Did You Live In Shiregreen?

[Ted Hills]

Glad you've come on board L4WEY you have certainly filled in a few missing pieces of the Shiregreen jigsaw. I remember the line up to Dropping Well with its gate and the small hamlet of houses near the gate, vaguely remember a chap called Lance who kept pigs in the fields over the line, have a feeling there were children who lived there who I went to school with but my memory is too indistinct to recall. Peggy Lane was a haven for birds nests do you remember the stream which crossed it and searching for leather jackets and other wild things in the water. We were very lucky to have lived so near to all this unspoilt natural heritage.

[stevenorfolk]

Hi Ted,

Thanks for jogging my memory regarding the pig man, when I worked on the hook at Hemmings rolling mill,I remember one of the pigs getting loose, it came across the railway track and was walking through the wire drawing shop!!!!, a few of the workers managed to round it up, then the pig man came to fetch it back.

I think the chap who had the pigs lived on Nethershire lane, I could be wrong but there was a farmhouse/wood yard,on the right going towards Hartley brook shops,I remember seeing him driving a tractor up Bellhouse road,and parking nr the Farmhouse.

I'm sure somebody else will remember the wood yard.

I also remember the stream that crossed Peggy lane, I'm sure one of my mates caught some minnows in that stream. Regards Steve

[L4WEY]

As a small boy I remember Peggy Lane really well, me & my pals used to venture down to Grange Lane a lot from Woolley Wood Road and across the level crossing turn left down Peggy Lane and along to the stream. We had it all, view of the railway and the trains and also a fishing opportunity with our jam jars but we only got water beetles & other water insects never remember any minnows. Not saying there werent any there it is just if there were we couldnt catch em cos we did not have a net. We used to go past the farm & over the tracks then the basket bridge to the ponds across Blackburn Brook for a better opportunity and went home with jam jars full of frog spawn, small frogs, tadpoles, newts dependant on the state of the season and the catch we could get at the time. I remember my mum's face when I used to turn up with them and asked her for a glass serving bowl to put em in.

 

We never really ventured any higher up Peggy Lane since we would be getting away from the trains and where suited us best.

 

When we got a bit older we used to venture up Jumble Lane and then back round past Ecclesfield East and West stations and home along Hartley Brook. School hols and long summer evenings used to allow us this pleasure without getting told off. We used to pretend we were on expeditions cos we were "so far from home".

 

I remember seeing water voles in Blackburn Brook around the place where the river passed by the ponds. We used to sit in the grass watching them swimming towards their burrows in the opposite river bank.

 

For catching minnows my dad used to take me across town on a Sunday morning in the car to Wiremill Dam where there were minnows in abundance. My dad liked watching the guys sailing their model boats. But I am getting off topic a bit.

[Fast Runner]

My memories are riding on the engine and shovelling coal into the firebox as a girl, the smell of the sulphur, smoke and the noise of the steam. I rode on the trains when it was shunting, this was at grange lane station. The Station Masters' son 'Terry' was my friend and we rode on the engines quite often at the weekends.

I also remember the farm at droppingwell were I liked to go to look at the farm animals.

Does anyone remember the large field up from the farm which was

covered in rhododendron bushes and also the derelict house which we used to play around.

[L4WEY]

Was the farm at Droppingwell where the Watson family lived?

[Ted Hills]

Can someone clarify my confusion over school's names there are plenty of references to Shiregreen school but nothing of Hatfield House Lane school are the two names refering to the same school or are there two separate schools. Hatfield House Lane school comprised a junior school with its entrance on Hatfield House Lane and a secondary mod school with entrances from Bellhouse Road and Fircroft Avenue. Where was Shiregreen School located?

[L4WEY]

Shiregreen Secondary Modern as it was called when I was there in 1958 was on the Flower estate. Going up Bellhouse from Firth Park shops towards Shiregreen fork right at the top of the hill and a couple of hundred yards or so is the school as was just as the road begins to swing to the right. Hope this helps.

[awoollen]

Shiregreen Secondary Modern as it was called when I was there in 1958 was on the Flower estate. Going up Bellhouse from Firth Park shops towards Shiregreen fork right at the top of the hill and a couple of hundred yards or so is the school as was just as the road begins to swing to the right. Hope this helps.

when i left school it was called shiregreen council school in 1944

it was on bracken road

[L4WEY]

Same School

[Ted Hills]

Many thanks for sorting out School names I've now found Shiregreen School on Google maps but still a bit puzzled why so many people from shiregreen attended this one rather than Hatfield House as it was nearer. I attended Hatfield House from 1950-54. I wonder if the demarcation line was Bellhouse Road everyone on concord park side to Shiregreen and the other side to Hatfield House