' Atlas' Is There Such An Place In The Attercliffe Area?

[GabrielC]

Looks like the photos I have taken of the area will have there caption changed from Attercliffe to Atlas. 

[GabrielC]

11 hours ago, RollingJ said:

As someone who worked for Firth Browns (the original 'Atlas Works'), I can tell you when I first worked there in 1972 , it stretched from The Wicker to beyond the bridge on Savile Street, and almost the same area on Carlisle Street and side roads off there, so yes it was a massive area, and is why that whole area is now known as 'Atlas', although very little of the original Atlas works remains.

I have seen photos of an underground medical center that some seem to think was part of Firth Brown's works given its location it falls in the Atlas area. The photos show that it was part demolished but still has many medical related items inside. Do you recall such an medical center when you worked there it also claimed more is buried behind it?

[RollingJ]

1 minute ago, GabrielC said:

I have seen photos of an underground medical center that some seem to think was part of Firth Brown's works given its location it falls in the Atlas area. The photos show that it was part demolished but still has many medical related items inside. Do you recall such an medical center when you worked there it also claimed more is buried behind it?

It certainly existed, but if I recall correctly, it was disused some considerable time before I started in 1972 - the medical centre while I was there was towards the city centre in the buildings (now demolished) between the works central rail, later roadway, facing Savile Street.

[GabrielC]

7 minutes ago, RollingJ said:

It certainly existed, but if I recall correctly, it was disused some considerable time before I started in 1972 - the medical centre while I was there was towards the city centre in the buildings (now demolished) between the works central rail, later roadway, facing Savile Street.

The photos show medical equipment that looks very 1940s. Belfast sinks still fitted to the walls along with furniture from that era what is so odd is why demolish everything else but leave this part the only thing I can think of is perhaps it was built in wartime and built to withstand bomb blasts making it hard to demolish later on . Was this structure originally underground ? 

 

 

[Longcol]

Council roadsign saying "Welcome to Atlas".

 

https://www.google.fr/maps/@53.3983617,-1.4394795,3a,47.4y,239.83h,86.33t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sj8uwVWvZ0q0z-71vGodQZw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en

[Meltman]

1 hour ago, GabrielC said:

I have seen photos of an underground medical center that some seem to think was part of Firth Brown's works given its location it falls in the Atlas area. The photos show that it was part demolished but still has many medical related items inside. Do you recall such an medical center when you worked there it also claimed more is buried behind it?

It was part of Firth Brown's works ,I had to visit it once. They later moved to another site within the company. I believe there was more of it underground....so the stories went. 

[beezerboy]

In the 60's , we used to look forward the Atlas & Norfolk sports day week. They had a sports ground in the Roe woods area with a large fairground in attendance.

 

    I've no idea what connection of Norfolk is from.

Edited April 5, 2022 by beezerboy

[RollingJ]

2 minutes ago, beezerboy said:

In the 60's , we used to look forward the Atlas & Norfolk sports day week. They had a sports ground in the Roe woods area with a large fairground in attendance.

 

    I've no idea what connection of Norfolk is from.

The Atlas works belonged to either Thomas Firth, the Norfolk works belonged to John Brown (or maybe the other way around, I can't quite recall) and as they were next to each other (and later combined), that is the connection. Norfolk Works were smaller, so the site became 'Atlas Works'.

[RollingJ]

@gaz 786Actually, if my memory serves me correctly, whichever of Thomas Firth or John Brown built the Norfolk Works, they were so named because the land was bought from the Duke of Norfolk who owned a great deal of the land in the area.

[beezerboy]

This makes more sense than the bridge idea and probably explains why there are a few Norfolk Arms pubs around

On 06/04/2022 at 05:38, RollingJ said:

@gaz 786Actually, if my memory serves me correctly, whichever of Thomas Firth or John Brown built the Norfolk Works, they were so named because the land was bought from the Duke of Norfolk who owned a great deal of the land in the area.