Remember this shop?

[bullerboY]

I remember Ralph well I had all my carpets of him and a three piece suite from Belgium, Ralph was a good bloke to deal with and wouldnt do you down.He lived with barbara on a farm up the top of Bradfield and i went up to see them many times.His knowledge was fantastic he walked in my house saw two candle sticks offered me a fantastic price for them and when i refused he promptly enlightened me to what they were and said dont let anyone tell you different,i still have them and that was 40years ago.I know he would disappear for a while and allegedly go to live with travellers and do a bit of bare knucle scrapping and horse trading.I know he wasnt afraid of hard work,he built a swimming pool and did it all himself.he also had the soldiers off the top of Sammy Osbornes on Penistone rd and a fantastic cast iron fireplace in his house,I admired Ralph he was a mans man.I saw babs in Hillsbro a while ago and she has had some tragedy in her life.but i will not go into that.I know the circumstances of Ralphs death and his relative is quite correct.

[Annincanada]

Oh Yes Ralpg once 'traveled' across Europe about 1963 with just a back pack but he always took his solid silver Georgian teapot with him. Just before he left he brought his real treasures to us to look after just in case. As it happened we had just found a pair of new fabulous Churches brogues in a House Clearing, but they were too small for his cousin Graham

So he gave him to Ralph. Perfect fit and Ralph pounced and marched about in them thrilled to bit..of course Ralph wanted the story of the Estate Clearing... so the two cousin dealers chatted.. as they did often, then graham dropped the punch line "it were sad really..... poor bugger died of cancer of the foot !!! " Ralph love it of course... he walked all over Europe in those shoes... All Wardleys liked good brogues because my dad's generation of 6 sons didn't have shoes as small kids. My uncle Bill Wardley Car dealer never cleaned his though.

You can read their story 1908 - 1930 its on line under my name.. '' It's Muck or Nettles" or you can read it in the Sheffield Library in the archives... One cousin is left in Sheffield probably the wittiest of em all, its Ken Wardley son of Ike Wardley the oldest...the Champion golfer and snooker player Ken still goes in the Big Tree Woodseats on Friday nights I believe cheers Ann

[bullerboY]

Hi ,Annincanada, I do know that Ralph suffered from severe bouts of tax dodging he hated that,he had worked hard and didnt like to just give it away.I used to go up to his farm and see all the carpet roll ends he had bought filling the barns and all the copper kettles and windsor chairs and he used to say they were his pension.the friend i used to go with fitted the carpets Ralph sold and is still alive at 87 now we went to see him last week.we used to go up sunday mornings and have a coffee with him and Babs and we would come away with new laid eggs.

[Movehut]

Hi Texas - directories from the 1960s and 1970s show "Wardley's Furniture Mart" at 20 Abbeydale Road (corner of Crowther Place). The BMD indexes show Ralph Wardley, born Sheffield 8 December 1936, evidently married Barbare E. Honeybell in Jul-Sep 1970, children Robert, born 1973 and Anna, born 1975. Ralph died Sheffield August 1985.

 

Interesting. What directories do you use to find such information?

[Annincanada]

That's wrong The one at the corner of Crowther place was Albert Edward Wardley's corner shop..he was there many years, he's the one who everyone thinks was grumpy actually he had a heart of gold but only for his family.

He was Ralphs uncle, Grahams dad ,my father in law and uncle. Ralphs 4 shops were further down Abbeydale Rd around the bend... the corner shop was demolished by the city in the 70s.. Albert Edward was working from age 6, (1907) at age 11 he was delivering coal and driving a horse and dray. The horse was called Mi Owd Flower.. That lot of six bothers and their mum and dad, make Ice cream in the Summer and sold coal in the winter.

" Wardleys we keep you cool in Summer and Warm in Winter" LOL what a bunch of characters they were ,Bill and Wilf were the funniest it was like I had my own Marks bothers in residence ... We moved into Uncle Bill's big posh furniture shop at Banner Cross 1945 when I was 7 my childhood was like living in an Aladdin cave..but antiques not jewels..

[Texas]

Well, there's certainly a surfeit of info' about Ralph Wardley in the last few posts. Annincanada's reply, in which she mentioned his suicide, ties in what I was told a few years ago. At the time I didn't believe it, especially of him. He certainly had a lot of cousins, none of them known to me. The cousin/relative I knew lived in Sussex, I think the surname of the party was Martin.

[Annincanada]

Yes a surfeit sorry! but he was so colourful. He only had 6 Wardley 1st cousins, all in Sheffield. June, Ken, Roy, Graham, me and Rita... His Sister Carole and Brother Railton had the big new furniture shop and the big red advertising bus in the City Centre.

[mikebatty]

Funnels did sell seconhand furniture PT, they did house clearences etc. We could only afford seconhand lol. Of course your right they did start selling new furniture mostly sofas and suites later on.

 

Once bought an old day sofa off him back in the early 70's for £25 . It was in a rare old state . My wife to be wanted it recovering. It was quite a few years later - still needing recovering - someone came to do some work at my house and he saw the sofa in the garage . He offered us £400 quid for it . My wife declined . We eventually got it recovered . It still looks fantastic despite my weeping all over it .

[Seamus147]

Once bought an old day sofa off him back in the early 70's for £25 . It was in a rare old state . My wife to be wanted it recovering. It was quite a few years later - still needing recovering - someone came to do some work at my house and he saw the sofa in the garage . He offered us £400 quid for it . My wife declined . We eventually got it recovered . It still looks fantastic despite my weeping all over it .

 

Came across the thread by chance looking for another Wardley, an interesting read, well done The Wardley I was looking for had a shop in the same area in the early 80's. The read has left me wondering if this is the same Family as his shop(same business) was possibly on or around Sharrow lane, Wolstenholm Rd area. A ref. to Harold Wilson kept my interest, this also described the Wardley I knew that lived around Machon Bank Rd at the time. He lived with his son Gary whom was a good friend of mine, I left the UK 30 years ago obviously losing contact, any info would be of interest Regards to all 'Wardley' or not.

[Steptoad]

Straying slightly I remember one bonfire night a fire was lit at the top of Farrar Rd and running out of fuel later in the evening a couple of youths took a wardrobe and a table from outside the shop (Jacks) and kept the fire going, in those days there was a lot of furniture just secured outside with a rope, it wouldn't happen today. I never remember anyone saying anything about it and doubt that Jack even missed the items.

 

Have you ever seen Goode's reclamation shop(?) on Abbeydale Road? There's quite a bit of stock left outside his shop secured very loosely with a length of chain. A lot of it looks like metal, I'm surprised he's never had the "scrap dealers" do one of their clean-up operations on it.