The Barracks/Burdalls

[Timbuck]

40 years ago I worked for a while at "Burdalls" at the Barracks on Penistone Road..in the lunch breaks I used to go exploring around the place and looking at the cells and the ammunition block and other old army remains, I always thought that it should have been preserved as a museum or somthing like that..but when I last went to Sheffield I noticed that it was now a shopping center..Does anyone know when it was built and when Burdalls went out of business.

[oldtimer]

Timbuck, don't know much about Burdall's Buildings', but I worked at a very small machine shop, 'Sycamore Repetition', behind the large barrack block on the north side of the parade square, (to the left as you entered the complex from Langsett Road.) There was a small building on the parade square, they made number punches, (the ones you struck with a hammer to imprint the number onto metal.) There was also a fairly large building on the 'upper level' (from the parade square) called Sheffield Stainless Steel Wire. Another building (machine shop) that backed onto Langsett Road. Smith's Crisps was on the ground floor of the large barrack block. Went into the electrical power room at Burdalls once to get some weed-killer from the fellow who ran the generators. Other than the fact a mate of mine lived for a while in the apartment building inside the wall on Penistone road, that's about it for what I know. BTW, this was all in 1955!!

Oh, I know the buildings were around in WW1, my dad's family lived on one of the streets on the north side of the high wall, dad used to tell me stories about the 'ladies of the night' being pulled over the wall on the end of a rope to 'do their bit' for the war effort! Never did know what he meant by that.

[hutch]

The barracks were built around 1850.cost over 100.000 pounds and covering over 25 acres, in following years many additions were made.

[Waltheof]

Additionally, many of the soldiers and some officers from the barracks are buried in (the much neglected) Wardsend Cemetery nearby. It's well worth a visit. I believe there is a Friends' Group now seeking to preserve it, similar to several other cemeteries in Sheffield.

 

The original chapel has long gone but many of the monuments are still in place.

[pietro]

Don't forget that originally, Penistone Road was a single carriageway road. When it was widened a few bits of Burdalls were lost, including oldtimers "apartments". These where just to the left of the steep drive into the Barracks.

Where there twin turrets at the bottom of the drive?.

 

As a kid, I remember travelling on the top deck of the No.10 bus from Bridge Street and looking over the high boundary wall at the "manky" looking 2 storey flats, laid out in rows. Washing would be hung out between them, I think there was even a childrens playground.

 

http://www.burtonstreet.org.uk/newweb/pages/BurdallsArchive1.htm

 

Next time you walk through the main entrance at Morrisons, look to the right of the door and about 7 feet from the ground you will see the Sheffield Flood mark. (of 1864)

 

Oldtimer, the Barrack buildings still survive, its just that they have been converted, into amongst other things, a shopping centre, offices and even an hotel.

 

http://www.garrisonhotel.co.uk/history.php

[Owethemnowt]

My Grand Father was stationed there at one time.