Old Fairgrounds and Circuses

[trastrick]

There was a circus in the Pond Street/Midland Station area around 1945/6 and there was actually a circus on the stage of the Empire Theatre not long after.

[stpetre]

I can just remember a fair in the the old Smithfield Market Area on Blonk Street (between the Victoria Station Approach and the River Don) This must have been 1939 or 1940 at the latest. I don't remember a fair on that site again and it eventually became a stockyard for Osborne's or Balfour's.

 

Again, as a small kid, I also went to a fair on Staniforth Road. It was on a piece of waste land next to LNER railway tracks, opposite the end of Broad Oaks and Fearneough Street. The site eventually became the yard for British Road Services. It may still be a transport yard but I haven't been on that section of Staniforth Road in over 30 years.

 

I believe the first circus to come to Sheffield after WW II was Bertram Mills. In 1947 or 1948. They wanted to pitch the big top in Hillsborough Park but the Gruppenfuehrer at the Town Hall, in one of their now famous bouts of "Fuzzy Logic", insisted they go instead to the Pheasant Inn Ground at Carbrook. The animals were loaded and unloaded in the LMS Wicker Good Yard (The gate opposite TW Ward's old offices) This event was the subject of another Forum thread last year.

 

Regards

 

Yes Falls, correct about the Blonk Street site and they did have a fair later there ,around 1961. Later I recall the fairground people setting up at Bridgehouse goods yard, up the ramp across from the old 'Manchester Hotel'. I also went to one (late '50s') in an open space next to Fletcher's bakery on Claywheels lane.

Edited January 6, 2017 by stpetre
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[escort1]

Norths used to come to HANDSWORTH first on club field then moved to the horses field at the side of parkway then they moved to handsworth recreation ground we used to help them put it up mainly the waltzer run by Robert who married a north

 

That was the late Robert Moran who used to be a boxer on the fairgrounds. His son Evan now runs the business although they sold the Waltzer a few years ago, it can now be found on the sea front at Bridlington. This ride was replaced by a Superbowl that still attends Kimberworth park fair each year and sometimes Rotherham Show.

 

---------- Post added 06-01-2017 at 17:44 ----------

 

I remember going to the Farm grounds with my Grandad in the early 60s. There was a Circus on the Wicker goods yards in the late 60s that let my friends and I visit the Animals I fetched my uncle a sack of elephant dung for his roses he said it was the best he'd had. I think the circus was the Bottom Brothers.

 

More likely to be the Robert Brothers circus.

[Runningman]

Somebody please tell me if my memory is playing tricks with me.

Around the mid 50's I remember walking from the Midland station in Sheffield with a load of other folks and the elephants that had just arrived in procession to the site of the circus near what is now Devonshire Green.

 

Dreaming or not ?

[stpetre]

Somebody please tell me if my memory is playing tricks with me.

Around the mid 50's I remember walking from the Midland station in Sheffield with a load of other folks and the elephants that had just arrived in procession to the site of the circus near what is now Devonshire Green.

 

Dreaming or not ?

 

Not dreaming, actually true -elephants included- as that site as a circus, (I think they came perhaps once a year.) was used, at least the last time I went there was early 1962.

[JackK0]

I used to enjoy the one in millhouses park it was amazing 20 years ago

[Runningman]

Not dreaming, actually true -elephants included- as that site as a circus, (I think they came perhaps once a year.) was used, at least the last time I went there was early 1962.

 

Hi stpetre and thanks. So I wasn't dreaming !!

[katerina]

I remember the Farm grounds but mostly lots of fairs and circuses on Attercliffe Common on grounds next to the Pheasant pub. For a couple of pence you could go and see the animals in their cages.

[raymondo1952]

Farahas fair use to come on Collarage Road fields and on fields on Worthing Road Atterciffe near the wreck as we use to call it

[fatrajah]

I remember going to a fair on White Lane, Gleadless, in the mid 1950s. It was about where the library is now.