A young visitor to Sheffield

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These are some of the memories of a young boy from Misterton, Nr Retford, when he visited Sheffield.

I loved Sheffield. I think it was mainly because of its trams. They were some of the finest in Britain, and were well kept, clean and they ran on time. There seemed a tram coming along at any moment of the day. They seemed all to converge on Fitzalan Square, at that time the centre of the city. My Uncle and Aunt lived in Granville Road, a rather steep road with no shops, but what one would call middle-class houses. The road ran down past the main gates of Norfolk Park, so called because it was the gift of the Duke of Norfolk to the city.. There was a house somewhere in the vicinity of the park which had been the residence of the Norfolks when they visited Sheffield. This family owned most of the land on this side of the city and that parliamentary area was, and I believe still is, called the Park Division. Uncle Tom was a Methodist and attended a modern chapel more like an Anglican Church and called the Victoria Church. The organist I remember was a fine musician H.O. Ashmore. His playing was a delight to listen to. He had previously been organist at the Pitsmoor parish church, the area where my father’s relatives lived. Ashmore had extemporised very cleverly on a voluntary based on the tune “Tommy make room for your Uncle, make room for your uncle do!” and the vicar had spotted the basic tune, so he gave Ashmore the sack. The few services I attended with Uncle Tom at Victoria I enjoyed tremendously. Among those who held office along with Uncle Tom at Victoria was a middle aged man named George Bassett, of Liquorice Allsorts fame, and Bassett’s brother in law, Thomas W. Ward, whose firm has now grown to immense proportions but then was a small foundry. There was also William Irons, later Sir William, a prominent member of the City Council. It seemed about that era, that if you wanted to get on in business, then join the Methodists.

Later on Uncle and Aunt moved to 506 City Road, opposite the Intake Crematorium and Cemetery, mainly to be near their son Archie, who lived at 510. Archie was an engineer, who had served his apprenticeship with John Brown’s, later Firth Brown. He was a likeable sort of chap, Uncle Tom’s only child. He later on moved to Rotherham to become managing director of the Midland Iron Company in Bradgate. They were iron founders and brick makers. There was not much in the way of playthings at Aunt Hannah’s but she let me play a strange sort of gramophone. It consisted of a longish tube, over which one slid ebonite tubes on[e] of which I remember was “The Holy City” An arm came down, with I imagine a kind of needle in it and one got a rather poor rendering of the song or piece recorded on the tube. I believe this machine was called a phonograph and was one of the earliest automatic music producers, and could have been the invention of Alexander Graham Bell, who I believe invented the first telephone. Uncle Tom had a telephone with earpiece and mouthpiece in one, but to get any real sound, the speaker had to press a bar between the two, and I was on occasions allowed to speak to Uncle T. at “The Office” - the Navigation Board’s H.Q. near the Nunnery Colliery which was almost in the city centre. I am often reminded of Aunt Hannah for my wife frequently refers to some of my small personal possessions; pens, pencils, notebook, prayer book, keys and similar objects as my “Acts and Apostles”.

Link to the complete story.

http://www.alangagg.f2s.com/story_of_a_boy...m_misterton.htm