Apple scromping?

[Littlepink]

corrination st? how old are you? im 37. privet hopping we did too, we called it moonwalking, i must sound like a reet yob

 

You shouldn't asked a lady her age but .....I'm 44 . We hid in the privet and spoke as people passed to make them jump but we only had the one privet so it wasn't exciting privet hopping ooh ooh we went under the bridge at the rat river and sat at the flood gates , not dangerous at all

[0742Sheff]

never eat the cooking apples! gives you belly ache, so i was told

 

Old wives tale matey. We ate any and all fruit that was around. In season or not.

 

the main tool when scromping.............tesco's carrybag!

 

Carrier bags were for wussies. Eat all you can and move on to the next thing (normally back hopping or knock-a-door-run).

[cliffetops]

Hi

I lived on Blake Street Walkley we could nip over our back wall into Birkendale there were loads of orchards over the wall ( we would have been dead if our dad would have caught us ) The good old days

[scousemouse]

..........last time I did that was this year, I fell out of my own apple tree!!!!!

[andrejuan]

I grew up at a time where you left the house at 8 in the morning and didn't get home until tea time. If you didn't scromp, you went hungry. It was part and parcel of everyday life for us. We knew where every apple, pear and plum tree was on the estate. We knew who had grapes growing in their greenhouses and who had the best strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries and rhubarb patches. We even ate those berries off the trees in City Rd cemetery when they were ripe.

 

Happy days

 

I know it's an old thread but this post took me back to great times as a kid.

[melthebell]

Moving on from chilled cocks ......I scrumped in Woodhouse. There was a farmer that had a small orchard and we scaled his wall to steal his juicy apples. Until he came out with a shot gun and we all fled but unfortunately my cousin was left up the tree

 

wouldnt be farmer browns would it? down station road? ont he way to the junction

 

that was where we used to scrump too lol, cant remember how many times we got chased by him, and scared by the stories that hed decapitated his wife

 

we also used to go down the lane opposite the junction down towards the sekko, a horses field there had a nice gooseberry bush in it, and a garden on the left had a plum tree if i remember rightly

[PopT]

We used to scromp at the Oxsprings house near the five arches on Herries Road

 

The orchard was at the back of the house and surrounded by a wall.

 

We used to borrow a ladder from the railway workman's hut and place on top of the wall and onto the steep railway embankment which was higher than the wall.

 

It was like a commando raid to us kids, a bit of an adventure.

 

We certainly didn't do it for the apples, they were as sour as hell.

 

Happy Days!

[DUFFEMS]

There was a high wall at the top of Upper Valley Road (probably still is, haven't been up there for over 50 years), at the other side over in Upper Albert Road was a GP's house/garden where we used to "scromp".

The apples were vile but, it didn't stop us trying to nick 'em and, we also got a good chase into the bargain which I think as kids is what it was all about.

[brettdnkrl]

i used to live on kelvin to jackie used to go up the road to birkendale many happy scromps with the lads wads of fruit

[Bethsmummy]

My grandad (who lived on Cowper Cresent) had three marvellous apple trees and a pear tree. The apple trees gave enough fruit to feed every scrumper in Sheffield but he still protected them for all he was worth. Many Autumn evening We'd be visiting him & he would be stood in the cold dark kitchen with no light on waiting to see off the nightly visitors lol

 

I always found his eagerness to preserve his stock quite funny because by the time they were ripe he could literally fill his coal house (or back whack as he called it) from floor to ceiling with apples. But in his own words he knew he wasn't short of stock he just wanted the kids to ask not take lol, But being a youngster myself I knew there was no fun in that.

 

Those that did shout over the gate asking for a few apples always refered to grandad as apple Jack - even though his name wasn't Jack, Gramps always obliged them. My nan made the most divine Apple pies and crumbles. You could eat pies until they came out of your ears.

 

His pear tree, Well that was a different story. I seem to recall it only gave a crop once every two or three years which provided very little, and any harvest had to be protected with upmost effort. The tree itself was lovingly painted around the trunk with a vandal paint & I can honestly say I do not remember ever having 1 pear from that tree. I think they were so scarce they were an adult only treat.

 

I have wonderful memories of my grandad lifting me up as high as he possibly could so I could reach the ripest of apples for myself. When he died from alzheimers in 1999 the new occupants of the house chopped all 4 fruit trees down- A travesty in my eyes. Apple Jack would turn in his grave if he knew lol.