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Closed Schools


DaveH

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Guest Littledaler2

Two of my schools have disappeared - is it me?

Acres Hill Infants - now incorporated into Acres Hill Junior School, Littledale. New houses there now.

Also, Grange Grammar School for Girls, Abbeydale. That was sacrilege, allowing those mansions to become derelict then demolishing them - where will the ghosts go now?

Grange had the best school buildings in Sheffield.

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My first schools are still standing, Malin Bridge Infants and Juniors, and still will be, I think, when the the only thing still crawling about on the planet will be radiation resistant cockroaches !

They knew how to build them in those days.

My second school, which I only attended for two years was Wisewood Secondary Modern. I had passed to go to a school at the other end of the city but my mother was too lazy to get me off in time.

I did enjoy my time at Wisewood with it's inspirational teachers like Mr. Alan Goodfellow, the headteacher, Mr. Crofts and Mr. Hodgkinson, sports teacher. I drove Mr. Hodgkinson to distraction with my athletic non-prowess, it was only years later that I found out that I was born with most of the plumbing in my legs missing. I hold the school record for the cross country run, it was about 5 days I remember including the hospital stay.

Wisewood School is now completely flattened apart from a modern sports hall.

Our wonderous City Fathers, well they make me wonder, decided to combine a good school with a distant failing school to make a one much larger failing school.

My final school, the City Tram Sheds, sorry Central Technical School, was situated in various buildings in the city centre, some of which have been demolished, the rest converted into wine bars and the like.

I didn't like my time at that school, Herbert William Wadge, the headmaster, thought he was in charge of Eton and made us sing a silly school song every morning, we were told by a disgruntled teacher that it was a straight crib from one of the leading public schools. The staff all hated him, especially because he made them wear academic gowns. We worked from pre-war textbooks and the whole atmosphere was akin to Edwardian times.

Here's a picture of what's left of Wisewood School.

HD

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As far as I know, both my Sheffield schools are still open: Gleadless County and King Edward VII Grammar (though I believe the latter is now on two sites). My late father taught in one which has gone, though: Woodhouse Grammar, where he was head of English for many years. I seem to remember that the education authority built a new school in Swallownest and all the "Woodus" pupils and staff moved over there.

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I went to one school previously mentioned in a earlier post Colley School, I left about 1978-9 but I lived across the road from a school not mention yet, I think St Peter RC School, on Morrall Rd Parson Cross.

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Guest David Hague

I went to Deerlands School also known as Deerlands Special School in Parsons Cross in the 90s

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Pipworth Road  infant and junior School is nowhere to be seen .Did it exist or was it a figment of my imagination. When you reached 11 yrs old, you went to a school near by heading toward the Darnall area. Cant remember the name if it, but there was shop near there where you would buy frozen Jubley orange drink. Glynis Dransfield lived near there and also a girl called Jean Curtis whos mum had a shop just past some railway arches? She was my friend at school. She was the glamourous one and I the plain one.This would have been roundabout 1955?

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Hi, another one I can't see mentioned is De La Salle College, Scott Road. 

I believe it closed in the late 70's with pupils moving to All Saints on Granville Road. Also Notre Dame ceased to be a girls-only school and a number of De La Salle boys attended.

I was a pupil at De La Salle from 1964 - 1969 and was formerly a pupil of St. Patrick's, Sheffield Lane Top. 

 

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I didn't, but had to walk past it on family visits to a nearby Aunt and Uncle's. Even as a small boy it seemed a pretty grim and forboding place by comparison with my school... Hucklow Road I & J....a view reinforced, latterly, by a friend who had a miserable time there...being bullied and mocked on account of a speech defect she had . I wonder, since that was fairly common place in the 50s...what was it really like?

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On 26/04/2020 at 16:35, Walesblade said:

Hi, another one I can't see mentioned is De La Salle College, Scott Road. 

I believe it closed in the late 70's with pupils moving to All Saints on Granville Road. Also Notre Dame ceased to be a girls-only school and a number of De La Salle boys attended.

I was a pupil at De La Salle from 1964 - 1969 and was formerly a pupil of St. Patrick's, Sheffield Lane Top. 

 

I was the last Head Boy at DLS in 1968-1969 and I moved to Leeds to study in September 1969.

Many people I know hated DLS but I really enjoyed my time there

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I went Herries school on Penrith Road 85 - 90

Herries was demolished because of its bad reputation from what I've heard. 

 

 

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20210118_112728.jpg

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On 30/12/2020 at 21:55, BornOnShorehamStreet said:

I was the last Head Boy at DLS in 1968-1969 and I moved to Leeds to study in September 1969.

Many people I know hated DLS but I really enjoyed my time there

I went to DLS 1966-73 and have also read the posts on Sheffield forum, many of which are negative. Personally, I enjoyed my time there; there were ups and downs as at any school, but I believe it instilled in me a mantra of 'life-long learning' and by stretching the pupils such as me, gave them a valuable step up in life.

Attached is a group of school photos from 1972 for anyone interested. I am Andy Cotton on Q1972d.

Q1972a.jpg

Q1972b.jpg

Q1972d spotted me on this one.jpg

Q1972e.jpg

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Since my last post I've heard from another ex-Gleadless County pupil, John Wargrave (surname not quite certain) that the original building has closed but that the school is still functioning on the other side of Hollinsend Road, which I think was waste ground during my time there.

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The old building for Gleadless County juniors closed a few years ago when all departments moved across Hollinsend Road to the newer  building, but the old building was recently re- occupied  as a branch of The Bents Green School.

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14 hours ago, BobN said:

The old building for Gleadless County juniors closed a few years ago when all departments moved across Hollinsend Road to the newer  building, but the old building was recently re- occupied  as a branch of The Bents Green School.

That's good to hear, in a way. At least the old building hasn't been knocked down. I wonder why Bent's Green School took it over. I know bent's Green only as a name on bus destination blinds long ago, but isn't it quite a way from Gleadless?

 

EDIT: I just found a short video, narraaed by the current Bent's Green headmistress, about the Gleadless site. The exterior shots of the old building evoked a wave of nostalgia, but the interior appears to have changed beyond recognition. She mentioned the provision of new classrooms, so I suppose that means that the "huts" at the back, where I spent my last two years at the school, will have been knocked down by now.

Oh, and what the hell is a "breakout space"? A school yard or playground?

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The two prefab classrooms at the back have been demolished, but the ugly 70's  extension that takes up half of the rear playground  is still there- although it looks like it could fall down anytime!

 

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12 hours ago, BobN said:

The two prefab classrooms at the back have been demolished, 

 

What a pity, It's those that I remember best - particularly the one nearer to the park, as that was my "home" in J3 and J4 under Mr. Iosson. I remember that they had a classroom at each and a cloakroom in the middle; that cloakroom doubled as a servery, at 12 or so the dinner ladies would turn up pushing our food in metal containers on a trolley, and we'd eat our meal at our desk. I've no idea if the food was cooked somewhere in the main school building or whether it was "imported".

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The prefabs were never "home" to me, I was always in the main building in Mr Dysons class, but I remember the meals being delivered in large grey lorries with "School Meals" on the side, The food was in large aluminium  drums, and was cooked off site, and delivered to all schools by lorry, 

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14 hours ago, BobN said:

The prefabs were never "home" to me, I was always in the main building in Mr Dysons class, but I remember the meals being delivered in large grey lorries with "School Meals" on the side, The food was in large aluminium  drums, and was cooked off site, and delivered to all schools by lorry, 

Thanks for the memory!

Did all pupils eat in their classrooms, or was, for example, the hall converted into a dining room? I never stayed for dinner until I was in J3, so I don't know.

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I never stayed for school dinners, I used to go home every day, but I seem to remember food was served on the ground floor in a kitchen area towards the main hall. This had tables and large kitchen sinks . I remember using these sinks for washing out brushes and pots after art lessons

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7 minutes ago, BobN said:

I never stayed for school dinners, I used to go home every day, but I seem to remember food was served on the ground floor in a kitchen area towards the main hall. This had tables and large kitchen sinks . I remember using these sinks for washing out brushes and pots after art lessons

Sounds hygienic!

As I lived within fairly easy walking distance of school (half a mile or so) I always used to go home for dinner. Then one day Mum had to go out and, for one day, I "stayed for dinner" as it was known. Bingo! I liked the company of the other children, and I liked the food. I asked Mum if I could start staying for dinner. Mum, who prided herself on her cooking (and with good reason) was a bit upset that I'd rather eat someone else's meals instead of hers. We compromised, and I went home for dinner on Tuesdays and Thursdays an stayed on the other days.

   In retrospect, I probably liked the school food because it WASN'T as good as Mum's, the cruder, brasher flavours appealed to my young palate.

 

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On 23/01/2021 at 15:48, Bikeman said:

I went to DLS 1966-73 and have also read the posts on Sheffield forum, many of which are negative. Personally, I enjoyed my time there; there were ups and downs as at any school, but I believe it instilled in me a mantra of 'life-long learning' and by stretching the pupils such as me, gave them a valuable step up in life.

Attached is a group of school photos from 1972 for anyone interested. I am Andy Cotton on Q1972d.

Q1972a.jpg

Q1972b.jpg

Q1972d spotted me on this one.jpg

Q1972e.jpg

I have also heard many negative statements about DLS and like you, I enjoyed my time there which was from 1961 to 1969. I repeated my first year of 6th Form as I had missed quite a bit due to illness. I was the last Head Boy in my final year, 1968-1969 and I played for the Rugby first team and captained Clitheroe house football 2nd team. Played cricket for the school second eleven as well and played once for the school basketball team. I had friends who went on to play United and Huddersfield Town, some of whom I'm still in touch with. Great school trips in the summer holidays as well. France, Spain Italy, Switzerland, Isle of Wight. Happy days

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On 17/05/2021 at 06:58, BornOnShorehamStreet said:

I have also heard many negative statements about DLS and like you, I enjoyed my time there which was from 1961 to 1969. I repeated my first year of 6th Form as I had missed quite a bit due to illness. I was the last Head Boy in my final year, 1968-1969 and I played for the Rugby first team and captained Clitheroe house football 2nd team. Played cricket for the school second eleven as well and played once for the school basketball team. I had friends who went on to play United and Huddersfield Town, some of whom I'm still in touch with. Great school trips in the summer holidays as well. France, Spain Italy, Switzerland, Isle of Wight. Happy days

Sounds like you were very good at sports and well done for being the Head Boy! Clitheroe if I recall, was the red stripe in the tie and I was in Kirkman, the yellow stripe. I was in the school cross country team, although I was better at football and was spotted by SWFC. However, if you didn't get picked for football at DLS in the 1st year, you had no chance and I must have been a better runner. The only school trip we won was down to London and once to Scarborough, when we won the most house points. My parents couldn't afford the summer hols run by the school and as I was a Patrol leader in the Scouts and later, Venture Scouts, always went away with them, funding the trips by car washing and paper rounds morning and night! As you say, happy days....

 

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On 23/01/2021 at 17:48, Bikeman said:

I went to DLS 1966-73 and have also read the posts on Sheffield forum, many of which are negative. Personally, I enjoyed my time there; there were ups and downs as at any school, but I believe it instilled in me a mantra of 'life-long learning' and by stretching the pupils such as me, gave them a valuable step up in life.

Attached is a group of school photos from 1972 for anyone interested. I am Andy Cotton on Q1972d.

Q1972a.jpg

Q1972b.jpg

Q1972d spotted me on this one.jpg

Q1972e.jpg

My attended De la Salle in the late 60s to mid 70s. Unsure on the exact dates as school ages may have differed then, but he was born in March 1958, so imagine he'd have started circa September 1969. Sadly passed away in 2015. Does anyone remember a John Naylor? Lived on Firth Park Crescent.

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