Banana Rooms

[Guest SuzyC]

My Grandpa, Sam Adams, had a wholesale fruit and veg business in Castlefolds market, sadly he died before I was born but the business was carried on by my Mum and her brother, John Adams. The Elder and Fyffe bananas they sold were first ripened in the banana rooms, as they were called, which were in the cellars of the Corn Exchange opposite the market. I can remember being taken there as a little girl on several occasions. It was quite spooky as the Corn Exchange was just a shell of a building, I think it burnt down just the after the war but the cellars were still sound. As you can imagine it was very dark and sectioned off into small rooms for the different companies who sold bananas. They were hung up under lights (can´t remember if they would be gas or electric) to ripen, then carefully repacked into the splendid wooden crates which must have weighed a ton. Sometimes exotic spiders were found in the crates when they first arrived and once Mum told me they had found a dead monkey in one, ugh.

I came across this booklet recently in some of my "junk" and was intrigued what the numbers signified in relation to bananas (some sort of coding maybe), I have just replicated the front and back cover and one of the pages as an example although they contain prices for 324´s, 300´s, 294´s etc. down to 64´s, the middle pages contained a handy ready reckoner. I would love to know the significance of these numbers/gradings if anyone knows.

I used to love "going to market" with my Mum, my favourite was the large sack of peanuts upstairs from the stall, munched on them many a time. I remember fondly some of the "market lads" who worked for them, mostly hefty blokes, however there were a couple of midgets, one called Bucket for some reason, who used to take me down to Granellis for an ice-cream sometimes. Whenever the circus came to town he used to go and moonlight with the clowns! When the market was moved out of town to Parkway business dwindled because you didn´t get any passing trade and they closed around 1970 (my Uncle went to work at Viners).

(Hope these work, not very good at downsizing images

I´d love to hear from anyone else who was involved with Castlefolds and the Banana Rooms

[hilldweller]

My Grandpa, Sam Adams, had a wholesale fruit and veg business in Castlefolds market, sadly he died before I was born but the business was carried on by my Mum and her brother, John Adams. The Elder and Fyffe bananas they sold were first ripened in the banana rooms, as they were called, which were in the cellars of the Corn Exchange opposite the market. I can remember being taken there as a little girl on several occasions. It was quite spooky as the Corn Exchange was just a shell of a building, I think it burnt down just the after the war but the cellars were still sound. As you can imagine it was very dark and sectioned off into small rooms for the different companies who sold bananas. They were hung up under lights (can´t remember if they would be gas or electric) to ripen, then carefully repacked into the splendid wooden crates which must have weighed a ton. Sometimes exotic spiders were found in the crates when they first arrived and once Mum told me they had found a dead monkey in one, ugh.

I came across this booklet recently in some of my "junk" and was intrigued what the numbers signified in relation to bananas (some sort of coding maybe), I have just replicated the front and back cover and one of the pages as an example although they contain prices for 324´s, 300´s, 294´s etc. down to 64´s, the middle pages contained a handy ready reckoner. I would love to know the significance of these numbers/gradings if anyone knows.

I used to love "going to market" with my Mum, my favourite was the large sack of peanuts upstairs from the stall, munched on them many a time. I remember fondly some of the "market lads" who worked for them, mostly hefty blokes, however there were a couple of midgets, one called Bucket for some reason, who used to take me down to Granellis for an ice-cream sometimes. Whenever the circus came to town he used to go and moonlight with the clowns! When the market was moved out of town to Parkway business dwindled because you didn´t get any passing trade and they closed around 1970 (my Uncle went to work at Viners).

(Hope these work, not very good at downsizing images

I´d love to hear from anyone else who was involved with Castlefolds and the Banana Rooms

For us old timers brought up on Pounds, Shillings and Pence the answers a doddle.

The "codes" are simply packing quantities or box contents and if you look down the column for price per banana in old pennies then the price alongside it is the price in shillings and pence for the quantity in question.

e.g. box of 80 bananas at 8 pennies each is 53/4 or 53 shillings and 4 pence (£2-13s-4p).

Well that's my theory anyway.

hilldweller.

[Guest SuzyC]

For us old timers brought up on Pounds, Shillings and Pence the answers a doddle.

The "codes" are simply packing quantities or box contents and if you look down the column for price per banana in old pennies then the price alongside it is the price in shillings and pence for the quantity in question.

e.g. box of 80 bananas at 8 pennies each is 53/4 or 53 shillings and 4 pence (£2-13s-4p).

Well that's my theory anyway.

hilldweller.

Thanks Hilldweller, doh why didn't I think of that. I'm afraid I'm one of those old codgers brought up on pounds, shillings and pence but it never occurred to me to do the sums . Bearing in mind that bananas came in bunches which wouldn't be all the same quantity per bunch it must have been tedious work counting them correctly for the appropriate box. Imagine how heavy 324's would be in those sturdy wooden crates, no wonder the market lads were hefty!!

[Bayleaf]

Hi Suzy

I remember the Corn Exchange or rather the shell of it from the 50's and 60's, like this . Our bus into town used to go past, and the old place fascinated me!

I don't know if you use Picture Sheffield, but if you do a search for Corn Exchange there are quite a few pictures of it and Castlefolds Market . Might stir a few memories!

[Guest SuzyC]

Hi Suzy

I remember the Corn Exchange or rather the shell of it from the 50's and 60's, like this . Our bus into town used to go past, and the old place fascinated me!

I don't know if you use Picture Sheffield, but if you do a search for Corn Exchange there are quite a few pictures of it and Castlefolds Market . Might stir a few memories!

Hi Bayleaf

It was certainly a haunting building (Hammer films could have made good use of it ). As I say the cellars were definitely scary. I hadn´t seen Sheffield Pictures but have just been looking at Castlefolds and it did indeed bring back loads of memories, I think I even spotted one of our barrow boys, Jack, in one of the photos. Didn´t everything look shabby though, I don´t think H&S would be too impressed these days hah! The names too all came back, Gledhills, Cottrils, Proctor & Bush etc.

I will now be spending hours trawling through Sheffield Pictures, very addictive, thanks for letting me know about them.

[Guest SuzyC]

Found some of Mum's photos, amongst which was this one. I presume it was taken during the 1930's, not sure what type of truck but I am sure you motor buffs out there will enlighten me

[SteveHB]

Found some of Mum's photos, amongst which was this one. I presume it was taken during the 1930's, not sure what type of truck but I am sure you motor buffs out there will enlighten me

Hi Suzy,

have you tried taking your photographs of the old photos using the Macro/Close-up setting on your camera,

having your camera nearer to the photos will result in a larger image.

[Guest SuzyC]

Hi Suzy,

have you tried taking your photographs of the old photos using the Macro/Close-up setting on your camera,

having your camera nearer to the photos will result in a larger image.

Hi SteveHB,

Yes I did use the close up setting, unfortunately the original photo is quite faded. I have resized it, so hopefully it might be a bit clearer in this image (I´m not very technically minded )

[SteveHB]

Hi SteveHB,

Yes I did use the close up setting, unfortunately the original photo is quite faded. I have resized it, so hopefully it might be a bit clearer in this image (I´m not very technically minded )

Thank you,

that is a lot better image SuzyC, can even read what it says on the truck door.

[Guest SuzyC]

Thank you,

that is a lot better image SuzyC, can even read what it says on the truck door.

Well that´s my Grandpa´s waggon, hopefully some of the truck buffs can recognise what it is. As I say, I guess it was taken in the 1930´s.

Cheers

Suzy

[syrup]

Well that´s my Grandpa´s waggon, hopefully some of the truck buffs can recognise what it is. As I say, I guess it was taken in the 1930´s.

Cheers

Suzy

It looks a bit like a 5 Ton Commer but i am not sure..

[neddy]

Hi Bayleaf

It was certainly a haunting building (Hammer films could have made good use of it ). As I say the cellars were definitely scary. I hadn´t seen Sheffield Pictures but have just been looking at Castlefolds and it did indeed bring back loads of memories, I think I even spotted one of our barrow boys, Jack, in one of the photos. Didn´t everything look shabby though, I don´t think H&S would be too impressed these days hah! The names too all came back, Gledhills, Cottrils, Proctor & Bush etc.

I will now be spending hours trawling through Sheffield Pictures, very addictive, thanks for letting me know about them.

Would the Jack be the one who had a scarred face.

[Guest SuzyC]

Would the Jack be the one who had a scarred face.

Nope, definitely not. Jack was a fresh faced boy, even had rosy cheeks, He pulled his weight and was very kind to me as a little girl hey he introduced me to Elvis and the rest, Gene Vincent remains a favourite though, remember the acne???