we witnessed the suttle changes around in our time, but nothing like the changes locals saw, when the suburban housing projected was underway around 1900. It had been prior to then a picturesque rural landworking area, it must have been very hard to see their beautiful countryside views, disapear under a sea of houses.  

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7 hours ago, Heartshome said:

Hi Steve, my guess is you haven't been up to Forge Dam since a child. Yes, the Cafe is still there. It now has a canopy over the seating area outside, the trees opposite have been cleared, providing an open grassed area for tables and chairs in nice weather. The slot machines were removed a while ago, as the bank side was having work done on it. Nick Dunn who runs the Cafe now, is the Grandson of Charles and Jean Chapman, who ran it a while back for around 30yrs, and Nick is very proud to have been able to aquire the chance a few years ago, to come back and run the Cafe, following in his Grandad's footsteps.

Thanks Heartshome for the interesting update,I just did a google for the cafe, to see the latest photos, I see its still a Hut shape(Original structure),and they still have a ice cream window.

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Forge Dam Now!    Its silted up a bit since me & Mrs southside used to take the kids to the playground and cafe in the 70s (don`t remember there being an island?)

 

Forge Dam.jpg

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14 hours ago, Heartshome said:

Hi Unrecordings, lovely photos of the Forge, Picture Sheffield has some great ones in their collection. Growing up opposite, it was the playground of my friends and I, we witnessed the suttle changes around in our time, but nothing like the changes locals saw, when the suburban housing projected was underway around 1900. It had been prior to then a picturesque rural landworking area, it must have been very hard to see their beautiful countryside views, disapear under a sea of houses.  

Thanks

For a while I used to cruise for postcards on ebay (some kindly vendors just scan images & don't bother watermarking them)

I heard that Mayfield Valley was originally earmarked for the estate that ended up in Gleadless - would be interesting to hear if that's true

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23 hours ago, southside said:

Forge Dam Now!    Its silted up a bit since me & Mrs southside used to take the kids to the playground and cafe in the 70s (don`t remember there being an island?)

 

Forge Dam.jpg

Hi Southside, you're right, there was 'never' a Dam island. It developed after they tried to make a silt trap up the river, it 'didn't work' in fact it made it worse, hence the island, then of course they were short of money, so it ended up being left as a haven for the ducks. I contacted the Parks Dept once, about the 'silt heaps' from the river that had been dumped on the 'grass lawn' that 'was' by Carr Bridge, at the side of the path, they said the company who'd been contracted to take it away had gone bust, so it was left. So the lovely summer 'picnic area' for many families was lost. It's great for wildlife now, but if you look closely, where the bushes are growing from, you can still see the 'heap shapes'.

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23 hours ago, unrecordings said:

Thanks

For a while I used to cruise for postcards on ebay (some kindly vendors just scan images & don't bother watermarking them)

I heard that Mayfield Valley was originally earmarked for the estate that ended up in Gleadless - would be interesting to hear if that's true

Interesting info Unrecordings, never heard that in my Mum's 52yrs living in the hamlet, but who knows! Regarding postcards, I own a beautiful hand coloured one, taken early 1900s, of the Forge entrance. It's looking towards the little bridge under the driveway, with a wooden hand painted TEA ROOM sign, just above the small river wall on the right.

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On 01/07/2019 at 07:42, stevedb10 said:

Thanks Heartshome for the interesting update,I just did a google for the cafe, to see the latest photos, I see its still a Hut shape(Original structure),and they still have a ice cream window.

Hi again Steve, re:- the Cafe or TEA ROOM as it was known. If you look on Picture Sheffield, at the old photo's of Forge Dam, you will see on picture Ref: s10414 it used to be in the LOWER GARDEN, just where Nick has the tables and chairs now. Once you realise it's there, you notice it on a lot of other photo's. An old village lady told me years ago, as a little girl dressed in Sunday best on a nice day, the family walked down to 'Take Tea' in the 'Tea Room' in the rose garden, accessed through a little gate from the lower park. Bet it was beautiful.

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3 hours ago, Heartshome said:

Interesting info Unrecordings, never heard that in my Mum's 52yrs living in the hamlet, but who knows! Regarding postcards, I own a beautiful hand coloured one, taken early 1900s, of the Forge entrance. It's looking towards the little bridge under the driveway, with a wooden hand painted TEA ROOM sign, just above the small river wall on the right.

It's going to annoy me for days. I either got it from a neighbour who grew up on one of the Gleadless farms, or as a nugget of information in the post war plans for the city that included the aborted South/West part of the outer ring road - on the latter point I might be back bearing gifts in a few days, Amazon permitting...

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Its my understanding that the tea room was  originally a "Tin Tabernacle" erected  in 1886 as the Sharrow Vale Wesleyan Reform Church. In 1902 it was replaced by a new building on the same site which is still in use. I am told  The Tin Tabernacle was moved sometime after that to the Forge Dam site.

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4 hours ago, johnm said:

Its my understanding that the tea room was  originally a "Tin Tabernacle" erected  in 1886 as the Sharrow Vale Wesleyan Reform Church. In 1902 it was replaced by a new building on the same site which is still in use. I am told  The Tin Tabernacle was moved sometime after that to the Forge Dam site.

Hi johnm, yes, I remember reading your write-up about the Sharrow Vale Chapel building 2012. Around that time there seems to have been a bit of a debate, between other people as to if it was that one, or one from another location. Personally, I can't see that it makes any difference where they came from, the important thing is they were re-used for a good purpose, and the enjoyment of many. To my knowledge here have been 4 constructions in that area over time, and our understanding is that the one in place today, was the old wooden Walkley Methodist Hall, delivered by horse and cart to the Forge.

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On 08/07/2019 at 21:45, Heartshome said:

Hi johnm, yes, I remember reading your write-up about the Sharrow Vale Chapel building 2012. Around that time there seems to have been a bit of a debate, between other people as to if it was that one, or one from another location. Personally, I can't see that it makes any difference where they came from, the important thing is they were re-used for a good purpose, and the enjoyment of many. To my knowledge here have been 4 constructions in that area over time, and our understanding is that the one in place today, was the old wooden Walkley Methodist Hall, delivered by horse and cart to the Forge.

Hi Heartshome, I guess you are right. I have looked again at a picture of the cafe & it does have a tin roof but looks as though sides are wood  - if it had been a tin chapel the sides would have been tin too.

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Looks like George V - so 1912 to 1936 according to this

http://sunnyfield.co.uk/dayspast/stamps_on_postcards.php

(pity about the small images - but I think from a wider google search the 1911 stamp isn't a full profile portrait)

trying to figure out if the ghostly silhouette in the top left of the photo is a distant tree or rooftop - looks a little angular but having problems focussing on it...

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