Downhill Racers on Schoolboard Hill

[Texas]

In these cold January days, sometimes with snow, I got to thinking about the great sledging times we used to have on Schoolboard Hill. Do kids still sledge down there? It was quite a good run back in the 40s, no traffic to worry about much then.

Blitzkid and Pitsmoor lad will remember it well, they lived on it.

Hayward Road was great too, it was one of those unadopted thoroughfares, with cobblestones. It used to slant off to the left a bit down at the bottom with some big humps, you had to be careful not to hit the railings outside the Fowler Hotel.

The best, though not the longest, was the jennel between Pitsmoor Road and the top of Schoolboard Hill. I dont suppose it exsists now. I remember taking off down there one time, didn't really know what to expect, it was ice. I must've gone down in no more than a few seconds, as I passed Fletchers scrapyard entrance I realised I wasn't in control of the situation anymore so I bailed off the sledge. That went spinning across Pitsmoor Road, and I hit the big stone gatepost on the right hand side. Result, bad back injury. Somebody was smiling on me that night I can tell you. Sledge was OK too.

[Cycleracer]

We know Schoolboard hill as Andover Street whiich is the hill that goes down the side of Pye Bank school.

It may have been a continuation of the old road you are on about but School Board hill did'nt exist, not in the 60s anyway.

We would not sledge down that because of Rock Street at the bottom but would sledge down Gray Street down towards Fox Street while someone was keeping watch at the bottom for traffic which was less busy than Rock Street.

[Falls]

I only did this a few times but it was good. So long as you new what time the Shiregreen bus was likely to come by on Rock Street.

 

It was a long way from where I lived but my granmother lived on Nottingham Street. When I went on School Board Hill, I used to keep my sledge at her house. Then my mother found out what I was doing and that was the end of that.

 

Another good run was down Brunswick Road, but as you know, everybody called it "Champs Hill". You would come flying down the hill but once you went under the railway, where there was no snow, you would grind to a stop on the cobbles in a shower of sparks.

 

In the bad winter of 1946/47, the weather was so bad and lasted so long that the snow got pushed/blown under the railway bridge. Then you didn't stop till you got to the end of Stanley's St.

 

Happy Days