Where did everything go - childhood memories of Norfolk Park

[0742Sheff]

I was on the estate from about 84 till 94 then back for a short spell in 96/97.

 

When I was a kid I used to have a double paper-round for Gage, It gave me £13 a week spending money. I was brought up on Park Spring Drive - number 105, it was the first maisonnette on my block. I lived in the block with the main side of the maisonnettes facing the side of SR Gents. Ours was the only one with no-one below or above us. My Nan lived on Park Grange Mount from the day it was built until the day it was knocked down. She loved it there.

 

I remember the dream come true when they decided to let a fair onto the Earl Marshall field and we did not have to trail up to the park. But my mum onloy let me go once in a week.

 

We played football on the field behind the maisonnettes every single day come rain or shine, or sometimes cricket in the summer. In the winter we hung around the 'chute' or the electric box.

 

The 50p shop was so called because of its shape and was actually a newsagents, I used to go there after I was taken to the Bullen and Byrd dentist if I had brushed my teeth properly.

 

We made many a den in the woods - but they always got 'smashed up' by the big lads.

 

We always went to Gages shop instead of 'Johns Shop' for some reason despite the latter being ten times closer, I later found out that Johns wife died of cancer, her name was Barbara I think and I always remember her being really nice.

 

I never used to go the the 'Youthy' but many of my mates did, it was held at the social centre on the shops next to the co-op, I did go to cubs there however and my sister went to Bally and Tap. The shops when I lived there were The Post Office, The Fruit Shop, The Butchers - with two really funny blokes working there ( behind the counter they had a small dumbell with a u-shaped bend in the middle of the bar - it was advertised as a 'wiily excerciser' and me and my mates used to sneak in to laugh at it), the hairdressers with the brown tinted windows, the newsagents, the bookies, gages and the chippy.

 

God I could go on forever !!!

 

I think i know who you and your sister are and you are making me feel old If i am right, we lived 2 doors away from your nan and were supposed to move in next door to her when the new houses were finished but we got ripped off.

[0742Sheff]

 

Sorry I don't. But the Local Studies library on Surrey St has some. They run a web site and I bet there are some on there.

 

Thanks for that. I want a photo of the old park with the huge steel slide. Imagine trying to get a slide like that past health and safety these days.

[soft ayperth]

Thanks for that. I want a photo of the old park with the huge steel slide. Imagine trying to get a slide like that past health and safety these days.

 

Try:

 

http://www.picturesheffield.com

 

Type Norfolk Park into the site's search engine and 57 pages of photos (not all of NP) come up. I only looked at a few pages. You might find a photo of the slide which I remember well.

 

S2807 shows a Whitsuntide gathering in 1910

S0794 & S2082: the ornate and picturesque Granville St entrance.

 

Bit before even my time.

Edited September 3, 2011 by soft ayperth

[isle hopper]

rogG, Your post reminded me of my childhood in the early 1950s. My mum used to take me to the park and if I behaved I would get an ice cream and spend time on the swings and slide (yes it was very high). My mum told me that she had her wedding reception 1947 in the pavillion, it was a wooden building painted black and white, very flaky. No photos only memories.

[soft ayperth]

rogG, Your post reminded me of my childhood in the early 1950s. My mum used to take me to the park and if I behaved I would get an ice cream and spend time on the swings and slide (yes it was very high). My mum told me that she had her wedding reception 1947 in the pavillion, it was a wooden building painted black and white, very flaky. No photos only memories.

 

Why it stands out in my memory I don't know. But, I remember once standing at the top of that slide, looking down and seeing a couple laid out on the grass snogging. He was in forces uniform. Just after the war when conscription was still in effect. I was just a nipper. I remember my mum telling me off for staring at them. "But what were they doing mum? Why?" The things that stick in your mind.

[isle hopper]

Hi rogG, you're showing your age the children these days would know what the couple were up to! You sound as though you are from the same era as me. Did you go to school near the park? I went to St Oswalds it was infant, junior and senior at that time. I remember Manor Lane School it was just opposite the park entrance on City Road, on the other corner St Aidens church. All the buildings in Sheffield were black with grime during the 50s, much better now they are cleaned.

[0742Sheff]

The closest school to the park was Bluestone. I'm not sure if that is the one you are talking about isle hopper. It closed down some years ago now and was pulled down. That area is just an open space now. I beleive work was due to start a few months ago on a residential home there but the project hit funding problems.

There isn't an entrance to the park on City Rd itself but there are a couple not far away. One on Granville Rd and one on Saint Aidens, leading to City rd and Manor lodge school (which is currently being converted into a restaurant).

St Oswalds was before my time. Was that school somewhere on Norfolk Park?

[isle hopper]

0742sheff Hi, I don't think I would recognize the old place now, I will just keep the memories sometimes that is the best way for old ladies like me! You ask where St Oswalds was sited it was on the Wybourn Estate, I believe that has changed from the 1950s too. I believe Pete Stringfellow had a club in St Aidens in the early 60s (Black Cat Club)? Anyway I digress thanks for the memories of the area.

[soft ayperth]

Hi rogG, you're showing your age the children these days would know what the couple were up to! You sound as though you are from the same era as me. Did you go to school near the park? I went to St Oswalds it was infant, junior and senior at that time. I remember Manor Lane School it was just opposite the park entrance on City Road, on the other corner St Aidens church. All the buildings in Sheffield were black with grime during the 50s, much better now they are cleaned.

 

I went to Manor Lane School, isle hopper. 48(?) to 51. Ms. Gertrude Horner was the headteacher. She had been headteacher there since the 1920s. When I first went to that school we were all in the old Victorian era building at the corner of City Rd and Manor Lane. Then, they built a new school at the back of it in 1950(?)

[eastbound]

i use to love throwing water bombs at cars from 15th floor but the best thing was waiting for someone to walk up the stairs n spitting a dirty greenie on them from the top then running like <removed> LOL the joy ov been 10 year old on a classic estate

Edited September 9, 2011 by sibon
swearing