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City Station (London North Western Railway)


Guest Falls

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Guest Falls

Does anybody have a description of this once busy goods station or any pictures. I would really be interested.

The LMS ran it when I was kid but older members of my family always refered to it as "The North Western". I suppose it was the volume of business that made it attractive to the LNWR, which generally work the west side of England, to come all the way in to Sheffield and build a very complicated station? They must have had running rights from the MS&L or the Midland. The whole arrangement of lifts to bring the wagons down into the station was amazing.

I was also fascinated by the station itself and was chased out of there more times than I can remember. They always said it was too dangerous for kids and they were probably right. The way they used to haul the wagons around with capstans and rotate them on the turntables was pretty dangerous. One mistake and you could loose a leg or even your life. H & S would go into Cardiac Arrest just thinking about a place like that today.

Regards

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Does anybody have a description of this once busy goods station or any pictures. I would really be interested.

The LMS ran it when I was kid but older members of my family always refered to it as "The North Western". I suppose it was the volume of business that made it attractive to the LNWR, which generally work the west side of England, to come all the way in to Sheffield and build a very complicated station? They must have had running rights from the MS&L or the Midland. The whole arrangement of lifts to bring the wagons down into the station was amazing.

I was also fascinated by the station itself and was chased out of there more times than I can remember. They always said it was too dangerous for kids and they were probably right. The way they used to haul the wagons around with capstans and rotate them on the turntables was pretty dangerous. One mistake and you could loose a leg or even your life. H & S would go into Cardiac Arrest just thinking about a place like that today.

Regards

Chapters 1 & 2 of Stphen Batty's Rail Centres: SHEFFIELD (ISBN 0 7110 1366 7) gives a good account of the inter company rivalry of the early 19c Railways of Sheffield. As you say they had running right over the MS&L and also the Midland.

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Guest transit

Does anybody have a description of this once busy goods station or any pictures. I would really be interested.

The LMS ran it when I was kid but older members of my family always refered to it as "The North Western". I suppose it was the volume of business that made it attractive to the LNWR, which generally work the west side of England, to come all the way in to Sheffield and build a very complicated station? They must have had running rights from the MS&L or the Midland. The whole arrangement of lifts to bring the wagons down into the station was amazing.

I was also fascinated by the station itself and was chased out of there more times than I can remember. They always said it was too dangerous for kids and they were probably right. The way they used to haul the wagons around with capstans and rotate them on the turntables was pretty dangerous. One mistake and you could loose a leg or even your life. H & S would go into Cardiac Arrest just thinking about a place like that today.

Regards

...courtesy of Picture Sheffield ....taken beside the Durham Ox pub .... the Parkway now runs where the carriages are !

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My interest was drawn to this by the sub title :-

"On the Maunche, near the canal basin"

What or where exactly is "The Maunche"?

Is it one of those "where were the following districts in Sheffield please" thread sort of areas, - an old and long forgotten for a small Sheffield district?

If so where exactly was it?

and WHY was it called the Maunche?

The Maunche is very much like the French "La Manche", which translates as the sleeve or the shoulder and is the French name for the English Channel (they could hardly call it the French Channel could they).

Then again the English Channel is hardly the canal basin in Sheffield is it, - so any ideas about this name?

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Guest Falls

...courtesy of Picture Sheffield ....taken beside the Durham Ox pub .... the Parkway now runs where the carriages are !

Thanks! That's a good picture.

My viewing was usually from the top of Snow Hill/Bernard Street or from the back yard of friends of my parents. They lived at the junction of Weigh Lane and Park HIll Lane. All long since demolished.

On the photo, I can just make out the superstructure for the lifts. I assume they were hydraulically operated and the brick tower in the center of the photo must have supported the reservoir/ header tank.

It was amazing how the LNWR engineers managed to fit the whole thing into an area that was seriously congested to begine with.

Regards

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Guest Falls

My interest was drawn to this by the sub title :-

"On the Maunche, near the canal basin"

What or where exactly is "The Maunche"?

Is it one of those "where were the following districts in Sheffield please" thread sort of areas, - an old and long forgotten for a small Sheffield district?

If so where exactly was it?

and WHY was it called the Maunche?

The Maunche is very much like the French "La Manche", which translates as the sleeve or the shoulder and is the French name for the English Channel (they could hardly call it the French Channel could they).

Then again the English Channel is hardly the canal basin in Sheffield is it, - so any ideas about this name?

Hi

That funny litte dog-legged street (actually Wharf Street and and extension of Exchange Street) around the back of the Corn Exchange, was always known as'The Muanche' because there was a pub there of that name. It was part of the Corn Exchange Building and survived the Fire in Jan 1947.

The boys on the PUB'S and WMC section most likely have The Maunche Hotel's pedigree.

Regards

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I can remember getting to the bottom of Duke street and seeing a very high wall the bricks were the typical blue railway type.(I think they were called engineering bricks) I seem to remember the entrance being on the corner before the road went round the back of the corn exchange and railway three wheeler trucks coming in and out. From the top deck of the tram you could just see over the wall.

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Guest transit

Hi

That funny litte dog-legged street (actually Wharf Street and and extension of Exchange Street) around the back of the Corn Exchange, was always known as'The Muanche' because there was a pub of that name there. It was part of the Corn Exchange Building and survived the Fire in Jan 1946 or 47.

The boy's on the PUB'S and WMC section most likely have The Maunche Hotel's pedigree.

Regards

...again thanks to picturesheffield -

Maunche Hotel, 1910

1960, after demolition of the Corn Exchange

The area in the 1980s

After renovation in the 1990s

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Guest Falls

Hi,

These are good photos. Photo #2 was particularly interesting. Its amazing how much detail you forget over the years.

For example, the cars parked in what you might call the forground, are where the old Castlefolds market used to be, in fact one of them may be parked over the tunnel carying the River Sheaf.

Another interesting thing is the Corn Exchange site itself. The Exchange was a huge fortess of a building, as shown on Photo#1, but it had a very deep basement, accessed by two ramps from Wharf Street. A number of wholesale fruit & veg. merchants had offices on the Wharf Street side of the building and used the basement for storage. When they demolished the building, they took it right down to the basement level but left the exisiting ramps for access.

Of the the two buildings on the far side of Wharf Street, the one on the left was used by a number of businesses, principly The Hallamshire Coal Co. (later Burnett And Hallamshire). The one on the right was the LNWR office and these must be the ones the shown in Photo#4

On the skyline to the left of the Hyde Park flats is a gloomy looking tower like a pyramid. This would be the Park Brewery (Inde Coop and Allsop ?). This was located on Cricket Inn Road on a corner of Navigation Hill and opposite the end off Aston Street.

Regards

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Hi

That funny litte dog-legged street (actually Wharf Street and and extension of Exchange Street) around the back of the Corn Exchange, was always known as'The Muanche' because there was a pub of that name there. It was part of the Corn Exchange Building and survived the Fire in Jan 1946 or 47.

The boy's on the PUB'S and WMC section most likely have The Maunche Hotel's pedigree.

Regards

Thanks for the derivation of the name there Falls as it had intrigued me a little.

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Thanks for the derivation of the name there Falls as it had intrigued me a little.

I have just done a site search on the word "Maunche" and there is loads of stuff in the "pubs and WMC's" topics for me to read through so once again thanks for the info.

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