Sheffield fruit market - monkey house

[Mapman]

That could have been the arch under the commercial street?,

[cookingfat50]

Does anyone remember the old Sheffield fruit and veg market which used to be near the current Ponds Forge site? I am sure that my Dad used to take me in the early sixties when as well as fruit and veg you could buy monkeys, parrots and I am sure other animals? Or is it just my imagination?

 

hi i was born in 51 and i remember going down the market with my dad he loved to see if he could pick up a bargain or two he would go to an hardware shop at the bottom end of the market where he would but large pieces of leather and when he got home start mending shoes,putting new soles and heals on the familys shoe's i digress so i also remember the monkey's a few of our neighbours had bought a small monkey but the noise they made was horendous and they didn't last long before they disappeared, back to the rag market ad those bloody parrots squawkig its head off the only thing that quiet was the reptiles, like the snakes as frogs,as you went in the front entrence there was a stall that sold oly banana's there were thousand of them the thing behing that stall was the man selling crockery in wicker baskets every now and again he would pick the whole set and throw it i the air and catch it in his big hands without breaking a think very clever man pity it's all gone now never to been seen again these's guys were showmen of the markets finally going out was the old lady with the brass weighing machine wonder were it is now someone's hiding a fortune in the attic

[bazjea]

Before that, there was a cavernous structure in the old rag & tag, like a big old barn with a dirt floor, where animals were held in cages stacked one on top of another. We bought tortoises there. They sold a wide range of animals, but not sure about monkeys.

 

Remember my Grandmother, buying about a dozen day old chicks

from the cave like place. They all turned out to be cockrels

My Grandfather was not pleased, as he thought he would have a little sideline

flogging eggs to the neighbours

[Bypassblade]

I can remember going in the Rag & Tag with my mum, no matter when you went in, it was cold & smelly. that said it was great and had some great sights in there, and all the sawdust on the floor.

[Mapman]

cookingfat50 - the pottery man I think was "Potty" Edwards and he lived in the house which was on the right hand side at the bottom of Wood Street at its junction with Penistone Road. There was a stable at the back where he kept his wares. We used to stand at the bus stop there on our way home from Gran's on Elton Street.

[Kidorry]

That could have been the arch under the commercial street?,

No not under there.

 

---------- Post added 23-01-2013 at 16:56 ----------

 

Does anyone remember the old Sheffield fruit and veg market which used to be near the current Ponds Forge site? I am sure that my Dad used to take me in the early sixties when as well as fruit and veg you could buy monkeys, parrots and I am sure other animals? Or is it just my imagination?

 

I think you are talking about the building on the top left hand side of this street(if the link works).