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Gleadless - Photo Thread


DaveH

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Having refered in another thread that I had once offered some pictures to gleadless.net but never got a reply and having promised to post them here its about time I got around to it.

Most of these pictures have been made into then and now shots and I will post these initially in the then & now discussion topic and when they are all there I will move them as a single location block to the then & now showcase.

If anyone else has pictures of this area (not just Gleadless but the area of SE Sheffield which gleadless.net covered) then feel free to post them here along with any other comments about this area.

I have actually posted some of my Gleadless shots already in other threads so to start us off here is one of them

Norton Aerodrome, lying derelict and unused, 1971

1971_079.JPG

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Gleadless Common in 1971

Viewed from near the bottom looking up towards Hurlfield Road.

This picture is taken with Leadbeater Road on my left, the view shows to the left the other Leadbeater which goes to the old farm, Ashleigh School fields and the Gleadless Crescent houses beyond. On the right Durlstone Road can be made out.

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Not quite sure where I took this shot overlooking the Gleadless Valley

It looks like a view of Ironside road taken from somewhere near the old 28 bus terminus.

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Hope you don't mind me posting these here but here's a similar view, taken from the top of the 13 storeys which shows Ironside Road with Blackstock Road behind it.

Panned right to cover a bit more of the Valley:

Ashleigh School in the distance, Raeburn & Leighton Roads (near the bottom of the picture):

Sorry, these are straight from the slides and haven't been cleaned or corrected yet.

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Hope you don't mind me posting these here but here's a similar view, taken from the top of the 13 storeys which shows Ironside Road with Blackstock Road behind it.

Panned right to cover a bit more of the Valley:

Ashleigh School in the distance, Raeburn & Leighton Roads (near the bottom of the picture):

Sorry, these are straight from the slides and haven't been cleaned or corrected yet.

Excellent work Markbaby

This is exactly the sort of pictures I was thinking of using in this thread now that, sadly, gleadless.net appears to have been replaced with a link to St. Lukes hospice to sort of replace a little of their work on this area of Sheffield.

I know from the other thread you started on heavy snowfall that you are from this area of Sheffield and have an in depth knowledge of it so any posts you place here are gratefully accepted.

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My friend Stuart0742 didn't like those "spots" on my picture of Gleadless Common and has gone to the trouble of cleaning it up a bit for me so here is a cleaner version of the same picture.

Thanks to Stuart for doing this.

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It looks like a view of Ironside road taken from somewhere near the old 28 bus terminus.

I think you're right Markbaby as this would fit in perfectly in my negative sequence on the original 1971 film between shots in Herdings Park and of those very tower blocks atop Herdings Hill. I would have taken the Norton Aerodrome shot first, entered the park from the entrance near Herdings Junior school and left through its main entrance on Raeburn Road near what was the N0 28 bus terminus, and then gone up the hill to the tower blocks.

Although not sure of the EXACT location here is my first go at a Then & Now shot (then Oct 1971, now Jan 2009)

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This is Ashleigh lower school in January 1973 on a cold, snowy day.

Ashleigh lower was, before it became comprehensive in 1969, Hurlfield Girls School on Hurlfield Road near the water works and Hag lane tanks.

The building was demolished in 1984 and replaced with a small private housing estate in 1988

Ex students of Ashleigh will know that as well as being the lower school for years 1-3 (or 7 - 9 as they are now) it was also the centre for the art department, it had the best hall of the 2 buildings witha proper stage and a depressed hall "dancefloor" and, worst of all, to get to the upper school (ironically at a lower level down the hill) you either had to walk across that muddy dirty field, or take a longer route on a footpath which went past a smelly old pigstye.

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This is Ashleigh lower school in January 1973 on a cold, snowy day.

Ashleigh lower was, before it became comprehensive in 1969, Hurlfield Girls School on Hurlfield Road near the water works and Hag lane tanks.

The building was demolished in 1984 and replaced with a small private housing estate in 1988

Ex students of Ashleigh will know that as well as being the lower school for years 1-3 (or 7 - 9 as they are now) it was also the centre for the art department, it had the best hall of the 2 buildings witha proper stage and a depressed hall "dancefloor" and, worst of all, to get to the upper school (ironically at a lower level down the hill) you either had to walk across that muddy dirty field, or take a longer route on a footpath which went past a smelly old pigstye.

Here is a then & now of the same picture of Ashleigh school.

The now shot is January 2009, almost exactly 36 years after the then.

It really does need that snow in the shot to make the comparison though.

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The other half of Ashleigh school was on Gleadless Road.

This was built in 1960 as the new "Central Technical School" to replace the one in Leopold Street in town which became the Education Offices. It became comprehensive in 1969, combining with the old Hurlfield Girls School, half a mile away across the field to become Ashleigh Upper School, housing years 4 & 5 (or 10 & 11 as they are now) and the sixth form. It also had specialist areas for science and music. The building remained as Ashleigh school even after the demolition of the lower school but sadly this building too has been demolished, at some time around the turn of the century, to be replaced with yet another small housing development.

The picture shows the view from the top floor of the building, taken in May 1973, looking out over the Gleadless Road entrance, over the Gleadless Valley to the Herdings estate beyond, instantly recognisable with those 3 tower blocks on the top of the hill.

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The picture shows the view from the top floor of the building, taken in June 1973, looking out over the Gleadless Road entrance, over the Gleadless Valley to the Herdings estate beyond, instantly recognisable with those 3 tower blocks on the top of the hill.

Here is that picture as a then & now.

Due to the demolition of the school I was stood on top of and the building of new private properties the Now picture taken in January 2009 had to be taken from Gleadless Road, just near where the school entrance is in the Then shot that the students are walking up from. this gives a much lower, closer viewpoint of what is in the background and those trees don't half get in the way, if I had taken this one in June to match the Then shot seasonally the trees would probably mask the entire view.

Notice that those 3 towers have now become only 2.

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I did my sixth form A level studies at Ashleigh upper so I am in part an ex Ashleigh student, although I consider myself really a Norfolk school old boy. I have another thread for pictures of Norfolk school on the Arbourthorne but not suprisingly I also have a few extra shots of Ashleigh.

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Gleadless Townend.

A well known location for many years, it features a lot on picture sheffield with the link road being built between Ridgewat Road and Norton Avenue and in Pauline Shearstons book "A history of Gleadless"

Here is Townend service station in October 1971, at that time a Shell station. The site was originally the cricket ground behind the Red Lion, which can still just be seen behind the petrol station in this shot.

Reason for edit, - pub name corrected DaveH, 30/10/2009

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Here is Townend service station in October 1971, at that time a Shell station. The site was originally the cricket ground behind the Horse & Lion, which can still just be seen behind the petrol station in this shot.

A then and now picture based on the previous picture of Townend service station, then is October 1971 and Now is January 2009. Note that it is no longer a Shell station.

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Gleadless Townend.

A well known location for many years, it features a lot on picture sheffield with the link road being built between Ridgewat Road and Norton Avenue and in Pauline Shearstons book "A history of Gleadless"

Here is Townend service station in October 1971, at that time a Shell station. The site was originally the cricket ground behind the Horse & Lion, which can still just be seen behind the petrol station in this shot.

OK Stuart0742,

This is another of those pictures which seems to have a lot of spots and blemishes as not surprisingly it is the very next negative to that one of Gleadless Common that you cleaned up.

Do you want to have a go at cleaning this one up as well?

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OK Stuart0742,

This is another of those pictures which seems to have a lot of spots and blemishes as not surprisingly it is the very next negative to that one of Gleadless Common that you cleaned up.

Do you want to have a go at cleaning this one up as well?

I will have a go and repost it

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I will have a go and repost it

Stuart has now cleaned up this photo in post #14 which should now appear "spotless", but the thaen and now shots have been left with the original "spotty" image so that it truely is a 1971 original and not a modified in 2009 reprint.

I am surprised that while cleaning up this picture Stuart didn't try to identify the half a dozen or so circa 1970 cars in the filling station.

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The Herdings allotments.

With the estate being built on old farmland it was very fertile.

Many new residents on the estate had come from slum clearance in the City Centre and finally had a proper garden instead of just a yard and saw that as a big advantage, my grandad, a keen gardener certainly did.

Also available to residents who enjoyed gardening were these allotments between Leighton Road and Herdings Avenue just off Norton Avenue at Gleadless Townend. My grandad didn't get an allotment but he did get planning permission to put a greenhouse up in his back garden.

Residents will be familiar with this footpath which was a public footpath through the allotments and formed a short cut from opposite the bus terminus on Leighton Road down to Gleadless Townend, - it cut off having to walk the full length of Leighton Road to the Cutlers Arms and then walk down the steep bit of Norton Avenue saving a good 10 minutes.

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The Herdings Allotments as a 1971 - 2009 then & now

Oh the memories! Thank you Dave, not many people would have taken a photo of that path.

I remember as a child, walking through the allotments with my mum from Herdings through to Gleadless Road and passing through the housing estate that's visible at the end of the path as it was just being built. I said to my Mum "Wouldn't you like one of these houses?" and she said "They're too dear for us, they're £2,000 each"!

The allotment my Dad had is just out of sight , on the left hand where the path slopes steeper.

The amount of times I've cycled up and down that path, quite scary in the dark with only a dynamo driven light.

Thanks again for the posting

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Oh the memories! Thank you Dave, not many people would have taken a photo of that path.

I remember as a child, walking through the allotments with my mum from Herdings through to Gleadless Road and passing through the housing estate that's visible at the end of the path as it was just being built. I said to my Mum "Wouldn't you like one of these houses?" and she said "They're too dear for us, they're £2,000 each"!

The allotment my Dad had is just out of sight , on the left hand where the path slopes steeper.

The amount of times I've cycled up and down that path, quite scary in the dark with only a dynamo driven light.

Thanks again for the posting

Thanks Markbaby

Obviously I took the picture because I too have similar memories of taking that short cut and even of cycling down there in about 1968, at night, with dynamo powered lights.

At the top terminus end are a few get off and push sharp bends as you enter past the doctors house and the end house of that long block on Leighton Road.

At the very bottom is the allotment society gardeners hut where you could buy peat, compost, paraffin and seeds. If you turn right here you go past the end of Herdings Avenue and come out at Gleadless Townend, but if you go straight on up a narrow gennel it goes into those houses you mention, The littlewood Estate on Littlewood Road which is a cul de sac and the path joins it near the end, however, another even narrower gennel then goes up onto Gleadless Road, meeting it at a point somewhere between Townend and the Heeley and Sheffield house.

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From the top of that allotment path we face out onto Leighton Road.

Opposite is the Herdings Bus terminus just in front of the Castelayne old peoples nursing home. this used to be the terminus for the 51 bus in the 1960's -70's and before that the 105 bus but the bus numbers have all changed now. In the winter of 1962 -3 we waited ages for a bus to get up Norton Avenue and built a giant snowman at the side of the bus stop. The snow could get really bad up there, - see markbaby's pictures in the thread on when we had real snow!

The road on the right is Leighton Drive which meets Leighton Road at the bus stop junction. My dad was involved in an accident there in 1977 when a mini taking the corner on the wrong side of the road onto Leighton Drive ran into my dads Ford Corsair waiting to pull out.

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