Going...Firvale?

[dunsbyowl1867]

Noticed at the weekend they are building a "Tesco express" on the site of the old Cannon Hall Pub/Petrol station at Firvale AND that there are plans to demolish these shops and the road behind - Skinnerthorpe Road? I would't want to live there but that will be another bit of history gone to be replaced by .. a traffic island!

[johnm]

Hi Dunsbyowl, Great pictures from you once again!

Living at Page Hall, Fir Vale was a place I spent plenty of time at. The Cannon Hall had a great Jazz night one evening a week in the 60's - hosted by the Climax Jazzmen ( a mate of mine Harry Jarvis played the bass).

The ex-service mens club on the site was also popular I believe.

More progress !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John

[Bayleaf]

I was born on Skinnerthorpe Road just after the war, and we lived there with my grandparents until I was 6 when we were given a council house on the Longley estate. I had relatives there until the early 70's. I remember walks in the allotments where Firvale School is now, and shopping trips meant Banners at Attercliffe rather than town. Every couple of weeks we visited my other grandparents on Clarence Street, and I remember the final bit of the tram ride home in the dark down the steep bit of Barnsley Road with sparks coming from the tracks (brakes?) I started school at Owler Lane Infants, and remember climbing endless stone steps from the Owler Lane entrance to the school entrance.

[Guest TCV]

What's the name of that church in the centre of the first pic? That's where I went to boy's brigade

[dunsbyowl1867]

What's the name of that church in the centre of the first pic? That's where I went to boy's brigade

Is it Trinity or Holy Trinity? Is it a methodist church? I think part of the church building is now a mosque.

[Bayleaf]

Is it Trinity or Holy Trinity? Is it a methodist church? I think part of the church building is now a mosque.

Firvale Trinity Methodist if I remember right. I ought to know, I was christened there, but don't remember much about it! The church is still there but part of the other buildings (schoolroom?) is now a mosque as you say. I can remember them having kids film nights there on a Friday I think. They stopped just as I was getting old enough to go, but I went with an older cousin once, pretty riotous as I remember! The bit of Owler Lane from Firth Park Road to Rushby Street was always known as 'Store's Hill' in our family, because the 'big' Co-op was there. I lived with my parents and grandparents on Skinnerthorpe Rd and two of my aunties and their families lived in the 2 adjacent houses. They all backed onto a high redbrick wall with broken glass set in the top, which was the backyard wall of the Co-op. I remember getting my hair cut at Charlie Hague's on Rushby Street, and there was a smashing chippie next door where we went every Friday for our tea. On the corner opposite there used to be a herbalist where you go and have draught sarsaparilla from pub-type pumps.

[dunsbyowl1867]

Firvale Trinity Methodist if I remember right. I ought to know, I was christened there, but don't remember much about it! The church is still there but part of the other buildings (schoolroom?) is now a mosque as you say. I can remember them having kids film nights there on a Friday I think. They stopped just as I was getting old enough to go, but I went with an older cousin once, pretty riotous as I remember! The bit of Owler Lane from Firth Park Road to Rushby Street was always known as 'Store's Hill' in our family, because the 'big' Co-op was there. I lived with my parents and grandparents on Skinnerthorpe Rd and two of my aunties and their families lived in the 2 adjacent houses. They all backed onto a high redbrick wall with broken glass set in the top, which was the backyard wall of the Co-op. I remember getting my hair cut at Charlie Hague's on Rushby Street, and there was a smashing chippie next door where we went every Friday for our tea. On the corner opposite there used to be a herbalist where you go and have draught sarsaparilla from pub-type pumps.

Great memories Bayleaf - it's sad what's happened to the area. My little boys wanted an ice lolly on Sunday. I was sure there was a newsagents by the traffic lights - long gone - possibly replaced by the Polish Supermarket, the old co-op is an Asian grocers and across on Barnsley Road next to the Blue Orchid Chinese takeaway is a large Afro Carribean supermarket none of which sold ice lolly's so i wasn't popular!

Bayleaf - can you pick you old house on this map from 1905? Do you know - that a large house called "Fir Vale" off Skinnerthorpe Road? We lived on Ellerton Road for 4 years in the 1970s which is just being built on this map!

[mickjj]

My wifes cousins used to have the Butchers shop in the row of shops in the photo. That was in the seventies.

[Bayleaf]

It isn't there. I've seen the map before, and I think our row of 4 houses was built on the Skinnerthorpe Rd side of the site of the big house. Most of the houses on the road are terraced with front doors opening onto the pavement. The row where we lived are in a gap, set high above the street level, with flights of stone steps up to the front doors and to the passageway into the back yards. I remember being intrigued by a large block of stone at the bottom of the passage steps with SP&L painted on it in fading white letters. When I asked what it meant I was told it was from the war years. Apparently there was a ladder hung up in the passageway, and a stirrup pump was available there, so that in case of an incendiary attack, people knew where to get help! I remember the stirrup pump. My granddad used it for watering his allotment. If we asked nicely we kids were allowed to do the pumping. Not daft my granddad!

That memory came back to haunt me a few months ago. I was helping ARCUS, the Sheffield uni archaeologists to clean up some finds from one of their sites, when out of a pile of old bits of metal what did I pick up but the remains of a stirrup pump! When I explained what it was to the group of 20-odd year-olds I was working with I felt ancient, holding an object from my childhood that was now an archaeological find!

In the mid-60's I worked at Firth Park Library, and one of the jobs we had to do was calling at houses to collect long-overdue books, and I remember on one occasion calling at a house on either Baretta St or Hinde St, can't remember which now, that still had gas lighting in the front parlour!

[theowldave]

My nan & grandad still live on Skinnerthorpe, one of the only remaining residents after 60 years!. The whole road is being demolished to be replaced with new builds once the last residents have gone. very similar project to parsons cross and the manor.

It's horrible down there now!

[Guest eightbelow]

Its like the bronx there now, my parents still live up Whiteways and I spent a lot of time in the Cannon late 80's. My grandfather ran a clothing shop in Firvale and I spent countless hours there in the summer holidays and after school.

[Guest alantoft]

Firvale Trinity Methodist if I remember right. I ought to know, I was christened there, but don't remember much about it! The church is still there but part of the other buildings (schoolroom?) is now a mosque as you say. I can remember them having kids film nights there on a Friday I think. They stopped just as I was getting old enough to go, but I went with an older cousin once, pretty riotous as I remember! The bit of Owler Lane from Firth Park Road to Rushby Street was always known as 'Store's Hill' in our family, because the 'big' Co-op was there. I lived with my parents and grandparents on Skinnerthorpe Rd and two of my aunties and their families lived in the 2 adjacent houses. They all backed onto a high redbrick wall with broken glass set in the top, which was the backyard wall of the Co-op. I remember getting my hair cut at Charlie Hague's on Rushby Street, and there was a smashing chippie next door where we went every Friday for our tea. On the corner opposite there used to be a herbalist where you go and have draught sarsaparilla from pub-type pumps.

Great memories. My grandfather was the caretaker of the Church during the 60's. Although I know little of this area of Sheffield this photo brought back many memories of my visits to my grandparents.

[dunsbyowl1867]

It isn't there. I've seen the map before, and I think our row of 4 houses was built on the Skinnerthorpe Rd side of the site of the big house. Most of the houses on the road are terraced with front doors opening onto the pavement. The row where we lived are in a gap, set high above the street level, with flights of stone steps up to the front doors and to the passageway into the back yards. I remember being intrigued by a large block of stone at the bottom of the passage steps with SP&L painted on it in fading white letters. When I asked what it meant I was told it was from the war years. Apparently there was a ladder hung up in the passageway, and a stirrup pump was available there, so that in case of an incendiary attack, people knew where to get help! I remember the stirrup pump. My granddad used it for watering his allotment. If we asked nicely we kids were allowed to do the pumping. Not daft my granddad!

Up in Sheffield at the weekend - took a walk down there and some photos. Jog any more memories Bayleaf? It looks very sad now.

[dunsbyowl1867]

The Tescos being built on the old filling station site :