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The Five Arches Viaduct


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You can see the earthworks under construction on this photo.

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/pi...ff.refno=s17179

There also used to be two large dams between Herries road south and Penistone road but I've naver managed to find a picture of those.

There's also a photo here of Rawsons dam not long after the road was built, although it's called Oxspring dam in the caption.

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/pi...ff.refno=s17148

The first photo clearly shows by how much the modern/present ground level has had to be raised to meet the road on both sides.

I wonder why they deemed it necessary to raise the road in the first place? Possibly because they knew it was likely to flood so they left plenty of low-lying ground around it? Strange how nobody realised this when they decided to raise it and build on it in later years.

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We need more information on this viaduct - anyone know anything about it ??

The hill ,cut through by the railway, from the viaduct as you look to the right from Hillsborough, used to be known by me and my mates in the sixties( and still by me today) as Scotsmans Hill. Does anyone out there know why? You used to be able to see some of the pitch and players during football matches from the top of this hill. Another memory of the area is the marshy.land opposite the Sheffield Wednesday ground on Penistone Rd . If I remember correctly it dissapeared when the trading/industrial estate was built. I think the water came from a stream that flowed under the road from the side of Bramhalls Gold Room. The 'Marsh' could be viewed through some green railings opposite the Gold Room (I dont think that was there at the time) and seemed to spread with some open water( as a fisherman I often wondered if it contained any fish,other than sticklebacks) to the back of some brick built factories at the side of the Don. can anyone confirm this and are there any photo's of the area?

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The hill ,cut through by the railway, from the viaduct as you look to the right from Hillsborough, used to be known by me and my mates in the sixties( and still by me today) as Scotsmans Hill. Does anyone out there know why? You used to be able to see some of the pitch and players during football matches from the top of this hill. Another memory of the area is the marshy.land opposite the Sheffield Wednesday ground on Penistone Rd . If I remember correctly it dissapeared when the trading/industrial estate was built. I think the water came from a stream that flowed under the road from the side of Bramhalls Gold Room. The 'Marsh' could be viewed through some green railings opposite the Gold Room (I dont think that was there at the time) and seemed to spread with some open water( as a fisherman I often wondered if it contained any fish,other than sticklebacks) to the back of some brick built factories at the side of the Don. can anyone confirm this and are there any photo's of the area?

From about the time of WW2 until just a few years ago, members of my family lived in the larger of the two Wardsend Cottages under the Five Arches. They always referred to the hillside as "The Moonshine". The stream that you referred to was a mill goit that filled the Darwins Mill Dam that originally extended under the road until the road was built in the 1930's. Bramhall's Gold Room was originally part of Kitsons Garage then Blue Star and the Gold Rooms were built as overnight accommodation for long distance lorry drivers (in the days before large lorry cabs). I used to help my cousin take the radio accumulators down to Kitsons for recharging before Wardsend Cottages received the mains supply in the 1950's.

My uncles had allotments in the meadows under the Moonshine and the water table was so high that every garden had it's own shallow well. I've posted other stuff about Wardsend under Wardsend House in places now gone I think.

hilldweller

P S Just had a look at the 1950's O S map (No. 244) and the buildings behind Kitsons garage are marked as a Transport Hostel, good to know the memory is still working after 60 years.

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My uncles had allotments in the meadows under the Moonshine and the water table was so high that every garden had it's own shallow well. I've posted other stuff about Wardsend under Wardsend House in places now gone I think.

hilldweller

Link to Wardsend House

map from around 1930.

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From about the time of WW2 until just a few years ago, members of my family lived in the larger of the two Wardsend Cottages under the Five Arches. They always referred to the hillside as "The Moonshine". The stream that you referred to was a mill goit that filled the Darwins Mill Dam that originally extended under the road until the road was built in the 1930's. Bramhall's Gold Room was originally part of Kitsons Garage then Blue Star and the Gold Rooms were built as overnight accommodation for long distance lorry drivers (in the days before large lorry cabs). I used to help my cousin take the radio accumulators down to Kitsons for recharging before Wardsend Cottages received the mains supply in the 1950's.

My uncles had allotments in the meadows under the Moonshine and the water table was so high that every garden had it's own shallow well. I've posted other stuff about Wardsend under Wardsend House in places now gone I think.

hilldweller

P S Just had a look at the 1950's O S map (No. 244) and the buildings behind Kitsons garage are marked as a Transport Hostel, good to know the memory is still working after 60 years.

Thank's, I can remember fishing with my net for sticklebacks in the muddy stream at the side of the goldroom buildings. we used to get through the railings and climb down at the side of the tunnel thet took the water undre the road. On one occasion my mate fell in and sank up to his neck in black, stinking sludge. I think the mill pond must have silted up and become overgrown by the late sixties because I dont remember any open water on the 'goldroom' side of the road. Do you think the 'marsh' and open water on the other side of the road was the remnants of the same pond and was it quite a big expanse of bullrushes as I seem to remember.

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Thank,s, the map helps a lot. Do you think it shows that the pond has silted up or is it still open water?

The pond has long since been filled in on both sides of Herries Road South and industrial buildings erected on it's site.

The pond water supply came from the overflow of a larger pond at the bottom of Leppings Lane.

When I was a kid in the fifties the Leppings Lane pond, on the site of the milk depot and Law Brothers Garage was silted, but water still overflowed forming a small waterfall at the side of the road. The outfall was culverted under Leppings Lane, down the right hand side of the brick-built sub-station where a remnant can be still seen today and bent around under Penistone Road. It then ran roughly parallel with Herries Road, (opposite the bus garage) and bent back again almost behind Hiram Wild's factory to run parallel to Penistone Road again to the dam you refer to.

In the fifties I think the bit of the dam upstream of Herries Road South was largely silted but there was open water by the Darwins steelworks on the Don side of the road.

There was a sort of palling fence to the road on that side and it used to amuse me to run alongside this fence and listen to the reflected sound of the traffic which made a sort of waa-waa sound as you ran.

I was stood by the side of Kitson's Garage one day waiting to cross the road when a flat-back lorry deposited several large motor-generator sets on bed-plates at my feet as he came around the corner.

My relatives who lived at Wardsend Cottages were the recipients of a number of large drums of cellulose paint which rolled down into their front garden one day in a similar incident. If you've never seen the interior of a cottage with the woodwork painted bright green or red or yellow then you haven't lived. Well nobody came to claim them :rolleyes:

hilldweller

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The pond has long since been filled in on both sides of Herries Road South and industrial buildings erected on it's site.

The pond water supply came from the overflow of a larger pond at the bottom of Leppings Lane.

When I was a kid in the fifties the Leppings Lane pond, on the site of the milk depot and Law Brothers Garage was silted, but water still overflowed forming a small waterfall at the side of the road. The outfall was culverted under Leppings Lane, down the right hand side of the brick-built sub-station where a remnant can be still seen today and bent around under Penistone Road. It then ran roughly parallel with Herries Road, (opposite the bus garage) and bent back again almost behind Hiram Wild's factory to run parallel to Penistone Road again to the dam you refer to.

In the fifties I think the bit of the dam upstream of Herries Road South was largely silted but there was open water by the Darwins steelworks on the Don side of the road.

There was a sort of palling fence to the road on that side and it used to amuse me to run alongside this fence and listen to the reflected sound of the traffic which made a sort of waa-waa sound as you ran.

I was stood by the side of Kitson's Garage one day waiting to cross the road when a flat-back lorry deposited several large motor-generator sets on bed-plates at my feet as he came around the corner.

My relatives who lived at Wardsend Cottages were the recipients of a number of large drums of cellulose paint which rolled down into their front garden one day in a similar incident. If you've never seen the interior of a cottage with the woodwork painted bright green or red or yellow then you haven't lived. Well nobody came to claim them :rolleyes:

hilldweller

Thanks for your detailed memories they add up to what i recall.

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Guest livingstone

What I really want to know about this bridge is who is Eileen, and does the bloke who braved painting the slogan across the arches, still indeed love her?

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What I really want to know about this bridge is who is Eileen, and does the bloke who braved painting the slogan across the arches, still indeed love her?

In my day slogans on bridges were more political, and no, I don't mean 'give women the vote. More like 'cut the call up' and 'Britain out of Cyprus' etc. W/E.

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We moved onto the 'Cross in 1948, I was about 7, I remember my first sighting of the arches, it was from the back of the moving van we were riding in.. On the north side was written 'vote labour' This was there for years.

In my day slogans on bridges were more political, and no, I don't mean 'give women the vote. More like 'cut the call up' and 'Britain out of Cyprus' etc. W/E.

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In my day slogans on bridges were more political, and no, I don't mean 'give women the vote. More like 'cut the call up' and 'Britain out of Cyprus' etc. W/E.

The slogan painted on the Hillsborough side of the bridge in the 1950's was indeed "Cut The Call-Up Now".

At one time in the 60's a family of large owls were nesting in a hole high up on that face of the bridge and used to dive-bomb anyone waiting at the bus stop outside Elsworth's factory.

My relatives used to wait some way down the road and run back to the stop when the bus was in sight.

HD

Further to the above,as a teenager I was returning home late one night down through the "Donkey Woods" (Walkley Bank Plantation). I was suddenly sent flying on my face into the leaves on the ground by a terrific push on my shoulders. I picked myself off the ground prepared to meet my assailant but there was no-one there.

Then I saw a huge owl swooping down for a second attack and I dodged behind a tree.

I reached the Rivelin Valley Road in about 3 seconds.

HD

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From about the time of WW2 until just a few years ago, members of my family lived in the larger of the two Wardsend Cottages under the Five Arches.

The land to the rear of Wardsend Cottages became home to a few campers during the 1966 World Cup matches at Hillsborough. A fortune had been spent revamping the roads and footpaths around the stadium but no thought was given to the hundreds of fans that turned up with nothing but a tent to live in for the next few days. W/E.

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The land to the rear of Wardsend Cottages became home to a few campers during the 1966 World Cup matches at Hillsborough. A fortune had been spent revamping the roads and footpaths around the stadium but no thought was given to the hundreds of fans that turned up with nothing but a tent to live in for the next few days. W/E.

Before the boundaries were altered when the Tetley plant closed down there was an area of spare ground between the path down to the cottages and the lorry park in front of Tetleys. This was part of the meadows before the plant was built in the late fifties and used to be at a lower level. After it was in-filled we used to have enormous family bonfire night celebrations on there with my aunt supplying the baked potatoes and the home-made parkin. I don't remember the camping but I have no doubt my enterprising cousin would have been around to collect the "site fees" lol

Before the brewery was built, he used to stand by the triangle of land that was by the bottom of Wardsend Road just before football matches and look as if he owned the place. A useful source of extra pocket money.

HD

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I was taking photgraphs around the Five Arches last week. Here are three photos (one a postcard dating from c. 1910 and two taken last week) showing how the road level was raised when Herries Road was built in the 1920s. It must have been raised 8 or 10 feet, making the cottages seem to be in a hollow, and making the bridge piers appear shorter. image.jpg

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Many thanks for that - my husband was only saying last week he wondered just how high the road level must be in relation to the houses. We tend to just drive past so only get a quick view of it all. 

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On 03/01/2017 at 10:48, Wadsleyite said:

I was taking photgraphs around the Five Arches last week. Here are three photos (one a postcard dating from c. 1910 and two taken last week) showing how the road level was raised when Herries Road was built in the 1920s. It must have been raised 8 or 10 feet, making the cottages seem to be in a hollow, and making the bridge piers appear shorter. image.jpg

Hi - you can see in this picture that they built up the road by a considerable amount when it was laid out.  http://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s17179&pos=24&action=zoom&id=19850 

I walked past that cottage after the match the other day - if you fell down the bank from the footpath you would do yourself a serious injury ;-)

 

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I don't see where anyone has answered the question about the viaducts origins....Built by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway which became the Great Central Railway and then a part of the London North Eastern Railway and, finally, British Railways . Dunsbyowls picture shows a GCR loco crossing the viaduct on its way into Victoria Station.

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Just down from there was Scrap dealer Bramall whose special Bentley car was often parked on Herries Rd. There was an Archibishop Herries at York btw. 

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On 2/24/2007 at 14:30, Sheffield History said:

THE FIVE ARCHES VIADUCT

 

LOCATION

Herries Road, Owlerton, Sheffield 6

 

INFORMATION

 

Herries Road itself was built as a scheme of public work by the local unemployed in the early 1920s

 

PICTURES

post-1-1172327427.jpg

 

post-1-1172327947.jpg

Great picture from picturesheffield.com

The dyke that fed RAWSONS DAM, next to the 5 arches, ran from just below TOAD HOLE COTTAGES on what is now Southey Green Road (formally School Lane) not Parson Cross Rd as a previous contributor mentioned. The spring constantly flooded the cellars of the cottages which where on the same site as the old Ritz cinema now demolished.The dyke/stream was covered over when the now park/playground was developed.

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On 4/12/2009 at 12:40, vox said:

 

The first photo clearly shows by how much the modern/present ground level has had to be raised to meet the road on both sides.

I wonder why they deemed it necessary to raise the road in the first place? Possibly because they knew it was likely to flood so they left plenty of low-lying ground around it? Strange how nobody realised this when they decided to raise it and build on it in later years.

The dyke that fed RAWSONS DAM, next to the 5 arches, ran from just below TOAD HOLE COTTAGES on what is now Southey Green Road (formally School Lane) not Parson Cross Rd as mentioned. The spring constantly flooded the cellars of the cottages which where on the same site as the old Ritz cinema now demolished.The dyke/stream was covered over when the now park/playground was developed.

 
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42 minutes ago, crn said:

The dyke that fed RAWSONS DAM, next to the 5 arches, ran from just below TOAD HOLE COTTAGES on what is now Southey Green Road (formally School Lane) not Parson Cross Rd as a previous contributor mentioned. The spring constantly flooded the cellars of the cottages which where on the same site as the old Ritz cinema now demolished.The dyke/stream was covered over when the now park/playground was developed.

We tipped demolition waste into the Toad Hole Dyke where the park/playground is.

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Five Arches.

I never knew the name of the stream that ran down the valley from the Ritz to Cookson Rd and beyond to Wardsend pond and under the road to the Don. What I do know is that it was my playground, much better than the cycle speedway and football pitch that were eventually built years and years after it was made into a rat infested landfill and virtually out of bounds to kids. There was a laughable plan of how the park would eventually look situated over the road from the Forty Foot pub. It was there for a couple of years before they gave up on the idea when the landfill was only half done. I will put this question out. Would the council expect kids in Dore, Totley or Fulwood to prefer a cycle speedway, or a place to swing on ropes, make dens or fish with nets, especially after the children who used to do these things were grown up by the time it was completed? I think not, but it would do for Parson Cross.

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Don't know if anybody is interested but here's the view from the top of the Five Arches down Herries Road towards the Wednesday ground.

View from top of Five Arches 1.JPG

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