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Can someone tell us what's in the foreground in this photo?


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Screenshot 2020-12-08 at 09.42.45.jpg


Does anyone know what we're looking at in this one?

Obviously Park Hil flats in the distance but what's this carpark and the building to the right in the foreground?

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6 hours ago, Sheffield History said:

Screenshot 2020-12-08 at 09.42.45.jpg


Does anyone know what we're looking at in this one?

Obviously Park Hil flats in the distance but what's this carpark and the building to the right in the foreground?

Is it possibly Sheaf  Street - Harmer Lane, around The Sheaf Valley Swimming Baths? Possibly part of the old Joseph rogers and sons buildings?

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1 hour ago, Heartshome said:

Is it possibly Sheaf  Street - Harmer Lane, around The Sheaf Valley Swimming Baths? Possibly part of the old Joseph rogers and sons buildings?

I think the photo is taken from Commercial Street, so a bit too far away from Harmer Lane. Could the car park be associated with the YEB offices that were located near here before they moved to Parkway Avenue?

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Guest leksand
2 hours ago, Lemmy117 said:

I think the photo is taken from Commercial Street, so a bit too far away from Harmer Lane. Could the car park be associated with the YEB offices that were located near here before they moved to Parkway Avenue?

As lemmy117 suggests it is taken from Commercial Street and is overlooking the site where Ponds Forge ISC now stands. The ramp to left of picture, mid range, is still there and leads up, from Sheaf Street, to the bridge linking Ponds Forge and the Park Square Island.

Scratch that. The sight lines are not correct for Commercial Street - it must be from an elevated position above Pond Street or Shude Hill.

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Having investigated a little further it would appear that the photo was taken from somewhere around 32 Shude Hill, or a position above roughly where it stood. The car park in the foreground is bound by Wheel Hill. I don't know what the buildings are but I've picked them out (dark green) on a 60s/70s map which regretably also shows a number of other buildings in the area which must have been demolised by the time of the photo. Sight lines are shown in bright green.

wheelhill.jpg.a90fa991f41c0b2f07c0aee842fe5f9c.jpg

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Here's the view back the other way i.e. taken from Park Hill Flats, showing the black building:

96062587_Sheafstreet1964photo.png.3902fac975fd2814f5fcc917adc531c5.png

and here it is next to Ponds Forge coloured in yellow on a 1964 map.  But what is it? Best guess at the moment is part of George Senior & Sons Ponds Forge works - Senior's Forge Ltd was wound up in December 1974.

670640729_Sheafstreet1967.png.3e1391e547a1cadd84f60d5268f2b8bf.png

But Kellys for 1969 shows no business's on the even side of Sheaf Street:

221167596_1969KellysDirectory.png.4718f9386bc4a2420ef70dac9d113110.png

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It's definately George Seniors' Ponds Forge Works. The gateway you can see with the Doric Arch over it, was rebuilt, using new materials I think, just around the corner on Pond Hill in a close copy of the original.

As a kid I used to go with my mum to pay the "leccy bill" to the upstairs pay office of the Yorkshire Electricity Company just around the corner in Commercial Street. This office was located just below the turret which you can just see in the black & white photo above. The wooden floor of the office used to bounce in time with the big forge next door.

When they demolished the forge they found that the main forge base, put in in the Victorian Era, was too much for modern demolition men to cope with.

It can still be found lurking on the grass verge just to the left of the modern Ponds Forge swimming baths entrance.

Perhaps a kind "Link Fairey" would attach images from Picture Sheffield  images t01296 and u06286.

hilldweller

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