Bandstands in the park

[fentonvillain]

I have recently written a poem extolling the virtues of park bandstands and now I am hoping to make a video to accompany it with stills and movie of bandstands or places where they have been removed and not replaced. I have a feeling that there was a bandstand at one time in Millhouses Park, Endcliffe Park, Norfolk Park and Graves Park but I can't recall exactly where they were located. Any help on this is much appreciated.  And any particular memories or photos.  The only bandstand I can picture in my mind today is that in Weston Park which has been refurbished rather nicely. But I feel High Hazels and Firth Park, Hillsborough and Longley also had them. Ecclesfield Park still has one, doesn't it? Chapeltown?   

Thank you. 

[Lyn 1]

Firth Park did and I could still take you to the spot  where it stood. 

[Lysanderix]

My earliest memory of the bandstand in Firth Park was that it was a part of an area that was fenced off.I understand that that was on account of it being cultivated during the War in the Dig for Britain campaign.Whatever, even after the fencing was taken down Mum was afraid the soil contained “lockjaw” after years of being fertilised by horse muck and I was forbidden to play there.🤨

[southside]

The bandstand in Graves Park (more an outdoor theatre) was located in the old quarry just opposite the Morrisons Store on Meadowhead. Take the path leading into Graves Park located just above the bus stop opposite Morrisons, follow the path, bearing off to the left leads to the old quarry (bit muddy this time of year) once in the quarry, stand looking towards Meadowhead with the quarry wall to your left, the bandstand was straight in front, now removed and covered in bushes, it's hard to imagine there ever being an outdoor theatre in that location, as youngster's we played hide and seek around the old theatre stage which had access underneath, a great place to hide.

The photographs of the outdoor theatre on Picture Sheffield seem to have disappeared with their recent website update!!

[fentonvillain]

2 hours ago, southside said:

The bandstand in Graves Park (more an outdoor theatre) was located in the old quarry just opposite the Morrisons Store on Meadowhead.

Yes, I am pretty certain you are spot on.  That picture, usually seen from the top of a tram just as you were about to get off, certainly rings my bell. Many thanks.

[hilldweller]

The bandstand in Hillsborough Park stood on a level area immediately at the top of the steep grass bank that ran up from the pond.

I can remember in the 70's that just the raised platform remained with the superstructure and ornate roof canopy removed.

There are many pictures on Picture Sheffield including Y02026.

I remember the extended family reunions that took place on Whit Mondays back in the 50/60's. We usually met up near the bandstand together with about 50,000 other Sheffielders.

If you look on Google Maps satellite view you can just about make out the imprint in the grass.

As kids we used to ferret about in the nearby grass looking for the small flat stone which marked where the ill fated lady ballonist fell to her death.

hilldweller

[fentonvillain]

I am very grateful for the reminiscences so far received. I wonder if anyone can recall sitting listening to a performance in a bandstand? I have a vague recollection of a silver band in Weston Park but I am aware of photographs of crowds on deckchairs watching/listening to such performances on, maybe, a Sunday afternoon .    My late father-in-law, in the 50s and early 60s played LPs on a sound amplifier to audiences in deckchairs from a bandstand which, although cut down to just a platform still exists in a park in Ashbourne.   It all seems so "gentile", so "heart-warming". Can it really have been like that?   Please feel free to take part in this reminiscence. 

BANDSTAND IN THE PARK

 

The crowd was hushed, the birdsong stilled,

The lawns, such bright and stripey deckchairs filled,

and as the plaintive cornet sang,

the old church clock in harmony rang.

 

It was a vision to behold,

A story often told

In parks and gardens everywhere,

The bandstand concert always there.

 

It’s how it had been down the years,

Songs of comfort, tunes of tears,

Music with the power to ease,

A placid scene beneath the trees.

 

Through the decades years have ranged,

And down those years how things have changed.

In parks and gardens stand forlorn

The bandstands, quiet now, as if at dawn.

 

No bands, no singing maids,

No uniforms, no cornets played.

All the deck chairs put away,

Never to return on a sunny day.

 

These public places long ago

Were places where our lives were slow,

But now, it seems, what people need

Is somewhere green where they can speed.

 

Joggers, cyclists, scooters, too,

Speeding heedless of the people who,

With some longing, still recall

The times when parks were meant for all,

 

 

 

 

A place of calm yet crowded, full

Of Floral beds and river trill.

I think one day it would be grand

To sit again at our Band stand.

 

To hear the music, see the faces,

Let the tunes take us to places

Far away, or hear the shows

Or simply in our chairs repose

 

The Bandstand surely plays a part

In bringing, in the towns and cities, art

In music, speech and drama,

Opening up a panorama

 

Let’s hear it for The Bandstand please

Restore its place among the trees,

Return the blackbird and the lark

But give us music in our Park!

 

© 14 Sep 2021

Please respect copyright. 

[hilldweller]

34 minutes ago, fentonvillain said:

I am very grateful for the reminiscences so far received. I wonder if anyone can recall sitting listening to a performance in a bandstand? I have a vague recollection of a silver band in Weston Park but I am aware of photographs of crowds on deckchairs watching/listening to such performances on, maybe, a Sunday afternoon .    My late father-in-law, in the 50s and early 60s played LPs on a sound amplifier to audiences in deckchairs from a bandstand which, although cut down to just a platform still exists in a park in Ashbourne.   It all seems so "gentile", so "heart-warming". Can it really have been like that?   Please feel free to take part in this reminiscence. 

I remember taking a trip down to the Weston Park Museum one weekend, This would be in the days when it was a worthwhile place to visit before it was converted in a poor man's Disneyland for under fives.

I never got to enter the museum as I spent a very pleasant couple of hours listening to a very professional brass band. The mainly elderly audiance were indeed sat round on collapsable chairs aranged in concentric circles.

This would be in the seventies I think.

hilldweller

 

[SteveHB]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/354885040994

[Heartshome]

On 02/02/2022 at 13:51, southside said:

The bandstand in Graves Park (more an outdoor theatre) was located in the old quarry just opposite the Morrisons Store on Meadowhead. Take the path leading into Graves Park located just above the bus stop opposite Morrisons, follow the path, bearing off to the left leads to the old quarry (bit muddy this time of year) once in the quarry, stand looking towards Meadowhead with the quarry wall to your left, the bandstand was straight in front, now removed and covered in bushes, it's hard to imagine there ever being an outdoor theatre in that location, as youngster's we played hide and seek around the old theatre stage which had access underneath, a great place to hide.

The photographs of the outdoor theatre on Picture Sheffield seem to have disappeared with their recent website update!!

Hia, the photo's on PICTURE SHEFFIELD are:-

u07140 - u07141 - w00485 - w00509 

                                                                                        Ok Heartshome

[Ponytail]

Open Air Theatre, Graves Park. 

w00509

 

Sheffield Musical Union at the Open Air Theatre, Graves Park. 

w00485

 

World War Two, Holidays at Home - "Merrie England", Graves Park Open Air Theatre. 1944

https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;u07140&pos=1&action=zoom&id=59890

 

https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;u07141&pos=1&action=zoom&id=59891

Also:

From a JG Graves Souvenir Booklet. 

https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;v01274&pos=377&action=zoom&id=43051

 

[Ponytail]

On 04/07/2023 at 21:17, SteveHB said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/354885040994

 

Brass Band playing in the Bandstand, Firth Park. 

Chairs 3d.

[Lyn 1]

The top of the Firth Park pavilion clock tower makes an almost ghostly appearance in the middle distance of the photo just to the left of the bandstand. 

[Ponytail]

19 minutes ago, Lyn 1 said:

The top of the Firth Park pavilion clock tower makes an almost ghostly appearance in the middle distance of the photo just to the left of the bandstand. 

Well spotted, I'd missed that.