Meadowhall in 1967

[Sheffield History]

[Lysanderix]

It was better known as Tinsley. Meadowhall was a distinct and smaller nearby area. Rumour has it that the name Meadowhall became predominant since it was considered a more marketable name when the Mall came on the scene ,following the end of Hatfields.

My old company, The Tinsley Rolling Mills Co. Ltd.  is situated in front of the cooling towers with WT Flather alongside. The large piece of empty ground between TRM and the cooling towere was where Hatfields laid out and assembled their 11/14% manganese wear resisting rail track work.

Hatfields is the large steelworks to the left centre of the then being constructed Tinsley Viaduct..

I reckon the picture was taken during works shut down  fortnight…owing to the lack of smoke

[SteveHB]

The large slanty roofed building, bottom left on the photograph, isn't  that this school on Siemens Close?

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/

[winco1960]

What memories this picture has brought back to me!!!!

Up in the top left hand corner is my old school plus the Standon housing estate that we lived on. My mother still lives in the same house on Standon.

If the picture is around the late sixties then the estate would have just been built. The top half of Hinde House school can be seen along with the tennis courts and the playing fields.

The bottom part was built over in the seventies with a new housing development.  Wolley Woods and Concord park are clear to see.

We built many dens in those fields plus in later years many of the pubs we spent a lot of time in are no longer there.

It is easy to forget how much has changed over the years. 

[Roger Arevalo]

Were the cooling towers part of a power station or was it something else? Did the gasometers get filled from coke ovens or was it a gasworks?

[SteveHB]

1 hour ago, Roger Arevalo said:

Were the cooling towers part of a power station or was it something else? Did the gasometers get filled from coke ovens or was it a gasworks?

https://www.tierneyphotography.co.uk/blog/sheffield-industrial-icons-tinsley-cooling-towers

"The Blackburn Meadows Power Station was built between 1937 and 1942. The two Tinsley cooling towers were numbered 6 and 7 and were two of seven cooling towers that stood on the site. The towers weighed about 3,074 and 2,019 tonnes respectively.

In addition to Blackburn Meadows Power Station, two older coal-fired power stations built in the 1900s once stood on the site and generated electricity.

In the late 1960s, the M1 was built around the cooling towers while the power station was still operational. The two remaining towers, which were 250ft high, stood around 17 metres away from the motorway.

The main power station was demolished in the 1980s. The cooling towers remained standing as engineers did not have the expertise to bring them down safely without compromising the integrity of the motorway."

[SteveHB]

2 hours ago, Roger Arevalo said:

Were the cooling towers part of a power station or was it something else? Did the gasometers get filled from coke ovens or was it a gasworks?

Not sure about that, but some knowledgeable member(s) on here may know the answer.

Here is a list taken from the 1957 directory.

[SteveHB]

[Lysanderix]

To my knowledge this gas holder was used solely to store gas. I do not recall there being a gasworks or coke ovens on the Meadowhall site….The gas holder was the largest of its type in the world and , with current events in mind, was short sightedly removed in 2015 ….having been used to store N Sea gas after the ending of town gas production.

The gas holders at Grimesthorpe and Effingham Road were relatively small ,so it is possible that the excess Town gas from their coke ovens might have been piped to Meadowhall. The holder was always full following works weeks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Edmund]

When the Meadowhall shopping centre was approved, the bosses at the newly privatised British Gas East Midlands decided that the rusty gasholders would be an embarrassment in full view of the up market shoppers expected there.  So a repainting project was authorised.

I left Sheffield in October 1988 to start work at DeMontfort Street in Leicester HQ of East Midlands Gas.  One of my first jobs in the contracts department was to administer the tender for the painting work. I set up a site visit for tendering firms, and we all trooped up the stairway to the top of one of the holders, which were pumped up high.  All of us were in suits trying to avoid the greasy rusty sides of the holder as we went up the steps.  Walking about on the top was an experience like being on a small planet, as there was a false horizon all around.

[SteveHB]

A Brief Introduction to Gasholders

Gasworks once brought light and warmth to homes across England. Hundreds of their most prominent landmarks – gasholders – are now being demolished and lost from the landscape forever.

https://heritagecalling.com/2020/07/15/a-brief-introduction-to-gasholders/