DaveH Posted December 10, 2012 Author Share Posted December 10, 2012 The annual "Arbourthorne Lights" have gone up in the shopping centre again this week. Same ones as in previous years, although they do look slightly reduced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest suzy Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 The annual "Arbourthorne Lights" have gone up in the shopping centre again this week. Same ones as in previous years, although they do look slightly reduced. Presume they are down now??? Any more news to report on the Shopping Centre? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted January 8, 2013 Author Share Posted January 8, 2013 Presume they are down now??? Any more news to report on the Shopping Centre? When I walked past there from my mums last Sunday (6/1/13, - 12th night, day they should come down, - except Council don't do works jobs on Sundays) they were still up. Both pet based businesses (one in old chemists and one in old doctors surgery) seem to be up and running Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest suzy Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 When I walked past there from my mums last Sunday (6/1/13, - 12th night, day they should come down, - except Council don't do works jobs on Sundays) they were still up. Both pet based businesses (one in old chemists and one in old doctors surgery) seem to be up and running Thanks for the update Dave. As an aside : do you know what happened to the Herberts by any chance? Seeing their "old" flat in the pics brought back a few memories!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted January 8, 2013 Author Share Posted January 8, 2013 Thanks for the update Dave. As an aside : do you know what happened to the Herberts by any chance? Seeing their "old" flat in the pics brought back a few memories!! No idea. I have not seen Stephen since about 1970 (he passed his 11+ in 1967 and went to Concorde Park school). A friend of mine at University in 1974 that went to the same school as him said that he did well at school but did not go to university, - instead he started a career in computing, - but that was nearly 40 years ago. I have not seen his younger sister Diane since I left Norfolk in 1972 when she was probably in the 3rd year at the time. They lived in the flat above the chemists with their mother, - I don't remember ever seeing their father at all so perhaps he wasn't around. The family first moved to Sheffield in 1964 and came originally from Blackpool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wobblybob Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 My Mum Jean Hamilton worked at Graham Lints grocery shop at 132 for quite some time with a lady called Margret. Must be around the 68/69 period. My sister and I used to go and play round the back of the shops on saturdays and school hols. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted January 8, 2015 Author Share Posted January 8, 2015 Not been much in this topic for 2 years now, but recently the library services site www.picturesheffield.com has released some new pictures of interest. As picturesheffield does not allow use of their images I can only provide a link to the picture which is here http://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?action=zoomWindow&keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s16910&prevUrl= The picture shows the official opening of the Northern Avenue branch of the B&C co-op on 8 August 1958. This may explain why the building does not appear in the previously posted 1950s OS map. As my mum worked in the B&C from the late 60s until her retirement in the early 90s I showed her a copy of this picture. It predates our move onto the Arbourthorne by about 3 months, but we already had family living on the estate. The first thing mum noticed was those 2 lads at the front of the picture looking into the camera, - they are my older cousins Peter and Frank and I had not recognised them because I can't remember them being that young (they are about 7 -8 in the photo) What a brilliant find, - I will probably buy mum a proper copy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted January 8, 2015 Author Share Posted January 8, 2015 I only just found this thread. As part of my drainspotting duties I also keep an eye on the bollards around the city. These are cast iron examples and must have been a standard at some time becuase they're all over the place. Unfortunately they're another thing that disappears when they put those stupid barriers in that are supposed to stop motor bikes, but also stop my 'stop me and buy one' type cargo trike! That's another story though. A few years ago they did some work on the Arbourthorne and removed all the privet and hawthorne hedges to gardens and replaced them with small walls and railings and also put in proper gates and concrete off road hardstanding for a car if there was room. I don't know if they removed and replaced the bollards at the same time, _I will try to check next time I walk down that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 So, now that the Finnegan houses between East Bank road and Eastern Avenue are gone and new housing is rapidly taking their place the Arbourthorne Hotel is looking rather isolated surrounded by land awaiting redevelopment. But the writing is on the wall for the Arbourthorne Hotel as well. It closed for good a few weeks ago and is now boarded up awaiting demolition Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 I have previously posted a picture of the Arbourthorne Hotel taken in 1971 for my school Geography research (link fairy, it's on here somewhere) However, before the building goes forever here is a "Then and Now" study, - top picture October 1971, lower picture February 2015 (taken today) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 There is now not a single pub left on the whole of the Arbourthorne. Nearest is the Punch Bowl at the top of Gleadless Common. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveThursby Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 My brother Malcolm (ex Norfolk Sec) and his friends went to see Joe Cocker at the Arbourthorne Hotel - Cannon Ales. I used to go to the off sales there with my cousins who lived on Errington Crescent in a prefab. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted February 22, 2015 Author Share Posted February 22, 2015 My brother Malcolm (ex Norfolk Sec) and his friends went to see Joe Cocker at the Arbourthorne Hotel - Cannon Ales. I used to go to the off sales there with my cousins who lived on Errington Crescent in a prefab. So Joe cocker appeared there as well as Marc Bolan and T-Rex I never got to see either of them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted February 22, 2015 Author Share Posted February 22, 2015 I used to go to the off sales there with my cousins who lived on Errington Crescent in a prefab. By a "prefab" are we talking about the Finnegan / Vic Hallam type prefabricated housing which was on this site 1967 - 2013 Or, like me, are your cousins hurricane surviving veterans of the original post war prefabs 1946 - 1966 (or 1962 in some cases)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveThursby Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Yes Dave, their prefab could be reached by going round the back of the Arbourthorne Hotel and down a little grassy slope to a gate at the left hand side of the "field". You went through the iron gate and walked left across Errington Crescent at about 45 degrees - their surname was Thorpe. Their neighbour were the Duckers, John Ducker I recall. The Tingle's lived over the back of my cousins on a road I cannot recall the name of. Actually, my cousins prefab was quite nice, it even had a built in fridge in the kitchen, in fact I think they all did, reminded me of an American home for some reason. Their fire wasn't open but reminded me of a woodburner which had doors with little glass panes in but like most families then, they burned coal. I can remember the coal fire smoke from everyone's fire swirling down the road which characterised that area with the lower level of the prefab roofs. Their prefab was made uninhabitable in 1962 and so they were rehoused.My auntie Joyce was interviewed by Bill Grundy for Granada TV after their prefab's roof was damaged in the February 1962 gale. Shame really, there was a good community on Errington Crescent with much pride with both people's homes and their gardens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveThursby Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 By the way, the houses on Brimmesfield Close are built on an area we used to call the Black Hills. It was either the site of old coal mine workings or the slag heap left over but I remember it being built upon in around 1956-1957. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 By the way, the houses on Brimmesfield Close are built on an area we used to call the Black Hills. It was either the site of old coal mine workings or the slag heap left over but I remember it being built upon in around 1956-1957. I lived in the prefabs on the Algars (Algar Place, Close and Drive) on the opposite side of Eastern Avenue to the Erringtons. We suffered similarly in the 62 gales but being lower down the hill our house survived and we stayed there until November 1965 before being rehoused. Our next door neighbours the Twiggs were also interviewed by Mike Scott and Bill Grundy for TV (scene at 6:30 news), their house wasn't badly damaged either but did have some. They were rehoused almost immediately as their father was disabled, having a blue Invacar his prefab was the only one with a garage in the back garden as well as the Anderson shelter converted to a coal bunker. There is a whole topic on Sheffield History about the Sheffield gale to which I have been a major contributor. If you haven't seen it already you may want to take a look and possibly contribute to it. I have linked / posted a Pathe Newsreel film a section of which covers damage to the prefabs on the Erringtons, - take a look, you may recognise someone. The link to this topic is here http://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic/496-the-great-sheffield-gale-1962/?hl=gale Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 By the way, the houses on Brimmesfield Close are built on an area we used to call the Black Hills. It was either the site of old coal mine workings or the slag heap left over but I remember it being built upon in around 1956-1957. The black hills were the slag waste from Deep Pits coal pit on the other side of City road behind the Travellers Rest, the area of land between Brimmesfield Close and the quarry (where the Captive Queen was built just outside Norfolk park, which is currently a football field was once the "smouldering tip" as it was always hot underfoot and regularly caught fire due to marsh gas / firedamp (technically methane gas) from the old coal workings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveThursby Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 When I lived at 74 Eastern Avenue in the 50's, the area off Brimmesfield Road was referred to by us local kids as the Black Hills, there may have been another one behind the Travellers. I remember walking home from Craddock Road infants school and watching the Sheffield Public Works Dept (SPWD) building the houses which is why they are newer and sort of out of character with the housing in the area i.e. Arbourthorne in general. Before they built on there, my mother always knew when I'd been on the black his because I was black with the coal dust. Can't think really why they didn't build on it at the time that Arbourthorne was built before the war. I had a friend called Gayle Clarke who lived on Algar Crescent and their rear garden backed onto the black hills and before the houses were built used to sometimes, with her, walk from Brimmesfield Road to her back garden. A girl in my class was Connie White who lived on Craddock Road and her garden backed onto the back hills as did Anne Worral's who lived on Brimmesfield Road to the right of that area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveHB Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 When I was at Norfolk we called the one at top of Spring Lane 'the burning tip' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted March 3, 2015 Author Share Posted March 3, 2015 When I was at Norfolk we called the one at top of Spring Lane 'the burning tip' That's right Steve, the smouldering tip and burning tip are one and the same, that was the outcast from deep pits behind the travellers rest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted March 3, 2015 Author Share Posted March 3, 2015 When I lived at 74 Eastern Avenue in the 50's, the area off Brimmesfield Road was referred to by us local kids as the Black Hills, there may have been another one behind the Travellers. I remember walking home from Craddock Road infants school and watching the Sheffield Public Works Dept (SPWD) building the houses which is why they are newer and sort of out of character with the housing in the area i.e. Arbourthorne in general. Before they built on there, my mother always knew when I'd been on the black his because I was black with the coal dust. Can't think really why they didn't build on it at the time that Arbourthorne was built before the war. I had a friend called Gayle Clarke who lived on Algar Crescent and their rear garden backed onto the black hills and before the houses were built used to sometimes, with her, walk from Brimmesfield Road to her back garden. A girl in my class was Connie White who lived on Craddock Road and her garden backed onto the back hills as did Anne Worral's who lived on Brimmesfield Road to the right of that area. Yes Dave that area was also previously a mine hence the coal, not the same area I was talking about area (Brimmersfield CLOSE / ROAD??). But I am aware of it. In the 60s and 70s a kid in our year called Keith something or other (memory fails me) lived in the "flats" that were built on this area. I think I have put some pictures of this area, the different looking houses which I thought were old folks homes and the flats / maisonette type buildings behind earlier in this topic, or possibly a similar related one. Your post has cleared up some confusion about why this housing is different from the standard late 1930s Arbourthorne housing. So was the black hills between Craddock Road and Algar Crescent built on in the 1950s? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveHB Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 That's right Steve, the smouldering tip and burning tip are one and the same, that was the outcast from deep pits behind the travellers rest. How come it had tomato plants growing on it, I often wonder how they got there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted March 3, 2015 Author Share Posted March 3, 2015 How come it had tomato plants growing on it, I often wonder how they got there? Never noticed that Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveHB Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Never noticed that Steve Definitely tomato plants Dave, and a fair few, I took some of the green tomatoes home one day after school, but they wouldn't ripen, the burning tip at top of Spring Lane contained more than coal dust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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