Memories of Pitsmoor

[Arfer Mo]

While everybody has their memories in high gear, and before people who grew up in other parts of Sheffield get sick of the name "Pitsmoor", lets try and take one more trip down memory lane. Do you remember:

 

When Pye Bank School was an ambulance depot during the war ? They used to park the ambulances under the sheds in the girls playground.

 

Gas Mask and Air Raid Shelter practice at Pye Bank? I wonder how long they kept doing it ,even after the war had ended?

 

The static water tank they built next to the school? Remember some kids used to try and swim in it in summer and skate on it in winter - with near fatal results. Incidentally, I remember the pipe from the tank going down Grey Street but I've no idea how the water got from there into town. Did it go down Chatham Street and along Corporation Street or along Nursery Street and over Lady's Bridge?

 

There was a lot of good memories about the "White House" chippy on Andover Street but do you remember the bakery on the other side of the street. nearer to Nottingham Sreet? Do you remember the penny sticky buns?

 

Lastly, something a bit more macabre. Does anybody remember the circular shelter in middle of the main avenue in Burngreave Cemetery? It had glass on all sides and people of my mothers generation (b 1907) used to call it "The Band Stand". It did look like a band stand but I'm sure a band never played there. It was still there in 1961, when we buried my Grand Mother, but I think it was demolished when they removed

most of the head stones. The site became a circular flower bed

 

OK, you can start remembering!

I have fond memories of fish and chip lunches round the old toitoise stove in our workshop on Fox st from the whitehouse I wonder how old that building was, it should have been listed,

[pitsmoorboy]

You've done it again Falls. Johnny Fantham's ma had one of two shops more or less opposite the Toll Bar. If I remember right, one was a grocery and the other sold clothing, kids clothes etc. I think the Fanthams had the grocery.

John now deals in S/H industrial machinery and stuff like that.

[Arfer Mo]

Hola again Arthur, regarding the workshop on Fox Street. I keep having a think about the people it belonged to when I was a kid, and the name Carter keeps coming to mind. Did it change hands I wonder, I mean after the blitz. It's not really important I know, but it exercises the memory.

Hi Texas no if its the same workshop and idid not know of any other ,when you came to Somerset rd the tarmac finished and the bit of rd down to Somerset st was unmade this is where Frank Astlings works was and his father before him. In later years it was re sited on the other side top of the quarry as we called it , does this jog your memory, we also made coffins!

[Arfer Mo]

John now deals in S/H industrial machinery and stuff like that.

talking about grocery shops do you remember the one at the bottom ofCathrine st corner of Burngreave Bank I worked with the son called Ray Icannot remember his second name ! poor old lad took to drink and choked one night on his vomit he was only 24

[Arfer Mo]

John now deals in S/H industrial machinery and stuff like that.

yes their shop was just round thecorner from Shirecliffe Lane it was set back from the pavement with a high step I remember cos I tripped up it with a bottle of milk and cut my self badly

[Arfer Mo]

Now I know you guys are going to give me the horse laugh but I had a ghost experience at the end of Melrose Road once.

I was on working on the railway at the time, at Grimesthorpe.

I had to be on duty at 2am, so it must've been about 1.15 or so and I was walking to work over the hill past the school.

As I approached the big gates at the end I could see a swirling column of mist about 3 or 4 feet high and as I got nearer it got taller then just faded away. I'd stopped long before the fading part, no fool me, but when I moved forward again. Nothing. The gates were open, but then they always were, about a foot. It could've been a apparition coming out for a breath of air, but I didn't go that way again for a while, it scared the c*** out of me. It hadn't any shape, just a column.....

Spooky.

HEY TEXAS istarted ajob at grimesthorpe sheds just after the blitz as a bar lad stuck it for 3 months got a no 1 form for scrapping

[Falls]

HI Texas The workshop was Frank Astling & Son where incidently Iserved my time as a joiner, Iworked all round that area for years, Ilived on earldom st off ellesmere rd

 

Hi Arthur,

 

Were you related to a Neville Fearn? Neville was in my class a Burngreave

(1948-1951).

 

Regards

[Pete s]

Hi Texas,

 

One other thing that came to me while we were talking about that part of Pitsmoor Road, but I might be way off the mark.

 

Didn't John Fantham live on Pitsmoor Road: Same side as the school but close to the junction with Barnsley Road? I have a recollection that his mum ran a shop there.

 

Regards

My aunty and uncle had a shop across from Fanthams, Guys Drugstore.

Sold sweets and cigs. Spent many happy hours serving over the counter.

She used to run firework and Christmas savings clubs where kids would pay weekly.

[no1machinist]

I was born in Firvale, Skinnerthorpe Road and always believed it was a suburb of Pitsmoor, I remember when they buldozed the Sunbeam picure house down and built the pub. and Grandad had an allotment between there and Earlmarshal Road. I have a feeling that my brother is deputy head of Pitsmoor school now. There was a pond halfway up Barnsley Road on the right which was about as far as I was game to explore in those days

[retep]

My aunty and uncle had a shop across from Fanthams, Guys Drugstore.

Sold sweets and cigs. Spent many happy hours serving over the counter.

She used to run firework and Christmas savings clubs where kids would pay weekly.

 

saw your aunty on tues in morrisons.