Sheffield dust Carts of a bye gone age

[westmoors]

It may seem a strange subject to post but during one of my now frequent mind wandering moments I was watching our local refuse collection by wheelie bin and thought how things have changed.

 

Pre WW2 and for some time afterwards I recall Sheffield used battery driven dust carts of very ancient vintage.

Built like and looking for all the world like old garden sheds with solid rubber tires and chain driven and considering their age a surprising high speed of probably 20 mp, but mostly they only managing a slow walking pace !

 

Each dustmen as we called them carried a large open pan which had one handle, they would drop the pan on the ground pick up your dustbin and tip the contents into the pan, then hoist the pan onto their shoulder which was usually protected by a leather 'saddle; type protection on his shoulder and carry it out to the dustcart and dump the contents through one of the four propped lift up sloping lids which covered the back of the vehicle.

 

There were a few more modern electric ones about which I believe serviced areas where the dustbins were of a different design and had hinged lids and I believe were tipped by the dustcart into a totally enclosed back very similar to today's vehicles but I have a hazy recollection that the men had a type of sack barrow to get the bin to the cart . The unique bit about these was that when the rear end filled up the driver operated some control and the whole of the rear was slowly raised to almost vertical to allow the refuse to move to the front of the compartment. Nowadays they do this with with compressing the load with a compressing blade.

Someone is bound to shoot holes in this narrative, but it does go back to the late 1930's ! westmoors

[Falls]

Hi,

 

The dust carts you describe, with wooden bodies, were still running in the early 1950s. There was also at least one of these that was built as a van and went round collecting waste from the fish shops (and possibly butchers). Because of the smell, you could often tell the fish van was coming, long before it came into view.

 

Until they got proper washing and change facilities at the cleansing department's depot, the poor bloke who drove the van had to go home in his work clothes. As a result, I was told he wasn't allowed on the trams and most likely had to walk.

 

All a long time ago.

 

Regards

[Asaw]

Think thry were made by Shefflex they had some pictures when I worked there for a short time.

[hillsbro]

Here is a link to a photo on the picturesheffield.com site, and here is an older one..

[Falls]

Here is a link to a photo on the picturesheffield.com site, and here is an older one..

 

Hello,

 

The 1948 photo (taken at Bernard Road) shows the later version of the Cleansing Departments fleet. It had pneumatic tyres and moved a little faster (someone once called them the GT version). As for the older photo, this was news to me. I have never seen this smaller truck before.

 

I'll do some "digging" and see if I can find a picture of the wooden carts.

 

Best Regards

 

---------- Post added 23-03-2015 at 23:16 ----------

 

Hello,

 

Pictures Sheffield (ref. S12537) shows the whole Cleansing Dept. "fleet".

c1920. The vehicle at the front of the line (left) is one of the type I remember but by the 1940s, they were clapped-out and didn't look anything like this.

 

The wooden cab would hold four men side-by-side. The driver had a bit of a seat but the rest of the crew sat on a wooden bench. Someone mentioned that the back looked like "Garden Sheds" and they certainly did.

 

Regards

Edited March 23, 2015 by Falls