1950s Sheffield

[ebonyeyes]

This is very helpful, thanks very much for your generous replies. My mum, who came to England in the early 60s, talks of living in one or two rooms sharing kitchen and bathroom with several other occupants.

[Padders]

50's Sheffield,

What a great time to be alive,

No health and safety back then.

Sheffield is now a basketcase, we never get anything right, the City is now a dump.

After the second World War, Britain lost it's Empire and slid into a soot-blackened well of dirt, discontent and despair.

People lived in a monochrome World with outside Khazis that didn't work, had no job and, as often as not, had a hideous lung disease...And it was here, in the misery pit, that our World famous sense of humour was forged.

 

You knew your new Austin Princess would break down, you knew the pubs would be closed every time you felt thirsty, you knew there'd be a power cut very soon  and you knew that the little cough you'd developed yesterday was the onset of Pneumonia , and the only way to deal with it all was to have a laugh.

 

Think about it,

How much comedy did you find in Victorian times, thats when we were rich and successful and ruled the world.

How many laughs are there in "Wuthering Heights" not many. We were known for many things in Victorian times, but being funny wasn't one of them.

However, when unemployment was running at more than 3 million, the miners were throwing stones at policemen and your rubbish hadn't been collected for a year, comedy came to the fore, we'd sit round our Tele's laughing our heads at Frankie Howard.

Titter ye not, but titter we did.

Les Dawson came along to machine us with jokes, and when John Cleese was unhappy with the service at a dreary seafront hotel. he didn't write an angry letter. no, he wrote Faulty Towers.

If Britain becomes as well run as Germany, we could end up with the German sense of humour. In other words, we'd have no sense of humour at all.

Adversity and hardship are the cradles of comedy, so lets get rid of the health and safety officers, and bring some chucklesome humour back into our daily lives.

 

[Whit]

On 14/11/2023 at 13:22, Padders said:

If Britain becomes as well run as Germany, we could end up with the German sense of humour. In other words, we'd have no sense of humour at all.

Have you ever been to Germany?   Having lived in Germany for over50 years I know the  Germans  do have a sense of humour, it's just  very different to the British one.

 

I grew up near Sheffield and worked and played in the city before leaving in 1960. I haven't been back though in this century.

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by Whit

[GOLDEN OLDIE]

I can relate to growing up in Sheffield in the 19 50s and I have documented it in my recently published book - 'BOTTLE GREEN KNICKERS WITH POCKETS - GROWING UP IN 1950S SHEFFIELD'

My mother was an Irish immigrant from the Republic of Ireland, and who married my father from Sheffield in the 1940s.

We lived in a Council house, first at Shiregreen and then at Sheffield Lane Top. We hardly ever saw a black face in Sheffield during the 1950s and in fact there were very few, if any black ,or Asian actors on television. 'The Black and White Minstrels Show' was an example of that!

Eventually my mother went back to work in the early 1960s as a nurse at the then 'City General Hospital' where she had black nursing friends who had emigrated, as she had done, but from the West Indies.

Going to a Catholic school we were encouraged to bring money to school to buy pictures of little black babies who were being educated in Africa by Catholic missionaries!  We had no idea where Africa was!!!

Thank goodness we have moved on! But, have we?

 

For details of my book email - monica.dyson42@ btopenworld.com

[HIBBSY]

My early years were in the 50's living with my parents in Pitsmoor on Petre St. Our house was directly behind All Saints School and next door to Sturdy's shop.

On saturdays we would walk into town. I don't think we ever took the bus. Our route took us down Spital Hill, through the Wicker and over Ladies Bridge. From there it would vary week to week but usually we would go up Wain Gate and go thru British Home Stores I think, then cross over into Woolworths to see if my uncle Wilf was at work. I remember the creaky wooden floors in both stores. Sometimes we would go down Dixon Lane into the Rag and Tag market or pass Fitzallen Square and up High Street to Fargate. I remember the  policeman on his pedestal at Coles corner directing traffic of which there was a lot both vehicular and pedestrian. Chapel walk was bustling those days. Sometimes we would continue onto the Moor which meant we would be having a long walk home.

I left Sheffield in 1980 and try to go back every 3 or 4 years but to me it is frozen in time in that 1950 to 1980 period so as a result as time goes by the changes look massive to me and I can no longer find my way around when I visit to see family and friends. As life takes its toll Sheffield these days has hardly any pull on the heartstrings anymore but I still have fond memories.

[St Petre]

12 hours ago, HIBBSY said:

My early years were in the 50's living with my parents in Pitsmoor on Petre St. Our house was directly behind All Saints School and next door to Sturdy's shop.

On saturdays we would walk into town. I don't think we ever took the bus. Our route took us down Spital Hill, through the Wicker and over Ladies Bridge. From there it would vary week to week but usually we would go up Wain Gate and go thru British Home Stores I think, then cross over into Woolworths to see if my uncle Wilf was at work. I remember the creaky wooden floors in both stores. Sometimes we would go down Dixon Lane into the Rag and Tag market or pass Fitzallen Square and up High Street to Fargate. I remember the  policeman on his pedestal at Coles corner directing traffic of which there was a lot both vehicular and pedestrian. Chapel walk was bustling those days. Sometimes we would continue onto the Moor which meant we would be having a long walk home.

I left Sheffield in 1980 and try to go back every 3 or 4 years but to me it is frozen in time in that 1950 to 1980 period so as a result as time goes by the changes look massive to me and I can no longer find my way around when I visit to see family and friends. As life takes its toll Sheffield these days has hardly any pull on the heartstrings anymore but I still have fond memories.

I lived across from Sturdy's 1947-75.

[HIBBSY]

Directly across the street from us at that time was a green grocer who had a horse and cart. Our next door neighbours were the caretakers for the chapel/hall at the intersection of  Petre st and  Sutherland rd.  Also remember swimming at Sutherland rd baths.

We moved away in 1957/58 and went to live at Woodhouse.  Visited my grandparents frequently at Burngreave and as a result kept in touch with friends on Petre st for a few years.

[GOLDEN OLDIE]

Who remembers the Duke of Darnall complete with spats and dress suit,  stood behind the policeman who was on duty in the middle of the road, near Fitzalan Square, and copying his moves? There were some interesting characters in the City Centre in the 1950s!!! Big Ada and Pond Street Nora!!!!

[Cody's Granddad]

15 hours ago, GOLDEN OLDIE said:

Who remembers the Duke of Darnall complete with spats and dress suit,  stood behind the policeman who was on duty in the middle of the road, near Fitzalan Square, and copying his moves? There were some interesting characters in the City Centre in the 1950s!!! Big Ada and Pond Street Nora!!!!

As Kids there was an old Woman who lived in Pitsmoor in-fact there were two and we used to call them Pond Street Norah's as they looked very similar

Looking back we were pretty cruel as kids but I only ever saw the actual Pond St Norah once.

 

[Padders]

I can remember the 1950's. I was born in the late 40's, 

I survived being born to a mother who smoked and drank while she carried me, she took Aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, Tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes..

Then after that trauma, my baby cot was covered with brightly coloured lead based paint.

 

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when I rode my bike, I had no helmet, not to mention the risks I took hitch-hiking.

I would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags..I drank water from streams and NOT from a bottle.

I'd share a soft drink with 4 friends from one bottle and no one actually died from this..

 

I ate cakes, white bread and real butter, and drank pop with sugar in it, but I wasn't overweight because I was always "PLAYING OUT"

I'd leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as I was back by the time the street lights were on.

No one could reach me all day, and I was OK.. I'd spend hours building my go-kart out of old bits of scrap metal and then ride down a hill, and crash into the bushes a few times to stop, cus I'd no brakes..

 

I did not have a Play Station, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games, no 99 channels on tv, no video tapes movies, no mobile phones, no text messaging, no personal computers, no internet or internet chat rooms...I HAD FRIENDS! and I went outside and found them.

I fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth, I played with worms and made mud pies from dirt, and there were no lawsuits from my accidents.

I made up games with sticks and tennis balls, and even when my mam told me it would happen, I did not poke anyone's eyes out.

And the idea of my parents bailing me out if I broke the law was unheard of, they actually sided with the law.

 

I had freedom, failures, success and responsibility, and I learned "How to deal with it all"

If you were like me "CONGRATULATIONS" we were lucky to have grown up before the Lawyers and the Government regulated our lives for our own good...