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Hollinsend Recreation Ground


DaveH

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I noticed in the picture of the original amusements rhat the roundabout was missing.

Probably removed for reasons to do with health and safety.

However, no longer a roundabout it has now been replaced with this raised, inclined soft ring thing :unsure:

It's still a roundabout - Health and safety Dave

Nowadays roundabouts are static, and kids walk round them wearing crash helmets. (very slowly of course) he he

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It's still a roundabout - Health and safety Dave

Nowadays roundabouts are static, and kids walk round them wearing crash helmets. (very slowly of course) he he

There are 3 types of sundial, in order of how common they are, there is horizontal, vertical and ecliptic

Now if that ring was inclined at the correct angle to ecliptic for Sheffields lattitude it would make an excellent sundial.

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So lets have a look at what we have got now, -

A walking treadmill, - walk all day and get nowhere

A novelty see-saw, with proper seats

Don't know what this is, but clearly designed for you to fall off and hurt yourself

Another treadmill walking thing

Amazingly this little collection DOUBLES the number of childrens amusements in the park in one go.

More novelties added for this year to the ones in the previous, quoted post

A handie-turnie thingie

A peddle it and go nowhere thingie

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More novelties added for this year to the ones in the previous, quoted post

A handie-turnie thingie

A peddle it and go nowhere thingie

However, down in the wooded area just outside Gleadless School where one of their old prefabricated portacabin classrooms used to be is a new adventure playground

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However, down in the wooded area just outside Gleadless School where one of their old prefabricated portacabin classrooms used to be is a new adventure playground

You can get to the new adventure playground across this new, pointless bridge (in French Pointless Pont lol ) which is low, bendy and doesn't actually cross over anything.

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Guest al_linfit

Strangely for a park of this size and range of facilities there are no public toilets and never have been.

There are toilets in the pavilion as at one time it also had a small cafe, but today these are hardly public.

Thanks for the post , it brings back a few memories

If I remember correctly, there was the proverbial brick built block of toilets close to the Hollinsend Road entrance,not that I'm in the habit of remembering public toilets!

But growing up on Basegreen (50's and 60's) and going to schools controlled by Derbyshire, school holidays were often a few days out of sync with Sheffield school holidays.

Going to play football in the park, it wasn't unusual to find the school still open and "lessons" being conducted in the school allotments.

Naturally, we would offer our condolences to the lads doing, what appeared to be, hard labour and they would gracefully reply by hurling stones, sods or anything else they could find or get away with.

Obviously they had an endless ammunition supply, our big advantage was that we could hide, in relative safety, behind the said block of toilets before moving off for a noisy game football just out of range of the unfortunate boys.

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Thanks for the post , it brings back a few memories

If I remember correctly, there was the proverbial brick built block of toilets close to the Hollinsend Road entrance,not that I'm in the habit of remembering public toilets!

But growing up on Basegreen (50's and 60's) and going to schools controlled by Derbyshire, school holidays were often a few days out of sync with Sheffield school holidays.

Going to play football in the park, it wasn't unusual to find the school still open and "lessons" being conducted in the school allotments.

Naturally, we would offer our condolences to the lads doing, what appeared to be, hard labour and they would gracefully reply by hurling stones, sods or anything else they could find or get away with.

Obviously they had an endless ammunition supply, our big advantage was that we could hide, in relative safety, behind the said block of toilets before moving off for a noisy game football just out of range of the unfortunate boys.

Welcome to Sheffield History Al-Linfit and thanks for posting.

As you say Derbyshire, where, incidently, I currently teach although I live in Sheffield, sometimes has slightly different holidays to Sheffield, and at the time you are talking about the boundary between Yorkshire (Sheffield) and Derbyshire was much closer to Hollinsend Park than it is today now that Sheffield has expanded. At the time it crossed Mansfield Road / Birley Moor Road in the dip where the Sheffield buses terminated and the Shire Brook passes beneath the road and it also cut Gleadless Townend in half, the White lane side being Derbyshire and the Gleadless Road side being Sheffield, leading to some interesting "half day closing" arrangements at the local shops.

I don't have much recollection of the public toilets, because as you said, it's not something most people are in the habit of noting, BUT, - the main entrance near Gleadless Church (Christ Church Gleadless) on Ridgeway Road has changed considerably since Ridgeway Road has been widened, made dual carriageway both ways, and then widened again to allow for the Sheffield Supertram to Crystal Peaks and Halfway (Derbyshire locations!!!) and Herdings Park to run in both directions down the centre of it. The main entrance used to be much bigger and had a lot more things on it, a miniature golf course and tennis courts that were used and in good repair for example. I am sure you are right and that there was at one time proper public toilets in this area.

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I had my own private toilet, in fact I had two.

One was the brook that ran through the park, the other was at home and as I lived on Ridgehill Avenue it was not too much of a problem to nip home and come straight back to my friends still trying to catch fresh water shrimps in the brook.

I cannot remember the public toilets. Even the church did not have toilets, so as a choir boy I had some near misses as I had to make it home before I could go.

jiginc

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I had my own private toilet, in fact I had two.

One was the brook that ran through the park, the other was at home and as I lived on Ridgehill Avenue it was not too much of a problem to nip home and come straight back to my friends still trying to catch fresh water shrimps in the brook.

I cannot remember the public toilets. Even the church did not have toilets, so as a choir boy I had some near misses as I had to make it home before I could go.

jiginc

You must have lived fairly close to where I live now then jiginc.

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You must have lived fairly close to where I live now then jiginc.

68 Ridgehill Avenue. moved in 1959.

jiginc

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68 Ridgehill Avenue. moved in 1959.

jiginc

That would be on the opposite side of the road to the park, but quite close to the entrance footpath betwen 2 houses (I think numbers 53 and 51) which leads through the park, past the kids amusements and exits between another 2 houses onto Ridgeway Road.

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Guest al_linfit

At the eastern end of the path is the Ridgehill Avenue entrance

One of my mum's friends and therefore my "auntie" lived on Ridgehill Avenue next to the path in to the park (the house on the right in the photos), and I remember squeezing through the hedge at the bottom of the garden to get in to the park.

I can remember the muddy brook, but preferred it when it crossed Holinsend Road and emerged from underground. In the spring, you could find frog spawn followed by tadpoles and finally frogs, always interesting, but not quite as good as the newts you could find in the quarry.

As kids we always thought that the "Centre Spot" marked the actual boundary between Yorkshire and Derbyshire, by the time licensing laws became important, Sheffield had extended it's boundaries making the majority of local pubs come under its control, although you could still have a last pint in the "Old Harrow" and the make a quick sprint down White Lane in to Derbyshire and the "Phoenix" which didn't close till 11

Thanks for the photos DaveH,

"In the recreation grounds heyday anyone passing down Hollinsend Road on a hot summers day would see people playing golf, bowls and tennis in this busy little park".

That's how I best remember it, glad to hear that the bowling greens are still in good order, as my dad spent many years playing for the veterans team.

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One of my mum's friends and therefore my "auntie" lived on Ridgehill Avenue next to the path in to the park (the house on the right in the photos), and I remember squeezing through the hedge at the bottom of the garden to get in to the park.

I can remember the muddy brook, but preferred it when it crossed Holinsend Road and emerged from underground. In the spring, you could find frog spawn followed by tadpoles and finally frogs, always interesting, but not quite as good as the newts you could find in the quarry.

As kids we always thought that the "Centre Spot" marked the actual boundary between Yorkshire and Derbyshire, by the time licensing laws became important, Sheffield had extended it's boundaries making the majority of local pubs come under its control, although you could still have a last pint in the "Old Harrow" and the make a quick sprint down White Lane in to Derbyshire and the "Phoenix" which didn't close till 11

Thanks for the photos DaveH,

"In the recreation grounds heyday anyone passing down Hollinsend Road on a hot summers day would see people playing golf, bowls and tennis in this busy little park".

That's how I best remember it, glad to hear that the bowling greens are still in good order, as my dad spent many years playing for the veterans team.

Welcome to Sheffield History Al-linfit, although I think I may have welcomed you already.

Thanks for posting and I am glad that I have evoked these memories, - and you have reminded me also of the time when licencing hours in pubs were until 10:30 in Sheffield and 11:00 in Derbyshire. Seem to remember making similar mad dashes to get an extra pint in.

The houses you mention are, as a said earlier, odd numbers in the 50's (I think numbers 51 and 53, but it may be 53 and 55).

As I still live very locally to this area I suppose I could just walk over there and have a look and be back home with 10 or 15 minutes.

I regularly walk down there anyway to exercise the dog, but it isn't me who leaves all that dog mess on the footpath :angry: the park has special bins for it.

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This picture shows the source of the stream and its path.

The line of longer green grass across the middle of the picture marks its path.

The left hand extremity of it is its source.

The houses beyond are on Ridgehill Avenue.

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Hello DaveH, now, as far as I can think back.....! If you stand on Hollinsend Road facing the school, the gennel is on the left, just about where you took the above photo (left one). The plaque was on your right on the school wall. I think it was brass, with an engraving or lettering saying that Mr Spurr, headmaster, was killed outside the school. It may have been....the late sixties is the best I can do I'm afraid. If it was brass, especially nowadays, it would have been stolen ages ago, sadly. I think he was a very tall thin person with a bald head. Something tells me somewhere that this was the reason for having the lollipop lady on Hollinsend Road at the junction with Jaunty Lane. The 'orchard' as we called it, was across the road before the middle school was built. We used to go across there for science lessons and make clay dams and waterwheels in the stream that ran through it. If you need any more I'll dredge the old brains. Thanks for the photos you posted, I enjoyed seeing them. Its all changed now. It was unimaginable that the bowling greens would have to be completely fenced off for their own safety! Back to the gennel by the school, 'Little Plum' lived on the first house to the left of it (if you are facing the park). He'll be long gone by now. Thanks.

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Welcome to Sheffield History Dagro and thank you for trying to post new information into this topic.

However, although you seem to have been able to quote one of my earlier posts about the stream in Hollinsend Park you have not added a comment of your own.

You need to type your reply either at the very beginning before the quoto (in which case your comments will come before the quote, - RichardB tends to prefer this method these days, or after all the quote stuff, - which will end with something like , in which case the quote will be in front of your reply.

As you have done this twice, and so repeated your quote, I have removed the duplicate copy.

Hope to hear from you again soon.

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Welcome to Sheffield History Dagro and thank you for trying to post new information into this topic.

However, although you seem to have been able to quote one of my earlier posts about the stream in Hollinsend Park you have not added a comment of your own.

You need to type your reply either at the very beginning before the quoto (in which case your comments will come before the quote, - RichardB tends to prefer this method these days, or after all the quote stuff, - which will end with something like /quote], in which case the quote will be in front of your reply.

As you have done this twice, and so repeated your quote, I have removed the duplicate copy.

Hope to hear from you again soon.

Hey Dagro, you have just done the same again by quoting one of Touche's posts about the brass plaque outside Gleadless Junior School but you haven't added what you wanted to say to it.

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After heavy rain, like that which we had in the week before these pictures were taken (there were floods in the town centre) then the course of the stream becomes obvious.

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Hey Dagro, you have just done the same again by quoting one of Touche's posts about the brass plaque outside Gleadless Junior School but you haven't added what you wanted to say to it.

Same mistake / problem again Dagro.

You could try using the larger ADD REPLY button at the bottom of the page instead of the REPLY button in the post.

This will allow you to type in your response without having the complication of quoting a post.

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I had my own private toilet, in fact I had two.

One was the brook that ran through the park, the other was at home and as I lived on Ridgehill Avenue it was not too much of a problem to nip home and come straight back to my friends still trying to catch fresh water shrimps in the brook.

jiginc

Hang on a minute jiginc, -

Kids used to play and fish in that brook.

..and you used it as a toilet! :blink:

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Hang on a minute jiginc, -

Kids used to play and fish in that brook.

..and you used it as a toilet! :blink:

Boys will be boys !!!!!!!!

jiginc

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Boys will be boys !!!!!!!!

jiginc

Yes I suppose so.

Wouldn't do it too often though.

There are also a lot of girls who used to play around the brook as well.

We wouldn't want you to get arrested! lol

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Guest shullie

These steps lead to a shelter. It had a bench seat running round the inside and was very useful when it rained. It had a slate roof but no windows just a large entrance space at the front.

jiginc

It was the local 'hut' in the 60's and 70's where the kids use to hang around and scare the odd dog walker brave enough to walk past in the dark ( things don't change that much). it was still there in the late 1970's I think it was taken down in the early 1980's

I also remember the stream at the top being quite deep, - deep enough to float down it in a tin bath.. neighbors had cine film of all of kids who lived around the 'green' on Ridgehill doing just that - and the slopes also seem much steeper especially when they had snow on them and you were go hell for leather down them on a sledge!

The 2 houses at the top, use to be painted Blue and had a gate that led straight into the park, as many of the house up there did, and the park was just an extension of their gardens for many of the kids up there, especially in the 60's and 70 . It always seemed safe to us...

There was also a communal bonfire in the park at the top until the 70's when the council decided it wasn't going to allow them and would steal the wood...so we would hide it until the 5th - and then as always the bonfire was policed by the families, and the men[dads] did the fire and the fireworks and the mums did all the cooking. Every one chipped in and it was a real communal affair with all the old people being brought down and fed.

My family lived there from when the houses were built until the late 60's, but we remained on that road, moving further up to live in one of the shops at the top of Ridgehill Avenue . My great uncle who had lived there since the houses were built ( I think he was one of the builders) told me when I was a child, that the park had been built by out of work men in the 1930's.

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It was the local 'hut' in the 60's and 70's where the kids use to hang around and scare the odd dog walker brave enough to walk past in the dark ( things don't change that much). it was still there in the late 1970's I think it was taken down in the early 1980's

I also remember the stream at the top being quite deep, - deep enough to float down it in a tin bath.. neighbors had cine film of all of kids who lived around the 'green' on Ridgehill doing just that - and the slopes also seem much steeper especially when they had snow on them and you were go hell for leather down them on a sledge!

The 2 houses at the top, use to be painted Blue and had a gate that led straight into the park, as many of the house up there did, and the park was just an extension of their gardens for many of the kids up there, especially in the 60's and 70 . It always seemed safe to us...

There was also a communal bonfire in the park at the top until the 70's when the council decided it wasn't going to allow them and would steal the wood...so we would hide it until the 5th - and then as always the bonfire was policed by the families, and the men[dads] did the fire and the fireworks and the mums did all the cooking. Every one chipped in and it was a real communal affair with all the old people being brought down and fed.

My family lived there from when the houses were built until the late 60's, but we remained on that road, moving further up to live in one of the shops at the top of Ridgehill Avenue . My great uncle who had lived there since the houses were built ( I think he was one of the builders) told me when I was a child, that the park had been built by out of work men in the 1930's.

Many thanks for posting Shullie, it all sounds so familiar to me

You must have lived very close to where I live now

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It was the local 'hut' in the 60's and 70's where the kids use to hang around and scare the odd dog walker brave enough to walk past in the dark ( things don't change that much). it was still there in the late 1970's I think it was taken down in the early 1980's

I walk my dog (a German Shepard / Border Collie cross breed) down there. She is a good dog for security, a brilliant house dog for guarding the place and always wary of anyone. If any kids tried to scare me while dog walking my main immediate concern would be preventing the dog from taking their leg off.

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